How do review sites influence SEO results

[Gordon_Hall]

I've come across a potential client (UK) who is paying his clients £10 for each positive review on a review site - freeindex.

Now apart from whether this is ethical, my real question is how is this benefitting him in regards to SEO?

Under his google adwords campaign, it tells me he has 200+ reviews but this star rating doesn't occur in the natural listings, so does it make any difference. Does it reduce the adwords campaign costs (I can't believe it would).

This is a new area of thought for me - any helpful advice/articles would be appreciated.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

G looks at reviews from a number of different website when determining rankings (at least I know this is true for local so I assume it would work for global sites as well).

If this freeindex site is large and credible, G would probably look at that and factor it into their rankings.

Not sure about the effect on adwords costs but it should improve conversion rate and conversions.

[irvingw]

I would have the reviews posted on his Google places page instead of freeindex, then it might make a difference for SEO and will definitely help in the local 7 pack. Google trusts itself I doubt it trusts freeindex.

[Gordon_Hall]

Hmmm, a couple of different opinions here? Anyone else want to throw their opinion into the mix?

[UplinkSpyder]

Hello Gordon, can you give more information on how the "review" campaign is being conducted? Maybe the reason you find little takers on your question is because it's a loaded question with many undisclosed, or explored, variables thus making it a difficult question to fully qualify, but I'll give it a try.

You're initial question is:

"how is this benefiting him in regards to SEO?"

I can't say it is. Do you know if in fact your client has benefited from the reviews considering how they have been obtained, and how has he benefited? Has your client been engaging in this activity long enough that you can track when he started this campaign and benchmark his pre-campaign performance, and have you measured improvements over time, if any?

I hope I'm not veering off topic.

The case scenario that follows may not apply to you, but I know of an auto shop that encouraged its customers to give positive reviews by giving away free oil changes. They had a computer on their front counter and when a customer came in for service they would solicit the review with the enticement of a free oil change. In this case the reviews were all on the same review site which was kept open at all times on the computer ready for quick access. In this case all the reviews originated from the same IP address, even if each review started with a new browser session, they still shared the same IP address. See where this is going?

I agree with Oleg who stated:

"G looks at reviews from a number of different website when determining rankings..."

I would think G's algo would be smart enough to see the pattern (i.e direct visits, same browser, same review site, same IP address, etc). Visit "freeindex" and look at any reviews you suspect having been paid for, do you see a warning (!)(Info) on the upper right corner of the review? If the review was written on the same computer, this is what you'll see:

"This review has been written on a computer with the same IP address as someone else who has reviewed this company"?

Of course this is a blatant case. Perhaps the reviews your client is getting originate from different IP addresses, even then there are other variables that can be used by a search engine to flag reviews suspected as not being organic in origin.

As for the effects on AdWords costs, I fail to see a correlation. Am I missing something?

In my opinion the effort was flawed from inception. As for ethics, some very good people often find themselves crossing the fine thin gray line of ethical practices into the unethical.

[Gordon_Hall]

Thanks for answering Spyder. I don't know if I'm able to add much flesh to the bones really. The customer isn't mine, and probably won't be - they have their own in house SEO person doing various SEO work.

As I say, they encourage their clients to review them, and give them £10 for doing so. How this transaction take place, whether in way of discount on future goods or just a cheque for £10, I can't say.

I'm unable to track anything of theirs properly (no access to the account) so can't say how this is impacting things.

I suppose I wondered if it was a line worth pursuing for my clients, but I'm suspecting not.

In regards to the google adwords, if there are lots of positive reviews/stars giving a big thumbs up, then I expect that will encourage people to click, therefore increasing the CTR, and in the process bring the overall cost per CPC down - I'm guessing at least.

Back to my original thought/question - does it affect SERPS directly - I'm thinking not.