Google Reviews From Around The Web Feature Gone

[MiriamEllis]

Hey All My Favorite Local Community Members!

I think we might start having questions come up about this, so I thought I'd do a quick post. Google has just confirmed that they have removed the 'Reviews from Around the Web' feature that has so long been a part of their local SERPs display. Mike Blumenthal confirms that this is official, here:

http://localu.org/blog/google-more-reviews-links-removed-from-knowledge-panel/

Apparently, you can still see your reviews from around the web in your Google My Business dashboard, but they are gone from knowledge panels, etc. This may not be a feature greatly missed by many, as the business owner had so little control over what was displayed in this section.

So ... upshot is: if you've just noticed that this feature is gone, it's official - it's gone.

[WilliamKammer]

Any word on if Google is using those reviews less in the local ranking algorithm?

I have a client who has an average 4 stars on most sites, but had a much lower score on Yelp. Last night, he spiked in maps for some big keywords, almost like Yelp wasn't being considered anymore.

[MiriamEllis]

That's really interesting regarding your client, William. Too early to say if there's a connection there, but it would be cool if you could find other similar examples in your client pool. Now, common sense would say that if Google is downgrading the visibility of third party reviews, this could indicated that they are placing less trust in them, and perhaps, relying more on a Google-centric representation of user sentiment, but there is nothing to confirm this, at this point. Third party reviews have long been considered an important ranking factor, so it would surprise me to see their value totally vanish in that regard. And, of course, review diversity is important for more than just rankings. I think it will be some time before we understand the shakedown from this small but significant move on Google's part.

I'd be glad to hear any theories about this from the community!

[WilliamKammer]

Just that one significant change in my client pool, but it's also the only client that had a large discrepancy between Google reviews and Yelp. My other clients have consistent averages, and it seems like there would only be a noticeable spike if there was a discrepancy.

[donford]

That is very interesting William, I personally loved Yelp's idea hated the execution. They are now borderline black mailers IMO. I hope others will respond so we can see some actual data.

Nice post Miriam!