Should I change to new URL after going through a period of bad reviews

[OhYeahSteve]

A couple of years ago we had a series of bad reviews due to our billing company. We have not been able to recover from this and are unable to appear in Local listings due to the horrible reviews even though they are from years ago. Would it be a good idea to change domains and google+ accounts in order to start over with reviews and local citations?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Steve,

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble your company has had with this. First, I want to clarify that the actual sentiment in your reviews is unlikely to be the primary cause ranking failures. In fact, there have been famous cases like that of the dentist who shot a lion in which hundreds of people left him scathingly negative reviews which, unfortunately, led to him ranking highly for his query (though Google might now have adjusted for this). In other words, negative sentiment in reviews may/may not be the cause of ranking problems you are having (there are believed to be several hundred factors that contribute to local rank) but I can totally see how they would impact conversions for your business.

So, what I think your decision here is whether you need to start your business from scratch, completely re-branding the business and starting with a fresh brand, fresh website, fresh citations and fresh reviews, or, whether the company can overcome its past reputation. The answer to this is going to lie in how extreme you feel the negative effects of these reviews are on your bottom line and the ability of the business to have a future. The answer is really going to vary, depending on the situation, and without being able to evaluate your unique situation, the community here can only give general thoughts on this. You might want to consider consulting with a good agency with whom you can share the full details of the company's history.

Things to consider:

1. If the complaints refer to mere inconveniences or annoyances the customers experienced, then it may be possible to keep your brand and, by implementing a very active review acquisition strategy, to balance out and eventually surpass the number of old negative reviews with new positive ones.

2. But, if the complaints refer to something severe, like accusations of illegal business practices, then no amount of better reviews may suffice to remedy the problem, and you might be justified in wanting to start over.

I recommend consulting with a reputable agency with whom you can share your company history in private so that you can get advice that is specific to your scenario.