Google Review Guidelines update.

[TimHolmes]

OK Moz peeps...

Right then, I have just been reading an article over on SEO RoundTable from Barry Schwartz.

NEW Local review guidelines for businesses - take a look.

It in effect alludes to Google stamping all over review schema and snippets, third party review solutions/providers and really trying to limit how they are used. I have interpreted the new guidelines to say that you can no longer mark up and use external stats on your own site in the form of aggregate ratings from the likes of TrustPilot, Feefo, Revoo (some uk review sites) and more....

These were the two key lines for more

• Only include reviews that have been directly produced by your site, not reviews from third-party sites or syndicated reviews.
• Aggregators or content providers must have no commercial agreements paid or otherwise with businesses to provide reviews.

What does everyone else think? and how soon before people get penalised (if ever) for marking up external stats to make your own site and services look more favourable...

Could definately be a slap in the face for Serp CTR and onpage conversion optimisation.

Also how do people expect this to affect PPC review rating going forward. Will Partner sites become a thing of the past?

Looking forward to a good discussion here

PS - I am not staff at Moz just have a t-shirt which is my avatar. I am not sure why below my avatar it suggests I am Staff due to the tag added to it. Is anyone else getting that on their profile too?