What types of businesses does Google display reviews in SERP for?

[Parker818]

In just the last week, it seems like Google has removed reviews for businesses in our industry (staffing), which is unfortunate since we've been working hard for those reviews. The effect has been to be completely left off the local google business results. One week, we're at the top of the business reviews with our location prominently featured on the map and the next, we aren't even listed.

It seems like there must be list of industries in which Google takes reviews into account (or if they do, then at least displays the reviews in the results). For us, up until last week, if you searched "temp agencies", these reviews were included in SERP. Now, nothing.

Is this fairly normal behavior for Google?

[brettmandoes]

Hi Jacob,

The definitive resource on reviews for Google is found here: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/reviews

I'm not 100% certain I understand your problem. Are you worried about first party reviews wrapped in schema, or third party reviews? Are you able to see reviews in your Google My Business dashboard, or in a knowledge panel when you search your brand? Have you checked competitors who have been garnering reviews?

There are some industries that cannot display reviews due to legislation, such as financial advisors. I don't believe your industry falls into that category, and you may just be experiencing some normal fluctuation in the SERP. Verify the points I mentioned above and perhaps we can find an answer.

[Parker818]

It looks like what happened is that Google removed review summaries (stars and such) from SERP for our business category, so our reviews are no longer visible on the page. On local, the review summary is also missing, unless you click on us specifically.

This had the effect of removing us completely off of the local map results. We're listed, but not on the map. This is probably the biggest loss for us, as we share a building with a competitor and only recently overtook them (as local did not like displaying two companies in one building unless you zoomed in close).

The link you provided doesn't discuss how reviews are displayed on SERP, but thank you nonetheless!

[Parker818]

I'll add that what I'm seeing is similar to this issue, reported last February. At the time, it was temporary, so hopefully this is a bug that Google will address shortly:

http://searchengineland.com/google-looking-into-review-stars-dropping-out-of-the-search-results-243162

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Jacob,

From what you are describing, it sounds like you are actually experiencing two different things:

1. Google not showing in-SERPs stars for your geo-industry (they do make these pop in and out of existence, so they could come back).

2. Possum. If you are sharing a physical building and Google categories with a competitor, this is most likely why your business isn't showing up in Maps unless you zoom in. Here's a very good guide to this: http://searchengineland.com/everything-need-know-googles-possum-algorithm-update-258900

Hope this helps.

[Parker818]

Thanks for this.

The Possum article is very interesting, but there's no word as to how to appear on the map. We don't show up until you zoom in to the block, which is problematic for us. We had actually been showing up first on the local search results (on page one, but not the actual map results page) until the SERP stars were removed.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Jacob,

Yes, unfortunately there is no strategy for overriding Possum if you are being affected by it due to sharing a building and category with a competitor. This is a completely separate issue from whether or not Google is displaying in-SERP stars for your industry. It's highly unlikely that the two things have anything to do with one another.

While I don't know the complete details of your scenario, what you are describing regarding having to zoom on Maps to see yourself sounds very much like Possum, given your shared building/category with a competitor. Unless you can change your categories (which normally you wouldn't want to do) the effect you are experiencing is now being felt by numerous businesses in your same scenario.

How are you doing in terms of competing with that competitor who is showing up at the non-zoomed level of the map? How are your citations (do you have a good set, are they accurate, free of duplicates)? How about review count and sentiment in Google? How strong is your website?

Because Possum is still so new, I've yet to see many cases brought to light of how a given business is chosen over another one as the one Google is showing at the non-zoomed level, but I would expect ranking factors and user behavior have something to do with it.

Sorry not to have an easy solution for you. I hope these thoughts are at least helpful.