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Across the board in our local area, it seems that Google is showing a new star rating lower than it was several days ago.  For my company, we have 67 5-star ratings with no negative reviews.  Until last week, we had a 5-star overall rating being displayed on the local search, but as of this week we have an overall 4.7-star rating.  There have been no negative reviews added, but the drop is painful.

I've looked at the competition as well, and it seems to be a universal change.  Other companies that also have perfect 5-star ratings with no negative feedback are also showing a drop in their overall rating.

I should also mention that last week several reviews were deleted, only to reappear this week; however,  when the deleted reviews were added back it came with the unfortunate drop in the overall rating.

Any ideas?  I've searched on Moz and haven't seen a discussion about this yet.  I know that Google is updating it's local platform, and suspect that this has something to do with it, but overall, I'm curious if this will be a permanent change, or a growing pain while they revamp the system.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Miriam,

Thanks for your reply on this...  To clarify, what I'm suggesting is a keyword report for local search results.  Currently, the Keyword report does show local results; however, it's not something that you can filter results for within the search.  A dedicated report that allows us to see where our clients rank for keywords in local results could be a very powerful tool.

Thanks again!

Andrew

This isn't a question.  It's a simple suggestion that I'm hoping will inspire a change at Seomoz.

I love what this site does.  What it helps us do as community.  What it helps us achieve collectively.  This suggestion is based on that love...

I think we all can agree that the rankings between local reviews and organic reviews are very different beasts entirely.  They should then be treated this way within the Seomoz data with separate reports.

The vast majority of reputable small businesses don't care about national rankings, but would rather get to the top of the local charts with their 5-star reviews.  Can you imagine the power of a report that is dedicated to helping you shape your client's results to achieve this?

I like seeing the results of local in the keyword report, but we need a report dedicated to local search to make a difference in our rankings.  With all of the recent chatter on local search, I'm surprised this isn't already available.

At the risk of opening the flood gates, I'm posting this in hopes of finding a SEO provider on this site.

I'm currently a member, and have learned a lot through this site, but I'm still having issues ranking higher.  Because of this, I have come to the conclusion that I need a dedicated SEO company/professional who can help our company reach the next level.

I'm open to suggestions of companies that you have used, or please feel free to throw your hat into the ring.

Thanks in advance!

AW