Today V1 SEO reveals just how easy it is to manipulate the Google review system that shows yellow stars next to listings in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)
You will undoubtedly have noticed that when doing a search in Google that some results have little yellow stars next to their listings.
These stars look really cool and I would assume help click through rates.
Did you know though that these stars can be completely meaningless and can be created in minutes?
V1 SEO shows you just how much Google have messed up by allowing these stars to be displayed in their results.
There are numerous ways to get these stars showing with your listing, these instructions show you the semi-legitimate way of obtaining them.
- Create a Google Places listing (if you haven’t already)
- Ask 2 people who you know will give you a 5 star rating to write a review
- Wait until those reviews show with your Google Places listing (shouldn’t take any longer than 48 hours)
- Go to schema.org and copy the code for aggregaterating
- Add aggregaterating microdata code to your homepage saying you have a 5 star grade based on 2 reviews
- Wait until your page is indexed by Google again (throw a couple of links at it and write a blog post to boost this)
- Check the SERPs and within a couple of days (depending how often your site is crawled) you will have 5 nice gold star reviews next to your listing in Googles results.
It really is that simple to manipulate and shows what a mockery the Google Review system with Gold Stars is.
To be honest it is even easier and quicker than demonstrated here, unscrupulous webmasters can skip 1 to 3 and just say they have 5 stars based on howether many reviews they want to say.
Once more webmasters know how to do this will we see every listing in the Google top 10 with 5 stars next to them?
Come on Google stop showing these stars now it gives too much advantage to anyone who knows how to game the system.
Testing comment system about microdata and rich snippets
Great find. This looks like it could have actually worked quite nicely if it was used fairly! Unfortunately there are ALWAYS going to be people waiting for loop holes like this to capitalise on.
**Waiting for my 5 Star Review now…
**
It was working nicely
I could just keep quiet about it and reap the benefits on my own sites, Google really need to stop this though, it’s bad enough all the fake reviews out there, when Google reward sites with 5 stars based on a single manipulated review it really is a joke though.
Hopefully someone from Google knows what’s going on and will put a stop to it, the only way they can really do it though is to immediatly remove all stars showing in the SERPs
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Hi Terry,
Good detective work! I certainly think that highlighting these kinds of weaknesses should help improve the quality of search results long term, one way or the other. One easy way might be only to show the stars after a minimum number (> 25?) of reviews has been received. I agree though that if G can’t devise a way of ensuring the stars have some integrity and meaning, then we’re all better of without them.
I’m a bit cautious about how they might affect click through especially whilst some of the big names in SEO don’t have them.
Unfortunately I doubt the > 25 reviews will work, as those exploiting review systems will be the ones who benefit most.
Let’s face it, how many small businesses have got 25+ genuine reviews, unless they are using a marketing company, and that effectively skews the review system and makes a mockery of it.
The sooner Google stop showing the stars the better as far as I’m concerned, even though I have stars next to my sites.
Terry,
I should’ve also pointed you to Andrew Shotland’s recent post.
Could double your number of gold stars to 10.
http://www.localseoguide.com/does-your-business-have-a-100-rating/
Yeah, I think you need to have a minimum of 5 google reviews and a Google Places listing before you get that display.
The bottom review stars show from your Places listing and the top ones from the Microdata formatting on the page.
Dilemna is,
Do you hope Google will put a stop to it and stop showing the stars or do you mark up your own pages so the reviews show?
Still scratching my head on that one, Terry!
Thanks for the insights.
Take a look at the screenshots on these pages for the Google layouts when they say More by a person,
http://www.v1seo.co.uk/11/more-by-person-showing-in-google-results/
Don’t know how much is down to microdata format I am using or how much of it is to do with all the posts I’ve been making about micodata and schema lately, interesting thing I noticed in the link that produced the result was that it was using the Google USG parameter.
I blogged about that recently http://www.v1seo.co.uk/11/what-is-the-usg-parameter-and-n-parameter-in-google/ and about how I suspect it is connected with Google delegated authority –
http://www.v1seo.co.uk/11/primary-authority-contributing-authorities/
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I noticed this on a competitor site “stars” but none for me? I have over 270 reviews on FreeIndex.co.uk hard earned and not “fake” trying to get Google reviews now to get those stars. I didn’t know you could manipulate the start rating, perhaps thats why i see them on other listings… ill keep going at it the right way. Once its incorporated into an algorithm those that have made any shortcuts will drop down the SERPS i’m sure. I noticed on the last update challenging the quality if links that some competitors slid off the grid! Best practices are best, content is golden.
Hi Neil,
It is not a case of manipulation if you have genuine reviews, it is just a case of implementing the code correctly.
Unfortunately, like Google Maps and Google Places, reviews is something Google has completely screwed up in a number of ways.
The main way is that the review system is supposed to be for individual products and services, but they have combined it with reviews of businesses, it should have been 2 completely different systems.
For businesses, rather than allowing people to just use any review systems from multiple sites, or allowing people to create review systems on their own sites, Google should have set up the Google review system within Google Places up better and just use those reviews.
As it is, people can just choose to select where they display their reviews from.
For example if you have 5 x 4 star reviews on Freeindex, 5 x 3 star reviews on Trust Pilot, 5 x 5 star reviews on your own site it makes more sense to use your own review system and say you have 5 stars.
Had it been the other way around and your system gves 4 stars but Trust Pilot gives 5 stars you would use the Trust Pilot review system
That demonstrates what a mockery it is.
If Google only allowed the review system from Google Places it would be a far more acurate and reliable result (assuming Google don’t allow the obvious fake reviews)
This is why I say to set up your Google Places listing well and encourage people to use their review system like this http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?cid=12819958686663368046
By doing this you can see there are 38 genuine reviews and I can legitamately say I have a review of 4.92 out of 5 from 38 reviews.
Unfortunately, everyone is either abusing or not understanding the review system, my advice is get some genuine reviews in Google Places (once you have genuine ones it may well pull in the others it trusts from other sites) and then base your review code on the results Google provides in Places.
Let me know your Places listing and I will show you a better way of encouraging people to submit genuine reviews and when you have some, will show you the code to get them displayed with your listing.
All 100% legitimate, you don’t have to manipulate if you do it correctly.
Yes my Places Stars only just appeared shortly after getting a 6th review not long ago. I’m aiming to get more. All my reviews are genuine and freeindex has some great screening for fakes which is why I love it so much. Trustpilot hasn’t been used for a while but they were gracious to include a whole bunch taken into account my Freeindex reviews. Thanks for your reply it was very informative! I wasn’t aware of having to use code, perhaps i had already done this and forgotten about it? It looks all OK to you?
If it is your homepage that appears in the SERPs you need to add microdata code to the page to let Google know about the reviews further info here – http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146645
The problem is (as you will read) in one section they say;
“The goal of a review rich snippet is to provide users with review information about a specific product or service”
it then goes on to contradict that by talking about reviews for businesses.
The best thing to do if the reviews are for your business is not to use the review coding but use the Aggregate reviews.
Although that page initialy looks a bit complex and contradicts itself, follow the instructions and see the microdata examples and it’s self explanary to a degree.
set up a test page to implement it, then when you think it’s correct test it in the rich snippets testing tool here – http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
If I was you I would use the Places data, it may have a lot less reviews, but it will be easier to monitor and keep updated, as it changes remember to change the code on your page to reflect it.
Send me an email if you need any help and I’ll mock up the code for you.