Good morning search marketers, more is better.
At least when it comes to reviews. Review gating, or the process of steering unsatisfied customers away from submitting reviews to third-party sites, was once a somewhat common practice. Yelp and Google have banned selective review solicitation, but did the practice work in the first place? A new study says, No.
The study by GatherUp looked at whether review gating had an impact on star ratings. The findings? Review gating had little impact on star ratings, and, in aggregate, businesses without review gating in place received significantly higher review volumes.
We know review volume matters for local rankings. We also know that consumers often don't trust businesses with perfect ratings. If you're working with a vendor that is using review gating, you should ask the vendor to stop or look elsewhere.
Before you get on with your day, we've just opened up our Amazon Advertising survey and we'd love it if you'd help us gather data. Last year we found that 80% of respondents advertising on platforms that support digital commerce campaigns planned to increase spending in 2019. And nearly half said they planned to increase spending on Amazon by more than 25%.
Please click here to answer this year's survey, it will only take 10 minutes and you'll be entered into a drawing for a free ticket to any SMX West event in the next 2 years.
Read on for a Pro Tip from Google and Bing on their disavow tools.
Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief
