Google Reviews: Corona virus affects your Local SEO and your Business Reviews!

You may or may not have noticed Google Reviews and Carona (COVID-19) have something in common now. If you have tried to leave a Google review or requested someone to leave on on your behalf, the button or the option to is gone now (or for now atleast).

Why are we not allowed to leave a Google Review?

Corona is not a computer virus and no Google was not infected with this virus. Google’s response: due to the Carona (COVID-19) there is less workforce to man the review spam filtering and Google reviews. The remaining staff is said to only focus on health related organizations at this moment. This means that ability to leave Google Map Reviews, Questions and Answers section, and approval of certain listing edits are temporary suspended due to Corona Virus situation. Official Google statement about the Carona (COVID-19):

https://support.google.com/business/answer/9792336

The Good News

There are actual eyes on Google reviews that people submit and so spam reviews to get filtered by supposedly actual humans and not robots. They are likely contractors that were sent home, hopefully not laid off, as actual employees are focusing on core Google operations, and health related up-keep. Critical health related services and organizations should be covered and prioritized, and it seems that they are. Which is important at a time like this. Health industry is fighting on the frontline at this time.

Phil Rozek, localvisibilitysystem, mentioned some Google star reviews may still post with text omitted. And I am able to support this claim as we have seen that on our listing as well. Also Mike Blumenthal, in his updates on this google review corona issue also had mentioned that some reviews are able to be submitted but are not showing up (so if you have a pending review all hope is NOT lost).

The Bad News

This is obvious, you cannot ask your customer, your patient, and your client to leave a review at this time. Hopefully this is limited, as Google Map reviews is one critical component to a healthy Local SEO strategy. You probably remember from our first onboarding call with you (our client) we have reminded you that, yes Google reviews, Google My business is huge, but so is diversifying and not keeping all your eggs in one basket this is onen great real-life example of that. Even the king of search Google can have employee shortages, and with all their AI computing power, somethings still rely on good’ol humans.

How can my business respond this Corona Google Review Issue?

Your Local SEO Review Funneling strategy

This shouldn’t be of surprise to our clients, but to reiterate this important point. Your local SEO review strategy does not just have one favorite place you like to collect your reviews. But its a priority structure, if first choice is not available in this case, Google reviews, you have: Facebook, Yelp, Citysearch, Angies List, etc. But again dont blindly choose a place, this should be clear in your strategy. If first choice is not available you have next listing that needs its review to give your customers a better understanding of your business to build trust and authority.

Other good suggestions to optimize and be strategic with your Local SEO reviews

If you just completed a project or service as for a review and use the local review strategy above as your plan. If you were ready to send a mass email to your past clients to leave reviews, since they did not leave reviews initially. Possibly hold off on that for now.

Also just because business might not be hot at the moment, you have more people at home. This may mean they have more free time then before if they were in a busy industry to finally do give you that well deserved feedback about your business. As an example, dentists now have less work since they are seeing only emergency patients, and really are just taking care of paperwork if at the office, or are likely just “working” from home.

What about that Corona Virus Email from Google recently?

You may have received an email that looks something like this, below:

This basically says that Google My Business you have been ignoring you should keep it update with any Corona virus related re-scheduling or changes to your business. This is great, but what about the above information that says no one is there to approve my changes to the Google My Business listing. Our suggestion:

1) Make changes to any area that has changed in your business to make your customers/clients/patients aware especially if you are in a critical industry at this time.

2) Definitely use the Create a Post feature this is really important, as these should post right away and update your users. This is an area many business owners don’t take advantage of, but at this time it may be the only critical way to update your users. Again do all the other options above. But this one is not to be omitted.

Final Thoughts: Time of Opportunity and a Bigger Picture

Do not hesitate to reach out to us, and let us know if you have a specific issue, or you just want to run some thoughts or ideas of how to navigate this season. This is a serious time, important time to look back at bigger picture of your business, other businesses, your employees, clients, family, and friends. Keep a bigger strategy in mind in a time like this. And yes, its still a time of many opportunities just like local SEO is at its core.