Love them or loathe them, online reviews are big business. Your star rating can play a huge part in whether someone chooses you or your biggest competitor.

But we all know reviews aren’t always fair, honest, or in some cases, even real. From glowing fake feedback to defamatory lies, the world of online reviews can get a little sticky, legally speaking. 

In this guide, we’ll break down the key legal rules and cases that every US business and review writer needs to know. 

Reviews and the law: TL;DR

The reality of reviews 

Good, bad, or fake, every online review is subject to the law.

For businesses, it’s not just about customers breaking the law; your own actions can also lead to legal headaches. Staying up-to-date on the law can help you avoid lengthy lawsuits and significant fines. 

Review site guidelines vs. the law 

Let’s start with guidelines. Yelp, Google, Facebook, and all other reputable review sites have extensive terms and conditions and review guidelines for users to follow.

These guidelines aren’t the same as the laws around US reviews. Doing something perfectly legal may get you a telling off, or even a ban from some review platforms if it’s against their own rules.

For example, there is no hard and fast rule around incentivizing for reviews, but platforms, including Yelp, are firmly against this. 

When you sign up for review platforms, you’ll often end up agreeing to their terms and conditions. This means that, in theory, if you break these, you could end up breaking contract law. Of course, what’s included in these terms can’t be illegal, but there’s more to think about than just US law. 

The big one: FTC Final Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials

In October 2024, the Federal Trade Commission announced its long-awaited online reviews Final Rule, formally known as 16 CFR Part 465: Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials. 

While not the first legislation influencing online reviews, this Final Rule seeks to give clear national guidance on a previously grey area. It aims to stop the buying and selling of fake reviews, with big penalties against “knowing violators”.

This includes: 

Fake reviews and testimonials 

Reviews and testimonials are now banned if they are written by someone who;

1. Doesn’t have real experience of a business
2. Misrepresents their experience. 

This includes AI-generated fake reviews, or fake review attacks by real people aiming to damage or boost a business’s reputation unfairly. It also covers testimonials falsely attributed to celebrities.

It is now against the law to buy and sell fake reviews if the business “knew or should have known” that the reviews or testimonials are false.

Buying positive or negative reviews 

Businesses can no longer give money or other incentives if they are conditional on customers writing a positive (or negative) review. This is true whether the incentive is clear or just implied. 

This doesn’t mean that incentives are completely out of the question. Businesses are still legally allowed to reward customers for leaving a review as long as it’s unconditional on whether this review is positive or negative. However, make sure you check the individual review site’s guidelines before doing this, as platforms including Yelp are against this.

Insider reviews and testimonials 

Reviews written by someone with a vague link to the company are now prohibited. This includes reviews written by managers and officers, and any testimonial that the business should have known was written by a company insider. 

It also imposes rules on reviews solicited from immediate family members, employees, or employees’ families. Transparency is key here. If a family member or employee has a legitimate reason to leave a review, they must disclose their connection to avoid misleading consumers. 

Review suppression 

Businesses are not allowed to threaten or attempt to intimidate review writers to prevent or remove negative reviews. This includes both physical and legal threats. 

The Final Rule also bars businesses from misrepresenting the reviews shown on their website as if they represent all or most submissions, when in fact negative reviews have been hidden or suppressed. 

This doesn’t mean you need to showcase your worst review front and centre on your website. But if you claim you have a perfect five-star rating on Google and this isn’t actually true, you could be fined. 

Company-controlled review websites

The Final Rule makes it clear that businesses can’t pass off websites they own or control as independent sources of reviews or opinions if these include reviews about their own products and services. 

This applies to company-run microsites, blogs, or platforms that look like review hubs but are in fact controlled by the business being reviewed. Even if the reviews themselves are genuine, failing to disclose a link is considered deceptive and could land you a fine. 

Misuse of social media influence indicators

This is not related to online reviews, but the Final Rule also stops the buying and selling of fake indicators of social media influence (e.g., followers or views by bots or hijacked accounts). 

This is limited to cases where the buyer “knew or should have known” that these indicators were fake and misrepresented their influence. This practice can mislead consumers about a business’s popularity or credibility.

Fines and the Final Rule

Rulebreakers won’t face jail time, but instead face civil penalties (AKA fines) of up to $51,744 per violation, or per day for ongoing violations. That’s not exactly pocket change for most local businesses. 

Before the Rule, the FTC needed to jump through additional hoops to bring enforcement under Section 5 of the FTC act. Now, they can fine violators directly. 

It’s important to note that the Final Rule doesn’t replace earlier laws or cover all areas of online reviews law (which we’ll touch on below). Instead, it strengthens the toolkit for the regulators, businesses, and local marketers fighting against fake and unfair review practices. 

For those who want to dig deeper, the FTC has published the full 163-page ruling, which lays out the specifics of what is and isn’t allowed. 

Other US laws and online reviews 

While the FTC’s Final Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials is a strong cover all for fake reviews and misrepresentation, it isn’t the first rule to touch the murky world of online reviews. 

Previous laws and cases already tackle some of the more pertinent issues surrounding reviews, while the Final Rule covers the gaps.

Other laws to be aware of include: 

• Defamation laws
• Anti-SLAPP rules
• The Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA) 2016
• Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

We’ll cover each in brief below.

Defamation laws

When it comes to online reviews and the law, one of the biggest legal risks comes down to defamation. In the U.S., defamation is defined as “a statement that injures a third party’s reputation”. To prove defamation, it must be: 

1. A false statement pretending to be a fact
2. Published or communicated to a third person
3. Be malicious or negligent in its intent (i.e., they knew it was wrong or should have checked)
4. Caused harm to the reputation of the subject 

Opinions (“The food was bland”) are protected by the First Amendment, but false claims presented as fact (“The food was laced with arsenic”) can cross the line into defamation. 

Sharing a genuine bad experience is protected. But making up or exaggerating facts to damage a business’s reputation could land a reviewer in court. 

Anti-SLAPP rules 

SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) have been used to intimidate or silence people through costly and baseless legal action. 

In the past, some businesses have attempted to sue customers that left negative (but perfectly truthful) reviews. Even when these cases had no real chance in court, the threat of legal proceedings can intimidate reviewers into taking down their reviews. This kind of intimidation not only harms the reviewer, but also stops other consumers getting a full picture of a business. 

The introduction of Anti-SLAPP laws aimed to stop people from using threats of lawsuits to those exercising their First Amendment rights. These laws remain in place and continue to protect free speech and public participation in honest opinions and criticisms.

Consumer Review Fairness Act

The Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA) 2016 is a federal law that protects consumers’ rights to share honest experiences online. It made it illegal for businesses to add clauses to contracts that prevent customers from posting honest reviews or penalize them for negative feedback. It also tackled the requirement for customers to give up intellectual property rights in reviews. 

This law meant that customers could speak freely about their experiences without being punished or fined by businesses. 

Like with the FTC Final Ruling, breaking the terms of the CRFA can lead to fines. 

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

When it comes to online reviews, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is one of the most important laws businesses probably won’t have heard of. Essentially, it shields websites and review platforms from being held liable for content posted by users. 

This means if a customer leaves a negative review, a business cannot then sue Yelp or Google for hosting the review. If a business is unhappy with the legality of the review, it must either take the reviewer to court or attempt to get the review taken down if it’s against the site’s terms and guidelines. 

Review responses and the law 

It’s not just the practices surrounding reviews and what customers can write, but also how businesses choose to respond. Responding to reviews is a key part of managing your online reputation, but these responses are still bound by the law.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CRPA)

California’s CCPA and CRPA privacy laws protect consumers’ personal information and regulate how businesses can use it. When responding to reviews, avoid sharing any details that could identify a customer or reveal private information. 

Other states including Virginia, Connecticut, and Utah have their own privacy protections in place. Avoid the risk of a lawsuit no matter the location of your customers and never disclose personal information without consent. 

HIIPA

For healthcare businesses, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a critical consideration when responding to online reviews. 

HIPAA protects patients’ private health information, meaning you can’t share any details about a patient or their treatment in a review response, even if the patient has publicly shared their own details. Avoid mentioning appointments, treatments, diagnoses, or any other information that could identify the patient. Even thanking a patient by name can be risky. 

If a reviewer raises a serious concern, the safest approach is to address it in private by asking the reviewer to contact you directly. This way, there is no chance of breaking the rules. 

GLBA

Financial services businesses such as banks, credit unions, or lenders should be familiar with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) when responding to reviews. GLBA protects consumers’ private personal financial information, including balances, credit history, and other sensitive financial data. 

This means businesses can’t disclose any financial information in review responses, even if the original review raised specific concerns on these. Like with HIPAA compliance, the best way to tackle issues is to encourage the reviewer to get in touch privately. 

How to handle illegal reviews

Reviews sometimes cross the line into defamation, false accusations, or harassment. When this happens, it’s important for businesses to act carefully and legally. Follow our step-by-step plan to make sure things don’t get worse. 

1. Stay calm and assess the situation

Start by assessing whether the review is truly illegal or just hurtful. A review only crosses into lawbreaking if it includes defamation or involves threats or harassment. As you assess, keep in mind the Streisand Effect: could the effort to silence the review actually draw more attention to it? 

2. Document everything

Before taking action, make sure you have a full record of the review. Save screenshots, note the date and time, and capture any related correspondence with the reviewer. This evidence is essential if you escalate to the review platform or go down the legal route. 

3. Contact the review platform

Review platforms, including Yelp and Google, have procedures for reporting reviews that violate their terms of service and content guidelines.

Provide clear evidence that the review is false or illegal. Be prepared that platforms are often cautious and may only act when the violation is clear-cut.

4. Get legal advice

If you think the review may break the law, consult a lawyer who specializes in defamation to help you decide if your case has merit. Next steps may include a cease and desist letter or even pursuing a full lawsuit. 

Keep in mind that the bar is high: courts generally won’t punish opinions, so legal action tends to only be successful if you can prove the review is false. 

5. Get more reviews 

While you’re working your way through potentially lengthy legal and review platform processes, work on strengthening your overall reputation. Encourage recent customers to share their genuine experiences so that the illegal review has less visibility and effect on your overall star rating. 

Stay smart, stay legal

Online reviews are a powerful tool for businesses, but the legal landscape in the US around them is complex and constantly evolving. Between the FTC’s Final Rule on Consumer Reviews, defamation and anti-SLAPP protections, and state-specific privacy laws, it’s easy to get tangled in legal grey areas. 

The good news? Most honest reviews and responsible responses are perfectly fine. Don’t buy fake reviews or indulge in dodgy practices, and you’ll stay on the right side of the law. 

Please remember nothing here replaces professional legal advice. When in doubt, a qualified lawyer is the only person who can guide you safely through online reviews and the law. 

As one of the most-used review platforms out there, Yelp is a powerful tool not only for consumers, but increasingly search engines and AI tools to figure out which businesses are top notch. 

In this article, we’ll explore what makes Yelp business reviews special, and how to use them for local business success.

What are Yelp reviews? 

With Yelp, customers post reviews of local businesses that potential customers can see when looking for services like yours. 

Yelp business reviews combine star ratings (1-5 stars), detailed comments, and user-generated photos and videos to help potential customers choose between local businesses. 

It’s designed to be local-first, helping consumers discover the next restaurant, dentist, or car dealer to try and trust. While it specializes in brick and mortar businesses, Yelp also helps mobile businesses and contractors such as plumbers and electricians connect with customers.

Why do Yelp reviews matter?

As we’ve already mentioned, our annual Local Consumer Review Survey shows that Yelp is one of the most popular review platforms for consumers. Data shows that in recent years it’s become the second most popular site for reviews behind Google.

Every day, 2.5 million people visit Yelp looking for local businesses. And with more than 308 million reviews to sift through on the platform, strong Yelp reviews make it easier for potential customers to trust your business.

Yelp reviews can have a big impact on the bottom line. Back in 2011, a Harvard Business School study found that a one-star improvement in restaurants’ Yelp ratings led to a 5-7% increase in revenue. 

Today, Yelp reports that 82% of users go on to hire or buy from a business they found on Yelp within a week of searching. Frankly, leaving your Yelp profile unclaimed and uncared for is leaving money on the table. 

While the exact Yelp algorithm remains a closely guarded secret, a steady stream of high-quality reviews will help your listing get seen by more potential customers. Yelp’s default search focuses on the user’s search terms and distance, as well as the business’s ratings, transactions using Yelp’s tools, user engagement data, and relevant reviews. 

And now, it’s not just your real-life customers who are looking to Yelp for information; it’s AI, too. We found that Yelp is used as a source in a third of LLM searches for local business-related prompts. Not only do LLMs use Yelp to extract business information, but they also pull content from customer reviews to answer queries. Yelp also entered a partnership with Perplexity AI and is used as a source in nearly all of its results.

Put simply, Yelp reviews are a key part of building a strong online presence and attracting new customers.

Claiming Your Business on Yelp

The first step to getting reviews on Yelp is to get your business listed on the website. Before you go ahead and add your business, you should first check if it’s already there by searching for your business.

You can follow our step-by-step on how to add or claim a Yelp listing, but the gist of it is:

• Create a Yelp business account
• Add your information, like business phone number, address, website, and category
• Verify your business, either by phone or email
• Add images and descriptions
• Add additional locations

Then you’re ready to start collecting reviews.

How to Optimize Your Yelp Business Page

Much like your website, your Yelp business page needs careful optimization if you want to maximize results.

A complete, keyword-rich Yelp profile with eye-catching photos and videos helps you get found and gives customers confidence in choosing your business.

The first step in Yelp optimization is to check you have all your information filled out. This includes your business name, address, phone number, website, business categories, and more. Make it simple for customers to reach you and trust your information, because mistakes can cost you leads.

Yelp Optimization: 7 Yelp SEO Tips

Optimize Yelp

Much like other business listings, Yelp is open to user-suggested edits. It’s important to regularly review your profile to check that your details stay accurate and consistent across the web. It’s also important to keep everything up to date, which you can do from centralised tools with your other listings.

Tools like BrightLocal’s Active Sync allow you to manage listings, including Yelp. They help you monitor them for unexpected changes, keep track of reviews, and push out your own updates. 

What is a ‘good’ Yelp review? 

So you know you need to get loads of good Yelp reviews for your business… but what does that actually mean? 

In short, a “good” Yelp review is genuine, detailed, and helpful. Reviews that describe specific experiences, mention particular products or services, and include photos or videos are highly likely to be useful to Yelp users. 

The Local Consumer Review Survey shows that customers pay attention to recent reviews, high star ratings, and the overall number of reviews when deciding which local businesses to trust. A business with a steady stream of positive, detailed reviews instantly looks more credible and appealing.

Yelp reviews tend to be longer and more detailed than other review platforms. Research from the FTC found that just 2% of Yelp reviews contained fewer than 100 characters, compared to 50% of Google reviews. For consumers looking for genuine advice, Yelp is often the first port of call. 

When writing a review, Yelp users are guided using Interactive Review Topics that suggest areas to cover. Once these are included, you get a satisfying green tick. 

Yelp has its own criteria when choosing which reviews to highlight. Reviews are categorized as Recommended or Not Recommended, with the latter tucked behind a link. Some of this is due to Yelp’s big position on non-incentivized reviews (more on this below), but unfavorable or incomplete reviews can also be filtered if Yelp doesn’t know enough about the reviewer.

Like all review sites, fake Yelp reviews can be a challenge, but Yelp has measures in place to combat these. 

Yelp-specific review features 

Yelp business reviews are more than just 5 stars and a couple of words. Yelp continually enhances its platform to provide users with richer, more engaging ways to share and discover experiences. Check out some key Yelp review features:

Video and image reviews

Visual content is powerful. Users can upload photos and short videos to Yelp reviews to showcase their experience and help potential customers know what to expect.

Community-generated information

With Yelp, it’s not just reviews you need to keep a close eye on. There are plenty of opportunities for the community to share information and get questions answered by others. If you’re not monitoring these, misinformation could easily sneak in. 

Review Insights

Yelp launched AI-powered “Review Insights” for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses in December 2024. This feature summarizes customer sentiments using intuitive icons, helping users quickly grasp the overall sentiment of reviews. This feature isn’t widespread yet, but could be one to watch for the future. 

Review Contributor Badges

Yelp’s Recognitions program awards badges to active reviewers who contribute valuable content. Similar to Google Local Guides, these badges highlight top contributors and encourage quality reviews across various categories. The Yelp Elite Squad launched in 2025 to highlight the most prominent reviewers, with perks and exclusive events. 

Advertiser perks

For businesses with the budget to boost visibility, Yelp offers advertising and profile-enhancing features, including:

• Yelp Ads: Promote your listing in search results and competitor pages
• Request a Quote: Let customers contact you directly–super useful for service area businesses! 
• Yelp Guaranteed: A money-back guarantee for customers using eligible services
• Verified License: Showcase your credentials by showing Yelp has checked your license is legit
• Portfolio: Display your best work and projects
• Business Highlights: Emphasize the key offerings and features that make your business stand out 

Promoted listings put your business in front of more people, but you’ll need a strong review profile so those extra eyes see you as a business worth choosing.

By leveraging Yelp’s features, businesses make it easier for potential customers to find and trust them. Yelp is constantly evolving to improve the experience for both customers and local businesses, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the platform’s latest features.

How to get more Yelp reviews

We are often asked how to get more reviews. In many cases, the answer is simply, “Just ask.” 

But when it comes to asking for Yelp reviews? This is not the case. 

Yelp has very strict guidelines on review solicitation. Yelp believes that asking for reviews can lead to biased ratings, as some businesses only ask happy customers for reviews (also known as review gating). They say:

“It shouldn’t be about who has the time and resources to ask the most people to write reviews. Great Yelp reviews and ratings should come from consumers who had a great experience that they’re inspired to tell others about.”

But that’s not to say your Yelp listing should be a secret from your customers. Make it simple to find your Yelp profile, linking it on your website, in emails, social channels, and even in-store. Businesses in the US and Canada can request a Find Us On Yelp sticker to pop in their window or at the front desk to spark customers to leave a genuine review.   

The best way to get good reviews is to deliver exceptional customer experiences that naturally motivate reviews, but of course, that’s far easier said than done! 

Responding to reviews on Yelp

You should always be responding to the reviews you receive, both positive and negative. 

When you get a negative review, your response says a lot about your business. If you’re defensive or quick to anger, it’s going to make you and your business look bad. But apologizing for the bad experience and publicly attempting to make it right can go a long way in the eyes of review readers.

If people see that you’re happy to respond to reviews, they’re more likely to leave them. 

Reputation management software can help you stay on top of your reviews, so you can action feedback and respond as soon as possible. 

Using your Yelp reviews

Getting reviews is only half the battle, and where many businesses stop. But we believe the real value comes from how you use these to make a better business. 

Reviews can have a huge impact on future customers, so why not make sure your best reviews are seen beyond those looking at your Yelp listing? Highlight glowing reviews on your website, social channels, emails, and print materials to build trust with potential customers. You can easily and professionally display your best feedback with Showcase Reviews, part of the BrightLocal Reputation Management offering.

But don’t just stop at promotion. Every review is also a window into what your customers think. Keep an open mind to complaints or common suggestions: these could highlight areas where you can improve. Keep an eye on competitors’ reviews too. If their customers rave about something you don’t offer, consider whether it’s worth adding to your own services.

In short, stop seeing Yelp reviews as testimonials of your past work. They’re opportunities to grow in the future.

Yelp and you

Yelp remains one of the most important review platforms, especially for businesses in the US and Canada. It continues to shape customer decisions and is increasingly used to feed AI tools with valuable insights. 

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Keeping your profile up-to-date and engaging with your customers on Yelp ensures you remain visible and trusted by potential customers. 

At its core, schema is simply structured data that helps search engines understand what your pages are about. When implemented correctly, it can unlock eye-catching, rich results in Google, including star ratings, FAQs, and event listings. 

One of the most common schema questions we hear from local marketers is: 

“Can I use review schema for my local business?” 

The short answer: sometimes, but with very strict rules. 

In this guide, we’ll decode the guidelines around reviews schema, and walk you through how to implement it correctly. We’ll provide practical code examples, and alternative strategies for when review stars aren’t an option so you can confidently advise clients on whether review schema is right for them. 

What is review schema? 

Review schema (previously known as ‘reviews’ schema by Google) is a way of telling search engines about the reviews shown on your website. Schema is a type of structured data, that is, extra code you can add to a page to tell search engines about reviews and ratings. It provides clear information about: 

• Who wrote the review
• What was reviewed, e.g., the product, service, book, course, or movie
• The rating or score given 
• Optional details like the review date or a short description

When implemented correctly, review schema can show as rich results in Google, showing next to your website in search results or in the Knowledge Panel. These enhanced search results can include star ratings, review counts, and snippets from reviews. 

But of course, as with all things Google, adding schema markup doesn’t guarantee rich results will show up.  

Can you use review schema as a local business?

We understand why local business owners love star ratings in search results—they grab attention and build trust instantly. Unfortunately, for many local businesses, getting those stars to appear isn’t always possible.

In 2019, Google updated its review snippet guidelines and stopped showing “self-serving” review stars for LocalBusiness and Organization schema types. Google explained the change:

“Reviews that can be perceived as ‘self-serving’ aren’t in the best interest of users. We call reviews ‘self-serving’ when a review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A – either directly in their markup or via an embedded third-party widget. That’s why, with this change, we’re not going to display review-rich results anymore for the schema types LocalBusiness and Organization (and their subtypes) in cases when the entity being reviewed controls the reviews themselves.”

This means that even if you add LocalBusiness review markup to your website, it won’t generate the star ratings in Google search that business owners hope for. This is the case whether you add the reviews and schema yourself or embed a third-party widget pulling the reviews directly from review sites. 

Playing it safe with schema 

Schema can help your business stand out in search results, but using it incorrectly could cause big problems. 

Google may take manual action if your structured data is misleading. This means your website could lose eligibility for rich results or even be removed from search results entirely. Google has an extensive list of structured data issues that could lead to manual actions.

If a manual action happens, Google will notify you in Search Console. Fix the issues and request a review to get your eligibility restored.

For LocalBusiness review schema specifically, you won’t usually face a penalty for mistakes, but Google simply won’t display rich review results, so adding it incorrectly can be a waste of time.

Using review schema for products and services 

Even though LocalBusiness review schema won’t trigger star ratings in search, there is still a way for eligible local businesses to use review markup effectively and without breaking any rules. 

The key is to focus on products or services offered by your business rather than the company as a whole. Google treats these as reviewable items, which means you can display review-rich results for them in search.

Products and Services share almost identical review properties in schema. The difference comes from Google’s side: Product reviews are explicitly supported and documented for review snippets in search results, while Service reviews are valid according to Schema.org but less directly highlighted in Google’s Search guidelines. 

In practice, that means Product reviews are more reliably shown, whereas Service reviews may appear but aren’t guaranteed. Google could stop showing reviews for services like it did for local businesses at any moment, so don’t count on this being the case! 

It’s important to only add review schema to product or service pages that contain reviews. Avoid applying it on pages like your homepage where no real reviews exist. This ensures your markup remains accurate, compliant, and eligible for rich results.

Product and service schema properties 

When building review schema, you’ll usually work with two key properties: Review and aggregateRating. 

• Review is used to mark up details in individual customer reviews, like the reviewer’s name, the date posted, the review content, and the star rating.
• AggregateRating is used to show the overall score for a product or service, based on multiple reviews.

Property	Sub-properties (examples)	Definition
aggregateRating	ratingValue, reviewCount, ratingCount, bestRating, worstRating	The overall rating based on a collection of reviews or ratings.
Review	author, datePublished, reviewBody, reviewRating	A single review of the service.
reviewRating	ratingValue, bestRating, worstRating	The rating given in an individual review (nested inside review).

Review stars in other places 

While it’s not possible to use localBusiness schema on your website for reviews, it doesn’t mean stars will never show for your business in other places. 

Business listing sites like Yelp are still eligible to show star ratings in search. For the best chance of your business’s stellar reputation being noticed, make sure you’ve claimed your listing on all the best general and niche sites. Search your keywords and see what potential customers may be seeing, then claim these listings—no code needed! 

It’s important to note that review schema on your website does not affect your Google Business Profile (GBP). The reviews and star ratings that appear on your GBP are entirely controlled by Google and come from customer submissions on Google itself. Adding structured data to your site won’t affect the stars on your business profile, nor will it transfer your website reviews to Google.

How do you add schema?

Adding schema means using a type of code to explain your content to search engines by placing it in the <head>, <body>, or <footer> of a page. This will not be visible to visitors to your website. 

You can do this with: 

• JSON-LD: A block of JavaScript added in the <head> or <body> of the page. It’s easy to add and maintain, and it doesn’t affect page layout, and is preferred by Google.
• Microdata: Added directly into HTML elements. It works anywhere, but can be harder to manage since it mixes with page content
• RDFa: Also added in HTML attributes, but it is more complicated and less commonly used. 

Generating review schema 

If you’re savvy with code, create the schema yourself. If not, you can use a tool like Schema.Dev’s Schema Builder for Structured Data Chrome extension or Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to build it for you. It’s simpler than you might think once you get your head around it, promise! 

Choose your data type (likely Products if you’re looking to markup a product review), then add your page URL. 

Highlight the section of the page you want to tag, and right-click to find the appropriate property (e.g., reviewer, review date, aggregateRating). Once you’ve marked up all relevant sections, click Create HTML to generate the structured data. 

Adding and testing schema

Add this to the <head>, <body>, or <footer> code of the page (or ask your developer if you have one!) 

It’s very important to test your code, as it’s really easy for mistakes to sneak in. Use Google’s Rich Results Test or Schema.org’s Schema Markup Validator to check the code or page URL for errors or warnings. The example below shows what happens if ‘reviewRating’ is missed inside the Review object. 

Google may take some time to recognize the markup, so keep a close eye on Google Search Console for any structured data or warnings over the next few weeks.

Example reviews schema for products and services

So now we know when and how review schema can be used, let’s look at what it actually looks like in practice. Below are some simple JSON-LD examples you can copy and adapt for your own websites.

Example schema for products 

Example schema for services 

What to do if you aren’t eligible for review schema? 

If your business isn’t eligible for review schema under the LocalBusiness guidelines and doesn’t offer products or services with their own reviews, it’s time to accept that review stars won’t appear in search results. But this doesn’t mean your hard-earned reviews go to waste. Other platforms may still use structured data to understand your business, and there are a lot of schema types that you will be eligible for. 

The key is to focus your efforts where you can make an impact. Mark up your address, contact information, opening hours, and frequently asked questions to help Google better understand your business. For a deeper dive, check out our full LocalBusiness schema guide.

Quick review schema rules to remember

Allowed → Product/service reviews (may show stars).

Allowed but ignored → LocalBusiness reviews (Google won’t show stars).

Risky → Fake / hidden/misattributed reviews (can trigger penalty).

But, while there is plenty of debate on how much Google uses business listings when deciding where to rank local businesses, it’s important to think about how much consumers are really using listings in their searches. 

We set out to uncover how consumers are really using business listings. To do this, we surveyed more than 1,000 US-based consumers to uncover their citation-related challenges and give local marketers the vital statistics they need to create a strategy for business listings in 2021. 

Why do consumers use business listings?

Ensuring you have an accurate presence wherever potential customers are online can be a key step to winning new business. The Business Listings Trust Report finds that 94% of consumers used an online directory to find information about a new or previously used business in the last 12 months.

Respondents were able to choose multiple reasons they had used a business information site in the last year. 66% of consumers used business information sites to find new businesses, while 66% found information on businesses they were already aware of but hadn’t used. 

Many consumers will make a decision on a business far before visiting or getting in touch. Without a presence on the most important business listings sites, you may miss customers you never even knew about.  

But it’s important to remember that business listings aren’t only used by new customers, and can have a far-reaching impact beyond the first interaction. 48% of consumers use listings to find information on businesses they have used before. This could be double-checking an address, or phone number, or viewing more in-depth details, such as the products in stock, any safety measures, or deals that the business might have.

Google My Business, Bing, Yelp, and other big sites contain many different criteria to optimize and update, so keeping information up to date is essential to avoid confusing your loyal customers. 

Which business listing sites matter for local businesses? 

Survey respondents were given a list of more than 20 different business listings sites to choose from—including online directories, social media sites, and voice assistants, and asked which they recalled using in the previous 12 months. 

Unsurprisingly, the most commonly-used source of local business information is Google—with 89% of consumers using one of Google’s search functions at least once in the past 12 months, including Google Maps and the Local Finder.

But, it’s important to go beyond the usage of core sites, and to think about the other outputs they may provide data for.

For example, we found that 11% of consumers used Waze, 15% used Google Home, and 18% Siri (which uses Google for its broad search results, and Apple Maps for local information). This means that a grand total of 91% of consumers used the Google search engine for local business information. 

While only 15% of consumers recalled using Bing to find out about a business in the last year, it also powers Microsoft’s voice search agent, Cortana, as well as Amazon Alexa. This means that 28% of consumers used Bing for local business information in the past 12 months—whether they knew it or not! 

Sites such as Yelp and Tripadvisor are well-known by consumers in search of restaurants or entertainment, but may not be as well used for other business types. 

The proportion of consumers that used business information sites in the last 12 months

While some of the named business listing sites weren’t used by many of the respondents in the last year, this isn’t to say you should write these off. If these are showing in the first few pages of Google for your key local search terms, or if your competitors are already represented on these, it would be worthwhile to secure your listing. In most cases, these won’t need to receive a lot of your time and attention once they’re live—merely tracking that these remain accurate over time. 

Which sites do consumers expect to hold accurate information?

It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of faith in the accuracy of information across the different types of business information sites. 

Consumers are most likely to trust the information on the business’s own website, followed by their social media sites and online directories. Information gathered from voice assistants is a lot less likely to be trusted. 

Sadly, it can be pretty easy for inaccuracies and errors to sneak into business listings. Moving location, changing phone number, or even incorrect updates from the public can all lead to confusing information that holds customers back from getting in touch. Our Citation Builder team is committed to improving the perception of accuracy in online directories—one listing at a time! 

How business listings cause consumer confusion

Trust is a vital component in any business relationship, and it’s well-known that mixed messages may impact a customer’s perception of you.

Even so, the majority of consumers we polled have spotted incorrect, incomplete, or conflicting information across a businesses’ listings—mighty confusing!

85% of consumers found incorrect or incomplete information on a business listing in the last year. In addition, 77% saw conflicting information on a business across different online directories. 

In the last year, 75% of consumers contacted or visited a business but it didn’t offer the product or service that it said it did online. With services such as Pointy from Google making it possible to add up-to-date product availability information, the proportion of consumers being frustrated by outdated stock information may see a drop over the next few years.

If customers frequently appear to ask you for products you no longer hold, it would be worth asking for the source they found that said you had this in stock, and making sure that it gets updated. While it’s always good to get visitors to the store, it’s not a great customer experience if they feel misled or as if they’ve had a wasted journey. 

Why does accurate information matter?

The benefits of accurate citations aren’t just about helping prospective customers find you. Inaccuracies in the listings you do have can have a negative effect—with 63% of consumers saying that finding incorrect information would actively stop them from choosing your business. 

Misinformation can be damaging trust in the reliability of a brand. This could be something as serious as an outdated address or mistyped phone number stopping a customer from reaching you, or errors in your opening hours or services offered that cause confusion. 

Only 8% of consumers said they definitely wouldn’t be stopped from using a business due to incorrect listings. Is ignoring accuracy really worth the risk? 

Which business listing errors affect consumer trust? 

In our survey, we listed some of the most common inaccuracies we see in businesses’ listings (incorrect or inconsistent NAP information, errors in opening hours and email addresses, and outdated or poor-quality photos) and sought to find out how these impact trust in businesses.

Consumers are most likely to lose trust in businesses if the phone number (66%) or address (60%) is wrong or inconsistent across listings.

Having incorrect contact details can have far worse consequences than a mistake in the name or photos. You wouldn’t want a consumer to believe they have been ignored or misled if they couldn’t reach the business. 

Problems with photos are less likely to negatively affect consumers, with 45% of consumers saying that poor-quality or outdated photos would damage their trust.

The impact of an incorrect address

We can all agree that an incorrect address could have a negative impact on potential customers—whether a business has moved location and not updated the data, mistyped a zip code, or even had its address nefariously updated. For businesses with a physical presence, inaccuracies in addresses could lead to a lot of unhappy people arriving on the wrong doorstep.

Luckily, for the majority of businesses, a lost customer wouldn’t automatically equal a lost sale. 42% would call the business if the contact details were wrong online, while 20% would look elsewhere online to check the address.

But, 39% would either jump ship to an alternative business or give up their search entirely. 

Of course, it’s likely that this abandonment level will differ drastically depending on the type of business. If a coffee shop is located in a different area, it may be likely a consumer would be more likely to hop to a different café, while a more niche or specialist service may warrant a further leg of the journey. 

Back in 2018, we ran the Local Citations Trust Report, and asked this same question. Interestingly, consumer behavior has seen some changes between the two surveys. Consumers are now far less likely to completely abandon their search. Instead, they are a little more likely to look for an alternative business nearby (online or physically), check the address elsewhere online. This could suggest a trend towards consumers being more likely to research local businesses on the move. 

The trouble with opening hours

Most online directories have plenty of features that stretch beyond the NAP—with opening hours being particularly useful. 

We found that 93% of consumers used a business information site to see opening hours in the last 12 months, making this absolutely crucial for businesses to get right. 

Unfortunately, all too often opening hours can have issues. In the last year, 76% of consumers arrived at a business too early or late because its opening hours were wrong online.

Missed connections

The biggest problem with failing to keep business listings accurate are the high-intent customers that have every intention of contacting a business, but aren’t able to due to incorrect name, address, phone number, and website information (NAPW). 

Whether that’s trying and failing to click through to a linked website, contacting a business through its listing or social media channels but not hearing back, or calling or visiting the wrong location because of incorrect information, it’s bound to cause upset among potential customers. 

The impact of Covid-19 on business listings

Our survey respondents were asked questions about a range of situations in the previous 12 months. However, let’s remember, the previous 12 months have been far from normal. 

In the same way that the pandemic impacted how consumers interact with reviews, for many consumers, business listings were incredibly useful for peace of mind over the past year. 

74% of consumers surveyed looked at a business’s listings to see if there were Covid-19 measures in place—with many of the bigger online directories developing options that outlined additional Covid-19 measures.

For many consumers, business listings will have played a part in understanding which businesses were still operating during the pandemic.

However, it seems that not every affected business thought to update their listings before closing their doors. 81% of consumers visited a business that said online it was open, but that was actually closed due to the pandemic. 

In summary

Being able to trust that the information available online is accurate can go a long way in helping consumers feel ready to trust—and use—a local business. 

Yet, the majority of consumers have faced a frustrating experience, such as visiting a closed business or calling a dead number, as a result of inaccurate information in business listings.

With business information sites such a common way to discover local businesses today, failing to keep this information up to date and correct could put off a significant proportion of potential customers. But, it appears too many local businesses aren’t making accuracy a priority—despite the relatively low amount of time and effort required to track business listings and build citations on the sites that your customers visit. 

Local businesses, and marketers with local business clients, should make it their mission to make every source of information positive and useful. Starting with the most commonly-used sources of information (e.g. Google My Business, Facebook, Bing, etc.), ensure that all information is completely up-to-date—including NAP, contact details, photos, and opening hours.

While other sources, that aren’t as frequently used by your consumers, won’t need to be checked and changed as often, it’s important to check that these don’t hold incorrect information that could be diverting high-intent customers. 

While the pandemic has highlighted a need to keep information updated as it changes, the accuracy of information should always be critical. 

Methodology

The Business Listings Trust Report explores how consumers are interacting with business listings in their search for a local business.

The statistics and findings are focused on interactions with business information sites. These include search engines such as Google and Bing, maps providers such as Waze and Google Maps, social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram, voice assistants such as Siri and Amazon Alexa, and online directories such as Yelp, Tripadvisor, and the Better Business Bureau. 

Based on the views of a sample of 1,141 US-based consumers, the survey was conducted in August 2021 using Survey Monkey’s consumer panel. The sample is representative of age and gender demographic breakdowns in the USA.

Publishers are welcome to use the charts and data, crediting BrightLocal and link to this URL.

Levi views trust signals as a double-header. There are the trust signals your GMB listing gives out to potential customers – would someone buy from your business?

And, there are the trust signals it sends out to Google – does your business seem legitimate and worthy of ranking?

Listen to learn:

• Which Google My Business features send out trust signals
• What negatively impacts trust within GMB
• How to optimize your website to strengthen trust signals
• The top 5 tactics that help you build and maintain trust signals

Resources:

• Read Levi’s in-depth explainer on How to Get the Most Out of Google My Business Q&A
• Check out the amazing Women in Tech SEO community

Subscribe today

If you like what you hear and want instant access to the latest episodes, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts:

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We’ve got some news to share

This is the last episode of Adventures in Local Marketing…

…season one.

Sorry if that gave you a fright – we aren’t going away. But, we are going to take a short break to plan out season two.

We launched Adventures in Local Marketing around 12 months ago, and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way. It’s been a real privilege to speak to so many smart and talented people in our industry about a wide variety of topics.

We had a rough idea of what we wanted the podcast to be when we first launched, and as we went on, we learned more about what really works. We’re going to use this time to plan out how we take the podcast forward.

We’ll be revealing more about what season two holds very soon. In the meantime, please head to the comments to let us know what you’d want from the next season: topics, guests, themes – whatever it is, let us know!

Before we go, we’d like to give a big thanks to all the guests who appeared on season one, and to everyone who listened along the way.

It’s not “goodbye”… but “see you later”.

While the local SEO community is supportive and keen to share knowledge on tactics, there are some elements of working in the industry that aren’t as frequently discussed. It can be difficult to know what to charge your clients, what services to offer, and what salary to aim for.

This is is why we set out, back in 2011, to benchmark the key statistics that illustrate what it’s really like to work in local SEO. 

The Local Search Industry Survey aims to look at the attitudes, experiences, and finances of people that are working in the world of local SEO. We’ve aimed to provide a useful measure of life as a local marketer year on year, combining the insights of people working in agencies, as freelancers, and in businesses.

Thank you so much to the 550 local marketers who answered this year’s survey. Your insights are very valuable and we are incredibly thankful. 

Publishers are welcome to use the following charts and data, crediting BrightLocal and linking to this URL. If you have any questions about the report, please get in touch with the content team, or leave a comment below. Information about the demographics of the survey can be found at the end of this post. 

The Outlook for 2021

Success in 2021

As we speed into the second half of the year, it seems like many local marketers are hopeful about what 2021 has to hold. 26% believe that it will be easier to achieve local SEO success in 2021—up from 22% last year. However, with fewer people saying it will be neither easier or harder (37%, down from 46%), this also means that, overall, more people are expecting it to be difficult (37%, up from 33%). 

With local SEO, it can be very difficult to predict what’s coming. Algorithm updates can come out of the blue, and Google My Business can often be seen adding or testing new features, each of which add another item to the to-do list.

And, with Google’s Page Experience Update still slowly rolling out at the time of writing, there could still be a lot of changes that could impact how local marketers work. 

The trends affecting local marketing in 2021

N.b. Respondents were asked how much they agreed with the above statements.

When this survey was sent out back in May, respondents were far more likely to see the Page Experience update as having a big impact than not. 50% said that they believed it would have a big impact, while 48% said that they felt prepared.

There has been a lot of discussion of what the Page Experience Update will mean for websites, and whether it’s something that will have a major impact on local businesses. Whether or not it has a big impact on rankings, improving the experience for visitors can only be positive! 

59% of respondents say that Google My Business has improved in the last year. During the early stages of the pandemic in the US, Google rolled out a series of changes and improvements to make access to Covid-19 related information simpler.

On top of this, it rolled out a series of new features—from extending the length of Google Posts, to expanded messaging features, and much more! You can keep on top of all the Google My Business changes with Sterling Sky’s very handy Timeline of Local SEO Changes.

But it’s not all been rosy in the world of GMB. 36% say that Google My Business has had more bugs in the last year, while just 25% say they believe GMB support has improved in the last year. Despite Google introducing many new local business features, it’s clear there are many ongoing frustrations for local marketers. 

Local SEO Salaries

The average salaries for local marketers in the USA, UK and Canada

Salaries for digital marketers can vary pretty drastically, with disparities between countries being particularly notable. The median salary for a local marketer in the UK is £45,000. Comparing to Canada ($107,500 CAD) and the US ($77,000 USD), it’s a lot less fruitful to be an SEO in the UK—with this UK median salary converting to about $62,500 USD in the USA, and $77,000 CAD in Canada. 

So why is there such a big pay disparity? Could it be because local SEO is less of a recognized need in the UK, and therefore the comparative lack of demand is dragging down salaries? We’d love to hear your theories; let us know in the comments. 

N.b. We chose to compare salaries in the USA, Canada, and the UK only as other countries did not have enough survey respondents to create indicative average salaries. Respondents were able to opt out of sharing their salary. 

The median salary for a local marketer working the USA, UK, or Canada in 2021 is $87,579 USD—below last year’s global average of $88,532.

However, looking at salaries as an average rarely shows what’s really happening. Drilling down into different segments, you’ll see a wide variety of salaries—with younger SEOs earning significantly less than more experienced specialists. 

Women working in local SEO receive an average salary of $75,315 USD, compared to $93,128 for male SEOs. The gender pay gap has increased compared to last year’s survey, moving from a difference of 14% to 24% over the course of the year.

While of course, this change could be purely down to different respondents sharing their salaries this year, here is a list of ideas and causes to help promote gender equality in local SEO.

Comparing by business type also makes for interesting analysis. Local marketers working in agencies earn an average of $91,468 per year – around $4,000 than their freelance counterparts. People in charge of marketing in businesses earn an average of $78,457 –  though it’s important to bear in mind that many in-business marketers will have SEO and digital marketing tasks as just one task of many involved in keeping the business running. 

Local marketers’ satisfaction with salaries

Despite clear pay disparities, the majority of local marketers are happy with their salaries – with 41% of respondents saying they are “extremely” or “very” satisfied. The highest proportion (43%) are “somewhat” satisfied, which perhaps isn’t surprising; I’m sure most people would always be happy for a little more in their paycheck! 

Looking at respondents in the UK, 50% are “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their salaries, compared to 41% in the US and 39% in Canada. While SEOs in the UK do get paid comparatively less than their North American counterparts, they tend to be happier with their salary. But, with the average salary across all jobs in the UK being £31,461, pay for local marketers tends to be relatively high.

Hiring and Working in Local SEO

Annual revenues of local marketing agencies and freelancers

Looking at the revenues of agencies and freelancers, there was a dip in the proportion of respondents bringing in less than $100,000 (23% this year, compared to 35% last year). 50% of respondents work in local marketing businesses that earn more than $500,000 per year, up from 37% last year.

Rather than this highlighting a significant revenue change over the past year, though, it’s highly likely that this is a reflection of this year’s respondents. 

The average hours spent on local SEO each week

Survey respondents work an average of 43 hours per week, but naturally very few spend all of it focusing purely on local marketing. Interestingly, respondents from multi-location businesses spend the most hours purely focusing on local marketing, alongside in-agency marketers—with each spending around 25 hours a week on SEO and marketing.

Winning new business, meetings, and admin all take up a sizeable chunk of the working week, so spending all your time on billable work isn’t possible in most companies. 

Local businesses spend the fewest hours focusing on SEO and marketing. It’s important to note that this survey was primarily answered by BrightLocal’s customers, email subscribers and social media followers, and therefore the local businesses answering this survey may be a little more SEO-savvy and willing to spend time on marketing than the norm—many of whom may only spend minutes or hours each week on marketing.

The number of employees in local marketers’ businesses

The majority of respondents in this year’s survey work in small and medium-sized businesses—with just 12% working in companies that have over 100 employees. 

Working in local SEO can be a lonely job, with 38% of businesses only having one specialist in their company—and 70% having fewer than 6. This is lower than last year’s study, in which 81% had 5 or fewer local marketers; though this could be based on the respondents this year rather than necessarily indicating that businesses and agencies have fewer marketers on the books. 

Building a community of like-minded local SEOs to share ideas and results of tests will be vital for many local marketers to improve their work and learn new ways to improve performance for their clients or businesses. 

Will your business hire more SEO-related staff in 2021?

Despite the pandemic, it seems that many companies are planning to grow their local SEO workforce, as 51% are likely to hire more local marketers this year. After a year during which many agencies will have paused hiring and lost clients, it’s promising to see the optimism for hiring remaining pretty steady compared with last year’s pre-pandemic report.

For many businesses, digital marketing will have become even more important, and this may have led to an increased need for agencies and freelancers to help get them in front of customers while traditional routes to sales changed. 

The proportion of local marketers moving jobs in 2021

There is a disparity between the proportion of companies expecting to hire more SEOs and the proportion of marketers expecting to change role. This puts the power in the hands of marketers, with potentially more jobs to choose from, which could mean that competition could be lower than perhaps expected. This difference between supply and demand could mean marketers are able to request higher salaries and better benefits based on the scarcity of competition. 

25% of local marketers say they have already found a new job, or will look for one this year—up from 22% last year. Perhaps it’s no wonder that more marketers expect to move jobs this year—many may have paused their search for a new role during the uncertainty of the pandemic, while others may be looking for a fully remote role now that many businesses have made this a possibility. 

The proportion of local marketers planning to freelance in the future

For the first time, we asked respondents whether they planned to freelance in the future. While 40% already freelance either full or part-time, a further 19% plan to take on their own clients in the short or long-term. Only 31% of respondents said that they wouldn’t. 

Of course, freelancing isn’t for everyone, and the stability and security of working for someone else is what many workers desire. However, digital marketing can be a great career to pick up extra work on the side, which may be why so many marketers are planning to make the leap over the next few years. We’ll be interested to monitor this in the coming years. 

How many years respondents have worked in local marketing

Despite there being fewer respondents classing themselves as junior, there was actually an increase in the proportion of respondents that have worked in local marketing for a short amount of time. 13% have worked in the field for less than 2 years, up from 7% last year. A further 23% have worked in local marketing between two and five years—up from 17% last year. 

Level of local SEO knowledge

Perhaps it’s no surprise that so many marketers are looking to go it alone in the future with such a high level of local SEO knowledge. 68% see their local SEO knowledge as being excellent or very good. 

But as we all know, local SEO can change quickly, and staying on top of the latest news and trends can take time. We want to enable every local marketer to be brilliant at local SEO, and have spent countless hours working on BrightLocal Academy: a set of in-depth video courses aimed at helping local marketers improve their knowledge. Check it out!

Services

The most common services offered by local marketers

N.b. In 2021’s survey, ‘Technical SEO’ was added as a standalone service for the first time.

The most common services offered by local marketers

1. GMB optimization and management
2. Content creation and optimization
3. SEO audits and analysis
4. Citation building and cleanup 
5. On-site optimization

Local marketing can be a very varied job with a lot to learn—with local SEO alone having multiple factors to focus on.

Not every agency or freelancer will be able to, or even want to, offer every service to clients, which means that local businesses wanting to choose a consultant need to think carefully about which specialties they really desire. 

Google My Business optimization is the most commonly offered service. Being that this is the biggest factor affecting local rankings, it’s no shock that most local marketers are offering this to clients. In fact, it’s a bigger surprise that nearly 10% aren’t!

Content creation and optimization has become more widely offered over the last year, with 83% of marketers offering this to their clients. This could be a result of the pandemic, where businesses needed to connect with their customers in different ways while footfall fell and businesses closed. 

Local Services Ads also seem to be growing, with 56% of marketers now offering this service. Google rolled these out to more countries and niches over the last year, so it’s only natural that more marketers are choosing to offer this to clients. 

Notable drops compared to 2020 are in on-site optimization, reporting, Google Posts, link building, and video marketing. It feels unlikely that some of these SEO services are becoming less valuable, so this could highlight marketers tightening their focus to spend time on their preferred specialties rather than trying to do it all. 

The most valuable services for local marketing success

The most valuable local marketing services

1. GMB optimization and management
2. Content creation and optimization
3. On-site optimization
4. Citation building and cleanup
5. Website design

Local marketers were asked to share which five services they believe are most valuable for local marketing success. Again, Google My Business optimization comes out on top—outpacing other services by far. 

Content creation has nearly doubled in importance among respondents compared to last year. With so many more marketers in this year’s survey offering this as a service,  this could explain why there has been such a leap—but what came first: the value, or offering it as a service? 

Citation building and cleanup remains a very valuable service, with 40% of respondents placing this among their most valuable service offerings. This may have been particularly important over the last year where many interactions with consumers have shifted online, meaning the accuracy of the information about businesses is more important than ever to avoid confusing or frustrating potential customers. 

Spam fighting has seen notable change this year, with 17% of respondents naming this as one of the most valuable services to offer. Tackling the abundance of spam in local search results can have a big impact on local rankings success, and it’s great to see more local marketers identifying this as valuable. 

Local businesses vs local marketers’ perceptions of valuable local marketing services

As well as looking at what specialists in local marketing see as the most valuable services, it’s interesting to compare how the opinions of people working in businesses differ. While I wouldn’t want to downplay anyone’s knowledge, it’s important to understand that there could be a significant difference between what local marketers see as successful and worthy tactics, and what businesses may desire. A combination of compromise and education may be required for a harmonious ongoing relationship! 

Optimization of Google My Business is less valued among businesses—with only 53% placing this in their top 5 most valuable services, compared to 80% of those in agencies or freelancing. This disparity between the perceived importance of Google My Business is a little concerning, and suggests that businesses may be underestimating the power that GMB holds for rankings and conversions. 

ROSIE – ADD CTA TO NIKI’S COURSE HERE

According to local businesses, the most valuable services for local marketing success are:

1. GMB optimization
2. On-site optimization
3. Citation building
4. Content creation
5. Competitor research.

Social media is also more valuable to businesses than it is to marketers—meaning they may expect an agency to offer this on top of other local marketing specialisms. 

Since its inception in 2010, the report has aimed to help local businesses, consumers, and marketers understand the impact customer reviews can have on consumers, and see which trends change each year.

Of course, 2020 was a year like no other, and it would be amiss to start this annual comparison without an acknowledgment that nothing was normal this year. On top of the usual statistics exploring star ratings, the number of reviews, and how local businesses are asking for reviews, we also asked consumers how Covid-19 impacted usage of online reviews and local businesses. This should give context to changing trends, as well as help readers understand how the ongoing effects of the pandemic may be impacting local businesses.

Customer Review Trends 2020

Business reviews can be an incredibly useful tool for attracting new customers, not only through the psychological effect they have on the reader, but by boosting local rankings so that businesses are more likely to show up for searching consumers. 

How often consumers used the internet for local business information in 2020

Over the decade of the Local Consumer Review Survey, we’ve tracked how consumers search for local businesses online every year.

In 2020, 93% of US consumers searched online for a local business. From these, 34% searched every day, while 73% searched weekly (up from 70%).

Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and other sites are always adding new features that help connect potential customers with nearby businesses, so it’s no surprise that consumers are becoming even more likely to search for local suppliers online.

The proportion of consumers that read online reviews for local businesses

Online reviews are continuing to grow in importance, despite the obvious impact of Covid-19 on the local economy. 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020. This is an increase from 81% last year, 86% in 2018, and a huge increase from 67% back in 2010.

However, while the overall number of consumers looking at local business reviews grew, there was a small dip in the proportion “always” looking. Whether this reflects a trend of some consumers checking reviews less frequently (perhaps in line with diminished demand for local businesses this year), or whether those that have just started reading reviews have joined the “occasionally” group, it’s hard to say!

The devices consumers used in 2020 to read reviews

For the first time, consumers seem to be favoring mobile devices over desktop when viewing reviews. 57% of consumers looked at reviews on a PC or Mac this year, down from 66% in 2019. 

But again, perhaps with the year we’ve had, this is not necessarily indicative of a lasting trend. Consumers that have seen work closures may have spent less time on desktop computers this year, or those working from home may not be as inclined to log on to a big screen in the evenings or weekends.

The proportion of consumers reading reviews on a mobile browser grew a little, with 60% of consumers saying they had read reviews on mobile this year. Mobile review reading has seen steady growth over the last few years as consumers are given more features to aid their local business searches that aren’t available on other devices – whether they’re on the move or not.

The Impact of Covid-19 on Local Businesses

With Covid-19 shuttering many local businesses across the world, consumers were forced to choose businesses in different ways. Feeling able to trust a local business became more important than ever – with online reviews playing a key role in whether some consumers felt safe enough to use a business.

Back at the beginning of April, we asked BrightLocal users how the virus was impacting local businesses and marketers. In this, we heard how many local businesses were losing customers, pausing marketing, or having to temporarily close – so it’s no surprise that behavior among consumers saw changes in 2020.

However, a further 28% of consumers searched online for more businesses than they would in a ‘normal’ year. Many customers undoubtedly wished to find out which businesses were open nearby, which had additional measures in place such as curbside delivery, and if the businesses that were open had sufficient measures in place to help the customer feel comfortable visiting or having the business come to their home or business.

Online reviews and Covid-19

It’s a similar story in reviews. Covid-19 caused 34% of consumers to read fewer reviews than a ‘normal’ year, while 31% read more reviews. With Google temporarily stopping new reviews between March and May, Google reviews may have been a little less used in this time, as there were fewer fresh reviews to read – not to mention lower demand for businesses in the first place. 

A quarter (23%) said that they had chosen not to use a business as it didn’t have health and safety measures – showing that customers really do take the content of reviews to heart.

And it’s not just how consumers read reviews that changed during the pandemic. 17% of consumers said they had written negative reviews for businesses that did not have health and safety measures in place for Covid-19. Those not taking steps to make consumers feel safe could be opening themselves up to negative reviews that could impact consumer opinion long past the peak of the pandemic.

But it’s not all bad news. 22% wrote customer reviews to support struggling local businesses. With Google adopting a high-budget advertising campaign in the UK urging consumers to support local businesses, Google’s message has been to encourage local reviews, so it’s great to see this echoed in consumer action. 

How Reviews Impact Behavior

Customer reviews play a key role in helping consumers to feel able to trust a business. These online reviews are an incredibly useful tool in influencing opinions, with many potential customers making decisions on whether to use or avoid a business before ever getting in touch with them. Companies with a poor review profile could be denying themselves a vast number of new leads without ever knowing a consumer considered them.

Negative reviews can have a significant impact on consumer behavior, making 92% of consumers less likely to use a business.

Of course, negative reviews can happen. Maybe your team is just having an off day, or a reviewer is proving particularly hard to please? One negative review is unlikely to completely ruin your chances in local search, though, so don’t fret too much at the occasional one-star rating.

However, if a business receives frequent poor feedback, or bad reviews are showing up among their most recent reviews, they could be risking a lot of potential business. Negative reviews can’t be the sole reason a company fails, but now that consumers have better tools that show them what sort of service to expect, they are better knowing which businesses to avoid.

You’ll likely have heard that unhappy customers tell 9-10 people about their experience – a statistic based on a study of Coca-Cola customers in the 1970s. Now, with reviews being so well-trusted and accessible, local businesses must be aware that one poor experience could have a far wider effect than ever before. An average local business’s Google My Business listing is viewed 1,260 times each month, meaning that a negative set of reviews could have a huge impact.

79% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family. These days, word of mouth can come from outside a consumer’s social circle, with an online review having a ripple outside of a happy (or unhappy!) customer’s peers.

Positive reviews also have a big impact on consumers, with 94% of consumers saying positive reviews make them more likely to use a business. Reviews with a high star rating or a positive sentiment have a significant impact on consumers’ decisions to use a business, so it’s vitally important to ensure your reviews are in top shape.

What consumers do after reading a positive review for a local business

1. Visit the business’s website
2. Search for more reviews to further validate their choice
3. Visit the business’s location
4. Continue searching for other businesses
5. Contact the business

Since our 2019 report, how consumers behave after reading positive reviews hasn’t changed drastically – they’re still most likely to turn to the business’s website next.

While some consumers may opt to visit or contact the business immediately after being dazzled by their reviews, it’s still important that businesses have a working website to back up their brilliance. Whether consumers are looking for more information on the services or products a local business offers, to find out pricing, or merely ways to contact or book time, the website needs to carefully match what potential customers may need.

How different industries use customer reviews

Click Next on the table above to see more industries. To avoid lesser-used services such as senior living services or photographers being unfairly skewed, the data in the final column only looks at consumers that have ever seen reviews in this industry.

The industries for which reviews are most viewed

1. Restaurants / Cafés
2. Hotels / B&Bs
3. Medical / Healthcare
4. Automotive
5. Clothing stores

Different industries see vastly different proportions of consumers using reviews when choosing a business, with some not being as universally needed (such as wedding services or childcare services). Some industries for which consumers are highly likely to view reviews are restaurants, hotels,  and clothing stores – all of which are used fairly frequently, and have broad appeal.

Medical and automotive businesses also see a high proportion of consumers reading reviews. This makes sense, because every American may need a healthcare professional at some point, and 93% of American households have access to a car.

The industries for which reviews are most important

1. Medical / Healthcare
2. Restaurants / Cafés
3. Hotels / B&Bs
4. Automotive
5. Dentists

Reviews for medical and automotive businesses are also very important to consumers when choosing a business, likely due to the higher stakes involved in picking a trustworthy provider for you, or your vehicle’s health. Likewise, reviews play a key role in whether consumers feel able to trust a dentist.

Reviews for restaurants and hotels play an incredibly important role for consumers – not only are they used by many, but they are highly important to choosing a business. And no wonder: many heavily rely on reviews to choose businesses in these industries, with entire big-name sites such as Tripadvisor and Booking.com having sites dedicated to showcasing these.

Interestingly, ‘pubs and bars’ is the industry that consumers are least likely to think reviews are important for. While these are highly-frequented businesses, I must admit that I can’t think of a time I’ve ever looked at a review for a pub – instead relying on what’s recommended by friends, or merely what’s nearby!

What Review Readers Care About

As we’ve seen above, there are many ways for consumers to view reviews. When it comes to individual aspects of reviews, such as recency and sentiment, there are plenty of factors that could cost local businesses customers if not focused on.

The review factors consumers care most about

To note, this year we asked consumers to rate the importance of the above factors, and the above data reflects those that said a factor was ‘fairly important’ or ‘very important’. In previous years, respondents were only asked to pick factors they believe are important.

In 2020, the overall star rating of a business was the review factor most influential on consumer choice. The legitimacy of a review (that is, how trustworthy it seems) comes a close second. With fake reviews dominating headlines over the last few years, consumers are recognizing the very real possibility that reviews may not always be what they seem.

Interestingly, the recency of a review was considered less important to this year’s respondents than last year’s, who deemed it the most important factor. While this may be down to the slight change to the question this year, perhaps recency has become a little less important in line with a different demand for businesses in this ‘new normal’. But, with 80% of consumers seeing recency as an important feature of reviews when choosing a business, it’s by no means something to ignore!

This year, we asked respondents whether it is important for a business to be on multiple review sites. 72% said yes – meaning it’s crucial to spread your reviews across all of the places your potential customers may be looking. Start by finding the sites your competitors are listed on, and ensure you have a full and positive profile on both general and industry-specific sites.

The star rating that local businesses need

Many a marketer will be familiar with the question from clients: “What star rating do I need?” But, as with any good local marketing question, the answer is, of course, “it depends.”

We know there’s a huge difference between a 4 and 5-star rating in the eyes of consumers, so this year, we included half-star options to try to better fit consumer expectations. We found that 12% of consumers will only use a business with a perfect 5 stars.

Only 48% would consider using a business that has fewer than 4 stars – meaning businesses falling under this threshold are risking around half of potential customers searching online. Just 19% would use a business with fewer than 3 stars.

How recent reviews need to be

The recency of reviews can have a big impact on whether or not a consumer chooses a business, but different people have differing ideas about how recent reviews need to be.

86% of consumers say they only look at reviews from the past three months, while a huge 73% say customer reviews must be from the last month to influence their choice to use a local business, up from last year (69%). And, a whopping 50% only take into account reviews from the past two weeks.

This means that older reviews may get less of a look in among consumers, and have diminishing returns as time goes on. While older reviews aren’t completely worthless (to readers or search engines), if consumers do not see any recently posted reviews, they may not trust that their experience would match the reviewer’s.

Local businesses should aim to get a steady stream of reviews over time – rather than making a big push and then forgetting to ask for further reviews later down the line.

How many online reviews customers read before trusting a business

For the third year running, we’ve found that the average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business. Local marketers should therefore make sure the 10 visible reviews on each key review site are indicative of the business experience they want to portray, and make sure these have been responded to, in order to maximize the chances of impressing potential leads.

But, remember this is an average. 20% read more than 10 reviews, with 8% reading more than 20, so it may be worth scrolling back a little further if you want to appeal to everyone!

Which sites consumers use to find local business information

1. Google
2. Facebook
3. Yelp
4. BBB
5. Tripadvisor

Respondents were asked which of the above five sites they had used in 2020 to find information about a local business – whether that was reading reviews, or finding additional information such as opening hours, contact options, and how to book.

Google reigns supreme, with 63% of respondents saying they’d used the site this year. With Google receiving 88% of search engine market share, Google My Business results for local searches can be hard for consumers to miss.

Operating directly from the SERP, Google My Business adds new features for consumers all the time, from the new community feed, to additional features aimed at helping consumers understand the Covid-19 measures businesses are taking.

In second place is Facebook, which, despite deviating from the norm of review star ratings in favor of recommendations, still plays a key role in connecting local businesses and potential customers. However, when we come to consider how much consumers trust reviews on each site (as you’ll see below), Facebook is actually the least trusted.

In fact, more consumers distrust Facebook reviews than actually use it for local business reviews – indicating that many have turned away from the social media giant in favor of other sites.

Yelp was used by 32% of consumers this year. This statistic may be lower than ‘normal’ years because Yelp leans heavily on industries such as restaurants, bars, and tourist spots – many of which will have seen a significant shift in demand due to the pandemic. Likewise, Tripadvisor will likely have seen far fewer users than in a ‘normal’ year, so these numbers may well change if we repeat this question in 2021’s survey. 

How consumers trust reviews on each key site

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) prides itself on being a trustworthy source of information on businesses. According to the BBB’s own research, there was a 97% increase in business profile searches year-on-year. While this was actually the least used site for local business information among our respondents, it is actually seen as the most trustworthy source of reviews – despite the number of reviews generally being lower than on other sites.

Though BBB ratings aren’t a local ranking factor, they are widely seen as a source of truth – and less easy to manipulate than some other sites. This is because, as part of the reviews process, BBB first confirms that a marketplace interaction took place between the reviewer and the business, then BBB gives the business an opportunity to respond to the review.

We thought it would be interesting to compare how trusted product reviews on Amazon are compared to the key local review sites, expecting a huge disparity between fairly trustworthy local reviews, and possibly distrusted Amazon reviews. We instead found that 78% of consumers trust reviews on Amazon – while fewer people trust reviews on Tripadvisor, Google, Yelp, or Facebook.

In 2020, there has been an abundance of articles discussing fake reviews on Amazon in the British press, so it seems surprising that US consumers are far more trusting than I am. If you have any theories on why Amazon may be more trusted than local sites, please let me know in the comments!

It’s also interesting to see that 60% of consumers trust reviews on the company website. In this question, we purposefully didn’t differentiate between a website showcasing reviews from third-party sources and first-party reviews created and displayed by the business itself. This could have had an impact on whether consumers said they were able to trust reviews displayed on the website. 

The types of local business review sites consumers use

Although we’ve mainly focused on the key general review sites in the survey so far, there are many niche review sites worth building a presence on, too, we asked respondents about these in the question above.

We found that, in addition to the 80% of consumers that look at general review sites, 33% also use industry-specific sites such as Healthgrades, Avvo, and Booking.com.

The prevalence of fake reviews

As was shown earlier in this report, perceived ‘legitimacy’ plays a big part in what consumers consider when reading reviews. It’s no surprise, then, that we also found that fake reviews remain a key issue in the world of local marketing: 80% of consumers believe they’ve read a fake review in the last year, with 33% saying they’d spotted multiple.

This is actually a small drop from last year’s 82% believing they’d read a fake review, though that doesn’t necessarily mean there are fewer around. Fake reviews might be better hidden, or consumers may have been behaving a little unusually this year, so stay vigilant!

67% of US consumers told us they question the authenticity of reviews, which, with many review sites suffering from the impact of fake reviews, is entirely the right thing to be doing! While we’d hate for local business customers to feel as if they couldn’t trust reviews, staying alert to the possibility of falsehoods is crucial. 

Responding to Reviews

Over the last few years of running this survey, we’ve been tracking how important it is for local businesses to respond to reviews they receive. But for the first time, this year we asked respondents how quickly they believe reviews need to be responded to.

How many consumers read responses to reviews

When looking at consumers that read online reviews for local businesses, 96% also read businesses’ responses to their reviews – with 40% saying they ‘always’ read the responses.

Interestingly, there’s no real distinction in consumers’ perceptions of businesses responding to ‘positive’ versus ‘negative’ reviews. 69% say they are more likely to use a business that has responded to their positive reviews, while 70% are more likely to use a business that responds to negative reviews. No matter the sentiment of the feedback, consumers want to see that the business cares.

But, don’t be tempted to create a one-size-fits-all message to reply to every review. 70% would be put off if a business responded to a review with a templated response. Listen to feedback, address any issues publicly and professionally, and be sure to give your side of the story. It’s always important to remember that responses could impact a potential customer’s behavior, so keep it clean!

How many consumers receive responses to reviews

Despite review responses clearly being an important decision-making factor for consumers, review responses are by no means as widespread as they could be: among consumers that have written a local business review, 77% recall receiving a response to their review. Pleasingly, this is up from 72% last year – suggesting that more businesses are taking responsibility for responses.

But it’s not all good news, as fewer people received a response to every review (35%, down from 40% in 2019). There is still a way to go to ensure all consumers feel listened to – and the first step for businesses is to closely monitor reviews across every review site, and respond to as many as possible. 

How quickly consumers expect reviews to be responded to

So, we’ve shown that responding to reviews is important, but how quickly are consumers expecting responses? Of course, it varies from consumer to consumer, with 9% saying they don’t expect a response, and a further 5% saying they have no expected timeframe.

At the other end of the scale, though, we can see that the majority of reviewers expect responses quickly, so there’s no time to waste when responding to reviews! 20% expect a response within a day, while only 39% would be happy to wait for more than three days. Just 24% have timeframe expectations of two weeks or longer, meaning those that only schedule in time to respond on an irregular basis may be causing damage to their customers’ perceptions of their businesses.

Writing Reviews

Back when I took over the Local Consumer Review Survey in 2017, I assumed that consumers would be far more likely to write negative reviews than positive ones. However, this is not the case – with consumers being far more driven to leave feedback for positive experiences. In fact, in 2020, the proportion of consumers that have written a positive review outnumbers negative reviewers nearly two to one!

With more review sites prompting consumers to write reviews for businesses they’ve used (as we’ll come on to below), consumers find themselves reviewing businesses they might not have previously considered writing reviews for. The trend of businesses asking for reviews has the impact of ‘normalizing’ the act of giving reviews: a win-win for everybody!

How many consumers have written a review for a local business

While reading reviews is now commonplace, the number of consumers actively writing reviews is lower (though growing): 72% of US consumers have written a review for a local business – a notable increase from 66% in 2019.

Among these, 63% say they have written a review for a positive experience, up from 60% last year. The biggest increase we’ve seen is among consumers who have written negative reviews – growing from 25% in 2019 to 32% this year. This increase could be partially down to consumers that have written negative reviews as a result of Covid-19 health and safety. 

Looking beyond those that have already written a customer review, we can see that 88% of consumers would consider writing a review for a local business. Just 12% say they never would – though this is a little lower than last year, so perhaps minds can be changed!

Asking for Reviews

Getting more reviews can feel like an uphill struggle, but the secret is very simple: you just have to ask!

In this survey, we found that 73% of consumers have been asked to write a review for a local business – up from 67% in 2019, and 68% in 2018 – illustrating the growth in business owners requesting feedback.

We can see that just asking for a review can have a big impact on whether a customer writes one, as 72% of those that were asked to write a review went on to do so. It’s worth noting, though, that consumers may have received multiple requests for reviews, and may not necessarily go on to write a review every time.

How Consumers Have Been Asked for Reviews

1. Via email (45% of consumers recall this)
2. In person at the point of sale (34%)
3. On a receipt (30%)
4. Through social media (26%)
5. Over the phone (24%)
6. In an SMS message (20%)
7. On a business card (20%)
8. On signage in the business location (16%)
9. On a device inside the business location (16%)
10. By a chatbot (15%)

From in-store signage to electronic receipt, there are many ways for local businesses to ask for an online review. We asked consumers in which ways they recalled being asked for a local business review, and you can see that there are varying levels of recognition.

In many cases, it may be that few local businesses are employing this tactic, but it could also indicate that consumers may be more likely to remember an in-person or email request than they are to spot in-store signage or review devices.

How Many Consumers Are Offered Incentives to Write Reviews

In addition, we asked respondents if they had been asked to write a review in exchange for a discount (12% said yes), for cash (9%), or for a gift / free services (8%). This is against many review sites’ guidelines and should be avoided if you don’t want to invoke the wrath of Google, Yelp, or others.

Offering freebies or discounts in exchange for positive reviews can make a business’s online reputation seem untrustworthy, and could put off potential customers that become aware of the request. Stick to asking customers for feedback in legitimate ways.

In Summary

Online reviews in 2020 were largely dominated by the impact of Covid-19, with many looking to customer reviews to help feel safe to visit a business, while others may have used fewer local businesses than in a usual year. 

But, despite the strange set of circumstances, online reviews remain a vital source in connecting local businesses and possible customers. The vast majority of consumers look to online reviews to help choose a nearby business, and with high expectations for star ratings, the number of reviews, and a presence on multiple review sites, this isn’t a channel businesses can safely ignore. 

And as we move to 2021, we expect reviews to be more important than ever to local businesses. Online reviews present a great opportunity to attract potential customers, improve local rankings, and tell your side of the story. Every business should be closely watching their online reviews, and responding quickly to feedback – good and bad. 

We’d love to hear your predictions for what could change in the world of online reviews over the next year – let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

Methodology

The 2020 Local Consumer Review Survey explores trends in online reviews for local businesses over the past year. It is based on the key SEO and local business reviews seen throughout the year to provide local marketers the information needed to maximize the impact of their online reputation management.

The statistics and findings are focused on local business reviews on sites such as Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Yelp etc.

Based on the views of a representative sample of 1,013 US-based consumers, the Local Consumer Review Survey was conducted in November 2020 with an independent consumer panel. Age group breakdowns are representative of those in the US population.

In order to provide a better understanding of those that use reviews during a purchasing decision, consumers that said they do not read online reviews were not asked questions around their review behavior.

Publishers are welcome to use the charts and data, crediting BrightLocal and linking to this URL. If you have any questions about the report, please get in touch with the content team, or leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading this year’s Local Consumer Review Survey! 

This week, we received 25 in-depth questions about making schema markup work for local businesses. Martha provided in-depth insights into topics including the use of FAQ schema, whether schema impacts SEO, how to make schema work for multiple locations, and much more!

If you missed the live Q&A with Martha, you can catch up now with the full video recap below. And if you’re ready for another Local Search Clinic, register now for Marketing Your Agency with Tim Capper.

Recording

Resources

• Next webinar: Marketing Your Agency with Tim Capper
• Twitter: Follow Martha on Twitter
• Twitter: Local SEO networking list
• BrightLocal: What Is Schema Markup and Why Is It Critical to Local Business?
• Schema App: Stand Out in Search with FAQ Rich Results
• Schema App: Ultimate How-to Guide for Local Business Schema Markup
• Schema App: How to Develop a Schema Markup Strategy for a Website
• Schema App: Free 5 Day Schema Markup Email Course
• Schema App: Schema.org Advanced Bootcamp
• BrightLocal: Google Announces Big Change to Local Business Review Schema
• Schema App: Creating “CollectionPage” Schema Markup using the Schema App Editor
• Schema App: Schema.org Markup for SquareSpace Sites
• Schema App: Using Javascript or GTM for Structured Data is not a bad thing

Just wanted to update. Thanks for the examples. They helped us find a bug that we got resolved about about two weeks ago, and that seems to have stabilized things since.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 28, 2020

On May 4, Google announced the latest algorithm update to hit organic search, the ‘May 2020 Core Update‘. While SEOs worked to understand the impact of this on their clients, we began to notice a lot of movements among local results as well.

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the May 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUAlt0G

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 4, 2020

On May 5, our local algorithm tracker Local RankFlux began reporting significant ranking fluctuation — peaking on Friday with a huge 5.58. To put this into context, a “normal” level of flux sits between 2.2 and 2.8 — so doubling this level represents very unusual activity. In fact, this is higher than the neural matching changes back in November 2019 (the previous peak for Local RankFlux activity).

There has been discussion of local ranking changes among the local SEO community since late April, with Local Search Forum members discussing changes starting April 23 (correlating with scores of 3.11 and 3.57 on April 23-24).

However, there has been no formal confirmation of any algorithm update that is known to affect local rankings, with Google’s Danny Sullivan responding to Joy Hawkins:

So there’s nothing in particular we know of that should be doing this. Which isn’t to say it’s not happening, just no major updates or anything like that. It would be useful if people have any recent examples. If they see it over the past day or two or so, or see it forward.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 8, 2020

What’s Going On?

So, if there isn’t a known local algorithm update, what could be happening?

The spike on May 8 could signify a mass of rankings returning to their pre-April 24 places, after a slow period of change over the past few weeks. Since Saturday, May 9, flux has dipped back to a more usual level, which could indicate that rankings are starting to stabilize. Let us know in the comments how your rankings are being affected.

Across the forums, we’ve seen lots of businesses reporting normally well-performing businesses bouncing around local results, with many seeing large drops followed by returning to normality soon after.

Finally seeing some strong upwards movement on a few locations that had seemed “stuck” for a while no matter what we did.

— Alexander D. Riddle (@AlexDRiddle) May 8, 2020

Source: Local Search Forum

Source: Facebook

Some SEOs are also reporting an increase in spammy listings. This was also the case during the November update, though things soon improved once results began to settle.

Anyone seeing a recent uptick in GMB spam / poor quality local results which may or may not be related to last week’s core update?

— Lily Ray ? (@lilyraynyc) May 11, 2020

There have also been suggestions of Covid-19 post types affecting GMB listings — although with Google posts’ relatively low usage, it feels unlikely that this could the cause of such high levels of volatility.

Looking at an industry level, it’s important to note that each niche appears to have different expectations of daily ranking changes, with hospitality businesses tending to see high levels of change, while some service-area businesses see comparatively low flux.

We compared last week’s flux peak with the same time in April — a seemingly more “normal” time for rankings — to identify which industries are likely to be seeing the biggest difference from their own usual score. You can sort the table below to see which industries saw the highest flux in this time period.

Local RankFlux Change April - May 2020

When looking across the different industries, we can see this increased fluctuation seems to be affecting most industries significantly — with locksmiths, tradesmen, and cleaning services seeing the largest overall change in their own usual levels of fluctuation. While they are working from a smaller base, this signifies unusual flux in these areas, though still far lower than some industries would expect to see on a “normal” day.

To look solely at the highest industry scores, the most volatile industries between May 5-8 were hotels, bars, and restaurants — all of which see high flux on a regular basis. Looking beyond these, real estate, car dealerships, medical practices, storage, and legal all saw a lot of local ranking change.

What To Do Now

As always, our advice to local businesses facing significant rankings changes is to wait and see what happens. Algorithm changes are rarely completed in a day, with Google estimating the May 2020 Core Update will take up to two weeks to be complete. Whether the local flux is linked or not, it makes sense to not make any big changes before knowing the full effect of these updates.

The May 2020 Core Update is now rolling out live. As is typical with these updates, it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 4, 2020

We know it can be stressful when your rankings drop, especially when it’s unclear what, or even if, an algorithm update has taken place. I’m sure Google would be keen for me to say that tweaks are being made to the algorithm all the time, but this does seem significant compared to usual levels of ranking change.

We’ll continue to monitor local rankings on a broad basis, and we recommend you track yours too to see where you end up — you can sign up for a 2-week free trial to try out our own Local Rank Tracker.  And, for further advice on how to rank for local searches, read our guide to local SEO ranking factors.

How have your local rankings changed over the last month? Let us know any changes you’re seeing in the comments below!

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We set out to discover how some of local SEO’s leading voices are using Google My Business for local business success – and whether it’s as much of a blessing as it seems. We reached out to 22 local SEO professionals to find out how they use GMB, and to hear their expert opinions on what could be done to make this even more useful.

As with our previous Expert reports on link building for local businesses and citations, we’ve collated quantitative data on the importance and usage of Google My Business, and collected quotes from our esteemed experts. We hope this information helps the wider community understand how GMB is used and valued by those who know it best.

Thank you to the expert panel for sparing their time and sharing their expertise with our readers. A further thank you to Claire Carlile for lending her brain to ensure the questions were as accurate and illuminating as possible.

Questions

1. How effective is Google My Business optimization to improving local SEO rankings?
2. Is Google My Business optimization and management a task you prioritize for clients?
3. Why is Google My Business an important tool for local businesses?
4. Which Google My Business listing features do you use for clients?
5. Which Google My Business tasks have the most value to local marketing success?
6. Which tasks do you handle, and which are handled by the client?
7. Compared to 12 months ago, how important is Google My Business to local marketing success?
8. Over the last year, which Google My Business change has had the biggest impact on yours and your clients’ businesses?
9. Which parts of Google My Business are in most need of improvement?
10. What could Google do to make Google My Business even more useful for local businesses (and, to make marketers jobs easier!)?

How effective is Google My Business optimization to improving local SEO rankings?

82% of the local marketing experts surveyed say that Google My Business optimization is “very effective” in improving local pack rankings, with a further 18% stating that it’s “fairly effective”.

However, Google My Business is far less valued as a ranking factor for localized organic results. 18% of our panel see GMB as ineffective for organic search, while 45% see it as not very effective.

This correlates from the finding of Moz’s 2018 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey – which estimated that 25% of local pack ranking factors are made up of Google My Business signals, while 8% of localized organic factors come from GMB.

The primary focus of Google My Business optimization should be achieving local pack results – so it’s important that local business clients understand that GMB isn’t the sole solution for ranking their websites.

Expert Insights

Is Google My Business optimization and management a task you prioritize for clients?

Nearly all of the experts view Google My Business optimization and management as an important task for their clients and businesses.

Google My Business has many benefits beyond search visibility, with many useful features for businesses and consumers to use, so it’s clear to see why it’s a priority for so many of our experts. And it’s not just a tool for researching businesses – it acts as a direct point of action for many consumers, with 64% of consumers using Google My Business to find contact details for local businesses.

Expert Insights

Why is Google My Business an important tool for local businesses?

Experts were asked to share their thoughts.

Expert Insights

Which Google My Business listing features do you use for clients?

When looking at the most commonly-used features of Google My Business, every expert surveyed uses business descriptions, photos, and Google posts for their clients’ listings.

It’s interesting to see such a high uptake for posts among the experts. In our latest Local Search Industry Survey  just 69% of local marketers were using posts – suggesting usage is higher among experts than the wider local marketing community right now. There’s plenty to be gained from regular informational and promotional posts, but it feels like this feature hasn’t hit its potential quite yet.

While not technically a feature within the Google My Business dashboard, Q&A is a useful part of Google business listings – and widely used among our expert panel. When Q&A launched, Mike Blumenthal wrote a great post for us explaining how to use Q&A for local businesses – well worth a read!

As well, three-quarters of experts utilize Google My Business Insights. While there is plenty of data to be gleaned from GMB Insights, it’s by no means perfect, with some in the industry questioning its accuracy.

Overall, many of the features of GMB are widely used among the experts – but by no means are all of its capabilities necessary for every local business. Test which features work best for your clients, and don’t feel tempted to use features that don’t fit into your local marketing strategy just because they’re there!

Expert Insights

Which Google My Business tasks have the most value to local marketing success?

The experts were able to select up to five choices.

Experts’ Most Valued Google My Business Tasks

1. Growing Google reviews
2. Spam fighting
3. Keeping information up-to-date
4. Responding to Google reviews
5. Writing Google posts

While there are plenty of tasks to be done when optimizing a Google My Business listing, experts shared their most valued tasks for local marketing success.

Managing your Google reviews presence is a clear priority among the panel…

Expert Insights

Which tasks do you handle, and which are handled by the client?

Compared to some local SEO efforts, Google My Business is pretty user-friendly for local businesses, so we wanted to know how involved our experts’ clients are in GMB management. We asked experts which of the main tasks they handle for a typical client, where responsibility sits with the client, and when this workload is shared.

Some of the most common tasks that are solely handled by our experts include tracking local rankings, managing business information and edits, and spam fighting. Of course, spam is a key issue in the industry right now, but tackling it takes time, dedication, and know-how, so it’s no surprise the responsibility sits largely with the experts rather than local marketers. However, it can be useful to sit down with clients to run through the competitors that outrank their businesses – they may well spot inaccuracies that aren’t obvious to someone outside the business.

Clients are more likely to hold responsibility for setting up and responding to messages, as well as many assisting in growing and responding to Google reviews.

The best local marketing needs the involvement of the local business. For a start, they know their customers and niche better than an external party ever can. But also, many of the initiatives need buy-in from the whole company. Employees should be coached and encouraged to ask customers for reviews, while responding to reviews and messages is likely to need the context provided by the business itself.

Expert Insights

Compared to 12 months ago, how important is Google My Business to local marketing success?

Two-thirds of the experts feel like Google My Business is now more important to local marketing success than it was a year ago.

None of the experts see GMB as losing value – which is no real surprise to us! Google launched many new initiatives for local businesses over the last year, not to mention the quick changes we’re currently seeing as a reaction to Covid-19. While it isn’t seen as perfect by the experts, it’s undoubtedly a useful tool that will continue to grow in importance over the next few years.

Expert Insights

Over the last year, which Google My Business change has had the biggest impact on yours and your clients’ businesses?

Experts were asked to share their thoughts.

Expert Insights

Which parts of Google My Business are in most need of improvement?

The experts were able to select up to five choices. The least chosen options have not been included in this chart. 

The Google My Business Areas That Need The Most Improvement

1. Spam
2. GMB Insights
3. Support
4. Managing edits
5. Multi-location management

Spam fighting is a common task among our experts, but there is plenty Google could do to limit the effect of this key issue. The panel also believe GMB Insights requires some attention from Google to be truly useful to local businesses and marketers.

Despite the introduction of the redressal form, support for the platform could still do with some improvements. Many of the experts in this panel work closely with Google My Business as Product Experts – volunteering their time to help users on the Google My Business forum, and guiding improvements where possible to make GMB better for everyone. Product Experts’ work really is instrumental to the understanding of Google My Business, and we’re in awe of their amazing contributions to making Google My Business even more useful for local businesses and consumers.

Expert Insights

What could Google do to make Google My Business even more useful for local businesses (and, to make marketers jobs easier!)?

Experts were asked to share their thoughts.

Expert Insights

Thank you again to the 22 Google My Business experts for sharing their insights and opinions with us. We hope the information provided in this report acts as a useful guide for local marketers to compare their own Google My Business usage and understanding with some of the biggest names in our industry.