Review Platform - Judgeme / Reviews.io / etc - Google Seller Ratings

[anonuk]

Historically, I've been using Reviews.io for my main website to collect reviews from customers, mainly because at the time it was pretty much Reviews.io or Trustpilot and Trustpilot were (and still are) ridiculously expensive.

Anyway, a friend has told me about Judge.me and looking into it, it looks like a really good system. They have a free basic plan and a full featured £15 per month plan.

The only negative seems to be that Judge.me isn't integrated with Google Seller Ratings.

So, what reviews platform (if any) do you use and how important are Google Seller Ratings for helping to gain traction on a website?

 

[fisicx]

All depends on what you are selling and to whom.

Most reviews are pointless and ignored. You can buy reviews for pennies.

 

[Dandan2]

I use Loox reviews and saw a big uplift in conversion rate once I met googles threshold for reviews and they were shown below my products on google shopping.

 

[Paul Carmen]

It's not a one size fits all question or answer, it depends on functionality; e.g. whether you need Google reviews, PPC search, shopping, SEO, brand and product/service reviews, plus the number of reviews you need to send. This determines the review platforms you can use and the budget required.

For all round functionality, Reviews.io is a great choice, as it covers pretty much all I've listed, and it's competitive on price.

 

[antropy]

Most reviews are pointless and ignored. You can buy reviews for pennies.

I'd say that's a rather general and sweeping statement.

When buying I still consider reviews - I can't be the only one.

Paul.

 

[Paul Carmen]

When buying I still consider reviews - I can't be the only one.

You're not, reviews make a difference, but do depend on context; e.g. for many of our clients it's about volume and quality, as people want to see that the product/service is highly rated by others. For us, our customers want to see these as testimonials or the relevance to their own project, so often want to see the reviewed project in detail and sometimes talk to that client.

What we do know from loads of projects and testing, is that for both PPC and organic search, it makes a big difference to click through rate (CTR). For landing pages/ecommerce, it makes a big difference to conversion too.

 

[fisicx]

I'd say that's a rather general and sweeping statement.

When buying I still consider reviews - I can't be the only one.

Paul.

I still consider reviews as well. But Reviews on things like GBP are mostly fake. Trustpilot also has a big issue with fake reviews as does any site where the review isn’t linked to an actual purchase.

So it matters what type of review and where.

I needed a timer switch today so the reviews on screwfix were useful. The ones for a takeaway less so. One of the reviewers lives in Poland.

 

[Paul Carmen]

I needed a timer switch today so the reviews on screwfix were useful. The ones for a takeaway less so. One of the reviewers lives in Poland

The Polish reviewer could be fake, but maybe not. I've reviewed loads of restaurants, bars and venues throughout Europe on my travels.

 

[fisicx]

The Polish reviewer could be fake, but maybe not. I've reviewed loads of restaurants, bars and venues throughout Europe on my travels.

Google has a huge issue with fake reviews. The whole concept of local guides is flawed and the tide is unlikely to be stemmed. An email this morning offered me 100 genuine (!) reviews for $39. The Polish reviewer spoke about sitting down for fish and chips with his family. There is no seating area.

Do a search for ‘buy trustpilot reviews’. They even advertise on LinkedIn!

It all depends on what you are checking and where as to the value of a review.

 

[anonuk]

Appreciate the thoughts on this...
For us, we are wanting to utilise PPC so my initial thoughts were to use Reviews.io so that our seller rating would show up on our Adwords campaign, however, Reviews.io keeps upping their pricing and it's becoming less and less of a good deal (I remember when I first looked at Reviews.io it was about £40 per month...it's now £89 and even that doesn't get you everything).

The price really is what has led me to look at alternatives. Judge.me for example will pull product reviews from the Shopify Shop app in addition to inviting customers to review products, but doesn't offer 'seller reviews' which I guess is why it doesn't work with Google Seller Rating.

I'm just conscious that we can't really be sending one email asking for a product review and then a second email asking for a store/seller review, so we either need to choose one platform that can do both in a single email or choose one review 'type' over another.

 

[MSheraz]

I found Judge.me to be perfect for my requirements. Hopefully when I get enough reviews they would become an authorised Google review partner.

I got this from judge.me which would explain why they don't support Google Seller Rating:

"Currently, Judge.me is not an authorized Google review partner, so we do not support the addition of seller ratings at this time. We are actively pursuing official partnership status with Google and will keep you informed of any developments."

Before Judge.me I had Yotpo (I changed because Yotpo doesn't seem to support Shopify well enough). I just checked Yotpo plans and their prime plan which supports seller ratings is well over $100.

If seller ratings is important then perhaps staying with reviews.io for time being may be best option? At least until Judge.me become an authorised Google review partner.

 

[anonuk]

I found Judge.me to be perfect for my requirements. Hopefully when I get enough reviews they would become an authorised Google review partner.

I got this from judge.me which would explain why they don't support Google Seller Rating:

"Currently, Judge.me is not an authorized Google review partner, so we do not support the addition of seller ratings at this time. We are actively pursuing official partnership status with Google and will keep you informed of any developments."

Before Judge.me I had Yotpo (I changed because Yotpo doesn't seem to support Shopify well enough). I just checked Yotpo plans and their prime plan which supports seller ratings is well over $100.

If seller ratings is important then perhaps staying with reviews.io for time being may be best option? At least until Judge.me become an authorised Google review partner.

Thanks for this. At present, as far as I can tell anyway, judge.me doesn’t actually collect reviews about the store, they just collect product reviews, so I think this will be why they are not authorised by Google for Seller ratings.

 

[AlanJ1]

Trustpilot also has a big issue with fake reviews as does any site where the review isn’t linked to an actual purchase.

Seems to be tackled a little bit better on TP now than it was before (or at least our case).

 

[fisicx]

Seems to be tackled a little bit better on TP now than it was before (or at least our case).

Indeed, but the huge number of people buying fake reviews on all platforms does dilute their efficacy.

I’m lucky, I’ve only got 8 reviews on Google. Too tiny to worry about.

 

[fantheflames]

Reviews are crucial for building credibility with customers. You can get creative, depending on your business, and get more personalised or video-based reviews from customers. I find those can work very well. Too many positive or fake reviews can be harmful. Customers are savvy and can spot fake reviews easily. I'd consider different review integrations based on features, pricing, and fit for your business needs.

 

[fisicx]

Reviews are crucial for building credibility with customers.

Surely this depends on the business. If you are the only tractor repairer garage in Norfolk you don’t really need reviews.

Or the only KFC in your location - reviews aren’t a priority.

 

[fantheflames]

Surely this depends on the business. If you are the only tractor repairer garage in Norfolk you don’t really need reviews.

Or the only KFC in your location - reviews aren’t a priority.

Of course. This would be for micro and small businesses, reviews and word of mouth are especially important.

 

[DontAsk]

Of course. This would be for micro and small businesses, reviews <snip moving the goalposts> are especially important.

It still depends on the business.

 

[fisicx]

Of course. This would be for micro and small businesses, reviews and word of mouth are especially important.

Again depends on the business. Bloke who cleans our wheelie bins doesn’t have any reviews. Nor does the butcher.