Khemosabi

Ironic they would do this when it's the websites that are so stuffed with Google ads that ruin the experience! LOL..

Awesome Mike! I will look into this today! I've been hunting around for something like this for a while now.

Thanks Mike. I was hoping there was a way that you could set that up as opposed to actually 'asking' for reviews. Something more automated. And, yep, I hope they bury Yelp, too!

Thanks DWolfe I suppose I should make myself a little clearer. The first part of my post, I had looked up that business on my PC, and the review request came on my phone, right? Thing is I NEVER left the property. They sent this simply because I had searched this business. The review asked "what did you like about X business?" and "did you buy anything?" I was never there! The other part, was all stuff that has happened, randomly, in the past. Now, I do know that businesses can put a 'beacon' of sorts outside their business. I think this started with the Pokeman Go thingy. ???? NO idea. And to answer your question, no, I am not signed up for a local guide.. LOL.. seriously, I never leave this property! Unless Google wants reports on what it's like out at my mailbox, I'm no good to them.

Hopefully someone here will know how this happened. So I looked up a business the other day, on my PC. It is signed in on one of my Google gmail accounts. From that account, I do have alerts sent to my phone (I'm thinking this is the connection here). Today, probably 4 days-ish later, when I went to use my phone, there was a tab bar + the little icon on the top, asking how I liked X business. Clicking on it sent me to a Google review page. Now, I never went to that business, but I thought this was a really cool feature to offer, especially for clients. However, for the life of me, I can't figure out how the hell to make it happen. I don't get these alerts often, but I have to think there's a way to get them (Google) to do it...other than they just do it for their own benefit. To add into this, there have been times I've actually left the property (LOL), and the next day, I'll get a similar request from Google about another business. I have not looked them up, nor visited it, but I'm thinking I may have passed by it? (Google maps, location)? All of this lead me to believe it's something in the business's GMB. Anyone here have any insight, or info they can pass along? Thanks!!!! ~ Theresa

I know that you can use Google Guaranteed to verify. I'm not clear on the process, but I would think if a business does this first, then they would be able to run AdWords again. ?? I think they should use the trigger words like 'virus removal' on secondary pages. I read that on one of the searches I did for the above topic. To me, once they're verified, then they could also use it as an incentive on their site. "Google Guaranteed!".. kind of thing. And, I agree that it's a good idea on Google's part. Also about the ad refund. I had this guy ranked on page 1, organically!, and his new employee convinced him that his way was better.. build a crappy site and just spend money on AdWords... you're golden.

Just yesterday, a past client of mine called me and needed his new guy to have access to his GMB account. Reason is Google is now disallowing their ads because they're a "3rd party tech" type site. They fix computers, rebuild and sell refurbished and are authorized sellers of things like Microsoft, Intel.. stuff like that. This isn't a new thing (it was news to me), but their opinion is that the big companies like HP, Apple and such are trying to get rid of the little guy so all of the tech support has to go to them. I think that's crazy! Funny thing was Google accepted their money for ads and now won't give them a refund even though they are refusing their ads. I read some posts about this and some businesses lost a LOT of their business! The common complaint, though, was some tech companies were allowed to advertise! In my friends case, the Geek Squad is still posting ads. My guess is because they work for/through Best Buy. Thoughts? Anyhow, has anyone else come across this? Have you a solution? To me, I say screw Adwords and just do some strong SEO. (His new site stinks, BTW), but I still think this is a seriously rotten move on Google's part. Their (Google) reason is because of all the scam sites out there that upload malware instead of what they're advertising, like 'we'll fix your malware problem'.. LOL. Any help, ideas would be appreciated!! ~ Theresa

I've had GoDaddy do that to me. They're still holding a domain hostage that I forgot to renew. It's been 4 years? That being said, I was wanting to purchase a domain for a client of mine and it was taken. 3 years later, I get an email that the domain is going to become available within a week. They had it listed as 'make an offer'. I looked it up on Who Is and saw that it had expired already. Anyhow, I know some registrars give you like 3 months-ish to get it back at a higher price then it goes back to the normal price. If no one renews it (shows interest) in buying it, they'll usually let go of it. That's what happened with this domain. I bought it at regular price. You can try ICANN, too. I've also used Namecheap with no problems but I'm not sure if they spy and buy, too. Good luck Mike!

Thanks SO much Mike! One particular client admitted she has a really hard time asking for reviews. I asked her to do it (for her new site I'm building), and the customers promptly responded. I think that alone helped to ease her fears. What's so funny about this woman is she's been an agent for a very long time, has a stellar career and everything 'online' about her is SOOO DATED! She's trusting me to get her current on not only her website, but social media and everything else. This was a long process, getting her to finally trust me and I want to shine for her. Great idea about the GMB, too! Thanks! She has 4 'pending' homes right now, so it's a perfect time to get her set up to ask for the reviews.

I have a few questions about reviews, please. This involves real estate agents. Most often, their clients have no problem sending them a review to use. What they do have a problem with, is having to sign up/register an account for sites like Zillow and Realtor.com (and the likes). As an agent, you cannot submit your customer's reviews yourself, they have to do it. It's understandable on their part, they're trying to keep it real. However, clients are reluctant to sign up for 'this and that' just to leave the reviews. I don't blame them, it's time consuming and now they're on yet another mailing list they really don't need. That being said, I'd like to boost the star ratings for my clients in those sites. What do you all recommend? There is a link in Zillow that you can send a request to said client. I could take the review and use on of my own emails to submit it. I would have to have the address of said property. I'm not sure their clients would be comfortable with their address being 'out there' and their info being connected to it. Heck, even after you submit a review, the review itself goes into 'review' until approved. What do you recommend here? As worthless as Zillow is, as far as accuracy, many buyers rely on things like the agents star rating. Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!! ~ Theresa

I will check on this a little further, but so far, all of the code shows my nickname not my user name. Thanks for pointing this out Mike.

Question for you Mike, My post above yours, I think we're doing the same thing, but in a different way, ??? When I set up a WP site, I always pick a wacky user name, something I will remember for each site. Then, once I'm ready to build the site, under the avatar (top right in back office), the option to 'edit my profile' is there. I click on that and scroll down to 'nickname' I use my business name (kind of a sneaky end around of another post). Under that is 'display name publicly as' you can then check your business name. All post/pages get published as your business name. When those cute little hackers try to guess my admin name, Wordfence, 90% ish of the time will show either 'admin' (which I never use), or my business name. Do you think creating an author account would help as far as security, or would it just be redundant?

Hi Watman! Not sure if this will help, but here's a link that explains how to do it with one of two different ways: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-themes/how-to-remove-author-name-from-wordpress-posts/ Also, in some themes (I don't know about the one you're using), on a post and page, when you are in the back office, on the top right is a tab 'screen options'. It's a drop down. In there you can uncheck author, date and more. Some themes do not have that option. Another way is in 'customize' there should be a tab that says "Post Information" in that tab, there should be one for "Meta Information". In there you can uncheck or check the things you want displayed. If you're goal is to hide your user name, you can do that in "Edit my profile". I never show my user/login name. I have a default name (my company name) that I set it at. I would do this step no matter what. It helps to keep the shitheads from hacking your site. Hope that helped!!! ~ Theresa

That's what I think, too. He does have an additional number, now, but what a mess his original GMB account was. I didn't set it up for him, just his new one for his store. Thanks for the help Mike.

I have another client with two businesses, one is his shop (store) and the other one is his mobile business. Google removed his mobile business. I'm guessing here, but it could be because of the phone number? That is what had me worried about the ex's business being on there.