Blog Post

How Does Google Know Which Reviews Are Useful?

Amber Blevins • Feb 24, 2023

Have you ever wondered why certain reviews are displayed front-and-center on your Google Business Profile, while others are buried further down the list? At first, it may seem like there’s no rhyme or reason. By default, your reviews aren’t sorted in chronological order and they’re not in order of highest to lowest rating. So are your reviews just randomly displayed?

Well, we’re dealing with Google here, so we can presume nothing is random. There’s an algorithm behind everything that happens, including the way your reviews are displayed.

Google wants its users to get the most relevant, helpful information available. And that includes business reviews. To achieve this goal, Google uses several pieces of logic to determine which reviews include the most pertinent information (as well as which reviews are pointless.)

The most useful reviews appear at the top of the list and unhelpful or spammy reviews are relegated to the bottom. Here's how it works.

Keywords

Reviews that incorporate keywords are generally always going to be favored over those that don’t. Keywords and phrases that are specific to your business will naturally make the review more relevant from Google’s perspective and more legitimate to the reader.

Bonus—keywords in reviews are an excellent way to help you organically rank higher in search results.

Local Guides

You may have seen a “Local Guide” badge beside some reviewers’ names across Google. Simply put, a Local Guide is someone who regularly contributes helpful photos and/or reviews of local businesses.

Because these contributors are known to Google as “local experts,” their reviews are generally considered more valuable than others and are often displayed at or near the top of a review list.

Length

Like any other piece of content, Google is looking for reviews that have a little meat on the bone. Short reviews are not given much credence. After all, “It was great,” is not a particularly helpful review.

On the other hand, a lengthy review is likely to include more information and more detail—and that’s exactly what Google wants to see. The sweet spot seems to be around 150-200 words. This word count is sufficient for giving a thorough account of the customer’s experience but not so long that the reader gets bored.

Photos

Google loves reviews with accompanying photos. And so do consumers. Relevant photos help draw attention to specific elements of the product or service and reinforce the legitimacy of the review itself.

Not to mention, positive reviews with photos attached are a fantastic selling point for your business. Think of it as a catalog that’s available for free to all your prospective customers (a catalog that you didn’t have to design or print!)

Get Reviews and Let Google Do the Rest

Obviously, you can’t control the length of your customers’ reviews or whether or not they attach a photo. And you can’t reorder the reviews that appear in your Google Business Profile.

But you can work hard to encourage your customers to leave reviews. When you provide excellent service and solicit reviews from all of your customers, there’s a good likelihood that you’ll end up with plenty of helpful, relevant, and positive reviews displayed on your GBP.

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