@Scott
Reviews are but one of an array of signals that affect ranking; website authority, proximity, authority at important local sites, user behaviors etc etc etc. So to answer your question yes there is a reason but it could be one of a number of things.

I was researching why my local Google business rating is one of the last ones listed. I have 6qty 5 star ratings but yet another business with only 3qty 5 star ratings is listed first. Is there any reason why my business doesn’t rank higher? Just curious.

I just Tweeted from @BlastoffLabs what a terrific resource @GetFiveStars is!

@Steve
Google stopped requiring Real Names when they finally separated the identity function of Google Reviews from Google Plus. This occurred in April, 2016.

I don’t know of anyone that has written specifically about this but it is just a matter of registering for a different gmail account and using that when logging into Google to write a review.

Glad you found the advice useful. Good luck.

In particular, i did not know that Google allowed people to post reviews using an alias. Can you point me towards how to instruct people to do that? e.g. would they create an alternate Gmail account under an alias, or are they prompted when leaving the review?

And terrific idea for other attorneys, law enforcement people, and investigators to leave reviews. He has many great references from those types of people.

I am going to process and act upon all the other points and ideas you presented, once again thanks much!

Steve Bell
BlastoffLabs.com

@Steve
It is an unfortunate but not unsurmountable issue.

Even though the attorney has clients that are worried about their privacy there are a number of ways to move forward with a review plan. The plan would consist of two parts; a short term reputation management plan and longer term feedback and review plan.

The short term plan:
In this particular situation I would set a goal of getting 4 reviews immediately from happy customers and others who have dealt with your attorney.

Google allows for multiple gmail accounts per person and they allow for the use of an alias in leaving reviews. I would see if you could coach a few of the more willing clients to create an alternative account and write that review.

I would also explore the idea of other professionals that your attorney has done business with writing reviews. I would assume that he has referred and been referred work from other attorneys, private investigators and perhaps even law enforcement officials. He should ask those folks to consider reviewing him.

The longer plan
Just because he is in a business in which most of the clients are resistant to public reviews doesn’t mean that they all are or that they wouldn’t be willing to do so anonymously.

I firmly believe that he still should start asking every client if they would consider leaving a review with or without their name. And not just at Google but at his own website and other public review sites as well.

With GetFiveStars you could easily protect the clients anonymity and there are a number of other review sites that still allow for anonymous postings. Here is an article by Phil Rozek 17 Sites That Allow Private or Anonymous Reviews of Local Businesses.

Certainly reputation management is harder in your client’s environment. But it is not impossible. And a little goes a long way. For example if he had just 7 reviews at Google that were 5 Star reviews, this 1 Star review would still leave him with a 4.5 rating.

I believe that there is no time like the present to proactively position your client for these sorts of events.

The attorney has dozens of real clients who would love to post a review, but are unwilling to do so using their real name, for obvious reasons. So this change by Google has opened up a lot of verticals for getting damaged by a single scathing review.

I have spoken to Google about it but there is nothing they can do – just said to fill out the complaint form. I would think this is going to happen to a lot of businesses in confidential markets. Probably the same verticals where Google AdWords does not allow remarketing.

Sorry if this is covered somewhere, but just wondered what the latest advice is with regard to linking to a google business listing to allow a review to be left on it. Currently there seems no way for a customer to leave a review by just visiting the normal listing url?