As many of you know, there are lots of places to review a business (yelp, urban spoon, yellowpages, tripadvisor etc.) and Google has always syndicated those reviews on their search engine.

Although that’s been the case for many years, it has always been my recommendation to have people go directly to Google to craft their review. That’s because there was always the potential of Google changing their policy and deciding not to show those 3rd party reviews. And that’s exactly what has happened.

This week, Google announced they are removing all 3rd party reviews from Google Local Business Pages. You will still see links to these reviews, but people can’t read the review unless they go to that specific site. I know a business who yesterday had 60 reviews on their Google Places Page and today they have ONE.

On a lighter note, they have made it MUCH easier to leave a review now. You’ll see a big red WRITE A REVIEW button now on your places page (see image attached). So it should be even easier for you to direct your champion customers to your Google Places Page and get them to write a review for you.

If you want to read the story on this major change, click HERE

All the best,

corey