Do google punish google my businesses with only 5 star reviews?

[yigitc]

Recently I heard that google want 3 star or 4 star reviews along with 5 stars. Only 5 star reviews look spammy for google bots. Is it true?

I have 33 5 star reviews.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

If the reviews are legitimate and they don't violate any of Google's guidelines then you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Rich Owings]

There have been multiple studies showing better conversion rates if your average review is less than a perfect 5.0. But that's about consumer behavior, not how Google's algorithms treat your business.

 

[Wirenut]

There have been multiple studies showing better conversion rates if your average review is less than a perfect 5.0. But that's about consumer behavior, not how Google's algorithms treat your business.

This seems like one of those correlation does not equal causation things.

Businesses who market well and have good conversations rates might have a 4.7 rating on average. But that does not mean that a business's conversation rate will increase if they, for example, were to purposely ask for 4 star reviews in order to lower their rating from 5.0 to 4.7. At least that is my opinion.

 

[Rich Owings]

If I see a perfect 5.0, it does make me wonder if the business is gating reviews (only asking happy customers for reviews). Regardless of how it impacts conversions, they could be missing some valuable feedback.

 

[Artem Okhrei]

I think reviews only with 5 stars look suspicious. The key moment is trying not to get lesser than 4 in average rating, because after that we have significant drop in conversions. This research illustrates it well.

 

[djbaxter]

I think reviews only with 5 stars look suspicious. The key moment is trying not to get lesser than 4 in average rating, because after that we have significant drop in conversions. This research illustrates it well.

Surely that depends on (a) the industry and (b) the total number of reviews.

If your business has 50-100 reviews and all are 5-star, I would find that suspicious.

If your business is a new rural local small business with four 5-star reviews, that is more like the norm for what I see, unless it's really a poor business with terrible customer service - those don't last long in small rural communities where word of mouth is going to warn people not to use them faster than Google ratings ever could.