Facebook review star icons show for some pages, not others

[Rich Owings]

Any idea why Facebook review star icons show in SERPs for some businesses but not others? I have verified that the ones where I'm not seeing stars do have Facebook reviews enabled.

 

[mblumenthal]

Rich
Can you share the examples of the queries where they do and do now show?

Usually it is one of several reasons:
They have reviews but not enough page strength
They have recommendations but no reviews

but it might be something else.

 

[Rich Owings]

Hi Mike,

Here's one where they don't show: hi wire brewing durham - Google Search

And one where they do: highland brewing asheville - Google Search

How can you tell the difference between recommendations and reviews?

 

[mblumenthal]

Anything after late last summer was a recommendation (yes/no) and doesn't show a star rating... Anything before that was a review and has a star rating associated with it. It would appear that Durham got their first recommendation about when Facebook was making the switch and got no reviews.

It says on the page whether any given feedback is a review or a recommendation. See screenshots below.

 

[mblumenthal]

See article here about the switch over...https://gatherup.com/blog/a-big-change-to-facebook-reviews-5-stars-now-recommendations/

 

[Rich Owings]

Thanks, Mike. It never ceases to amaze me how nuanced many aspects of local SEO are.

I knew about the change but apparently never realized it meant SERP stars would go away. I guess Facebook doesn't care about CTR!