How does Google decide when reviews populate on local searches?

[abbietorres]

Asking for a friend:

I've noticed that sometimes when I do a direct search for my client, Google will populate Local Reviews Stars on the 'map pack > view all' and sometimes it doesn't. My gut is telling me this is caused by browser personalizations for direct search queries but is there a better way to explain this to my client? I've tested this with other brand name searches and most of the time I don't get reviews in the SERP but sometimes I do.

This is driving me crazy .... Does anyone know why sometimes review stars show and sometimes they don't?

Thanks, everyone, I know this might be a strange Friday afternoon question. Here are some pictures to demonstrate what I am talking about - I did not include the searches of my client for privacy reasons.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

The reason Google doesn't show stars sometimes is usually because they think it's a branded search. It's just been that way for years and years.