Local Knowledge panel: What determines the two sample reviews that are displayed?

[Mindquest]

On the Local Knowledge panel it shows 2 reviews with a link to "View all Google reviews". One of the reviews is highly negative.

Does anyone know how Google determines which two reviews are pulled into the Knowledge panel? I noticed the text from the reviews have words like "place" and "facility" bolded.

Is there a way to get a different review in the Knowledge panel instead of the negative one?

There doesn't seem like a lot of variables to work with:

• Review date
• Words in review
• Number of thumbs up
• Authority of reviewer

Any help would be great!

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Someone else might have a better answer, but I'm pretty sure this has to do with relevancy. Meaning that Google is showing these specific reviews because the algo thinks they are more helpful or more relevant for that search. And of course, there are multiple factors that determine this.

The only thing to combat, to my knowledge, is to earn reviews that are more helpful or more relevant. Whitespark has some great articles about how to encourage keywords in your reviews, which do help send positive relevancy signals. Here's one: How-to Get Keywords in Your Reviews - Whitespark Local Insider

You don't have control over the authority of the reviewer, or how many thumbs up a review receives. But you can make sure you earn reviews at a steady pace, and also use some tactics when soliciting reviews that will help get some relevant KWs in them. Good luck!