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Hello, We have some local business sites where we have user submitted reviews. We then post those reviews on that business' page and use the schema aggregate markup.  Works like a charm in getting stars in SERPs on branded searches for these location. We already have information about the persons who work at these locations and are about to work out a process where we can get even better data on these persons. Right now they are marked up as employees on the local business pages. Right now the ratings are for the business as a whole, but we are looking at expanding where you can not only submit a location review, but designate which employee you worked with. We work in the health care industry and so you can see why this would make sense. Right now we mark up a local clinic and employees in the following way Local Business > Employee > Person > Name of Person Person Bio > Person info etc We are going back and forth on if this would be worth marking up reviews at the employee level as well. So, on a page each employee would have an aggregate rating and then the location would have an aggregate rating that consists of all of the reviews for that location - a combination of all employees. As I looked through the schema standard for person https://schema.org/Person there is nothing there that shows a markup for the aggregate rating of a person.  Also when I look at other more specific business types https://health-lifesci.schema.org/MedicalBusiness same thing.  It looks like schema has rating tied to a business vs a person. Right now - the markup validates. It shows up in the SERPs. People are happy. So, I am inclined to say, if it aint broke ... but we are always looking for better ways to present our data to user and to Google. My gut right now, based on how Google is reading things, to just keep the aggregate rating on the location, but start to track reviews on a per employee basis for potential future use. Lemme know what you all think!

In just the last week, it seems like Google has removed reviews for businesses in our industry (staffing), which is unfortunate since we've been working hard for those reviews. The effect has been to be completely left off the local google business results. One week, we're at the top of the business reviews with our location prominently featured on the map and the next, we aren't even listed. It seems like there must be list of industries in which Google takes reviews into account (or if they do, then at least displays the reviews in the results). For us, up until last week, if you searched "temp agencies", these reviews were included in SERP. Now, nothing. Is this fairly normal behavior for Google?

Hi Moz community, I've been trying to do some on-site work and noticed that our product pages reviews may not be totally optimized. It used to be that all of the text from the reviews appeared in the actual code of the page, but now none of that text appears, so it may not be getting crawled.  The change was most likely released when we had an item page redesign.  However, when I Google a review snippet, it does seem to come up, so maybe Google is crawling that data despite it not being SEO optimized. Is this really an issue if the review snippets are showing up in search, there's been a lot of talk that Google is now better at crawling javascript. Thanks

Hello! I have a client who has a chiropractic business and has started offering massage services.  Client has registered a DBA For the massage component of the business.  Client doesn't want to cross contaminate reviews and doesn't know whether or not he should brand the two businesses in one name or separately. Currently client has inconsistent business listings for the business and is unsure of the proper way to brand and optimize for local search. Example would be: Chiropractic AAAA Dr. John B - Chiropractic AAAA Massage BODI Chiropractic AAAA & Massage BODI Background info: Main business is one entity and second is registered as DBA. Right now, Chiropractor is a sole practitioner. in the past has had other chiropractors working in the office. Has only 1 website promoting both services Both operate out of the same location. What is the best way to optimize for local search for both services and what is the best way to brand without cross contaminating reviews online.  If recommendation is to target local search separately for the services, should the client has 2 websites since these services target 2 different industries. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Hi All! I recently came across an invitation for a group on Facebook (created by an internet marketer likely trying to drum up business) that is designed to get a bunch of business professionals to leave reviews for each other (not  knowing each other or having worked with one another in any way) in an attempt to build good review profiles on Google local for all. Obviously this is frowned upon, but is it actually dangerous at this point? Are there filters or methods Google has to identify and punish businesses for this type of activity? As someone who always tries to do the right thing, it makes my skin boil when the scammers in our industry use manipulative tactics like this and even more annoyed when they actually work! Look forward to any specific info you all have on this. -Ricky

Hello, I have a client that sells only 1 item. What will be the best way to start getting reviews? I thought about opening a placess account, so the reviews will also start showing on his Adwords campaign. Or can I get products reviews on google+ ? Thanks