It has to be Google...

One of our staff has a bit of a thing for Italian sports cars. His needed a repair, so he used a company called Chipsaway. 

Before doing so he consulted every resource on the web - the marque forum and all the review sites. Chipsaway's local franchisee had no reviews on Google, but was so convincing when he visited to quote he was given the job.

Afterwards our man was invited by Chipsaway HQ to post a review to TrustPilot, but he decided to write his review to Google. Why? For three main reasons:

1. Chipsaway already had over 1500 reviews on TrustPilot
2. TrustPilot's system did not allow a review to be posted of the local franchisee who actually carried out the work, just Chipsaway in general (although the review could, of course, have mentioned Jas - the franchisee who carried out the work, future customers would have had a devil of a job identifying Jas amongst the 1500+ reviews)
3. Jas, the franchisee who carried out the work, had no reviews on Google

Today - five months later - our man received an update from Google (he's a local guide). What did that reveal?

This...

 this image, viewed 1042 times in five months, is only ever seen by someone clicking on 'see photos' in the business's knowledge panel or reading the review in question

...that his photograph - and, we must therefore assume, his review (for his review remains the sole Google review of this business in this location) has been viewed over 1000 times. To put that in context: to see that photograph someone would have had to do the following:

• search for 'Chipsaway Chiswick'
• view their knowledge panel:

• and then: click on 'See photos' 
• or the review itself...

...to see that photograph.

Now, Google guard the metrics of their page-views very carefully, but this is pretty conclusive evidence that Google reviews are reaching a very wide audience indeed.


Conclusion

So what do businesses need to do to be seen in 2017? We would humbly suggest that they need reviews on Google. Way over and above any other site.

Before that, to make sure that their reviews are factually accurate and not harmfully misleading - or even posted maliciously - they need HelpHound, which will also mean they have star ratings in natural search and a link in the Google knowledge panel under 'Reviews from the web'...

     1: the business's own reviews and star rating, collected with HelpHound; 2: Google reviews invited using HelpHound; 3: the business's own reviews - again - linking direct to the business's own website; 4: Google rich snippets gleaned from the business's Google reviews

...not to mention great independently verified reviews of their own on their own website. 

Thanks Jas; you did a great job, and we sincerely hope that this review has helped - it has certainly helped us understand just a little more about the power of Google reviews.