Google Reviews Terms of Service Update

On Thursday, April 12th, 2018 Google updated their Terms of Service (TOS) for online reviews. The new addition to the TOS states that all of your customers must be asked for online reviews, whether positive or negative in their experience.

The specific update is outlined above and states: “Don’t discourage or prohibit negative reviews or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.”

This means that in requests for testimonials and reviews, customers that leave negative feedback must be offered the same review links as customers that leave positive feedback.

EWT’s Review Services Are Updating to Comply

To comply with Google’s TOS update, customers that give negative feedback in your testimonial requests will now be shown the same online review links as a positive customer.

We are pleased there is now a clearly stated guideline on the process of requesting reviews by Google. We anticipate that the review industry will have more changes in the short and mid term based on its growth and importance to consumers and businesses.

We will continue to monitor these changes, keep you informed on best practices, and adapt as needed. If you have any questions on this change or want to know know about our online reputation service, please contact us.