Is Google removing your reviews? This might be why...

A case of disappearing reviews and what to do about it…

By: Johanna Bannis
According to the 2017 Local Consumer Review Survey, 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation - an important statistic when growing your business. As such, they can play such an important role in the ongoing success of business practice. So what happens if reviews that you work hard to cultivate are being removed? Business owners are confused as to why some reviews are being removed from Google. Particularly, it seems strange that a review can be published and then, not long after, mysteriously disappear.
Well, there's a reason for this:

Google has specific criteria for reviews and may filter any reviews (over time) that don't adhere to it.

You may inadvertently be asking for reviews incorrectly, or have otherwise run afoul of the rules without realizing it. If you've checked out the Google criteria and still don't feel that the reviews should have been removed, then continue reading to find out if any of these situations below apply to you.

Friday Five Roundup: From Regenerating Teeth & Efficiency in Dentistry to Google Problems & Digital Marketing Trends

1
Scientific American

Instead of Filling Cavities, Dentists May Soon Regenerate Teeth

Researchers recently discovered certain drugs, including one developed to treat Alzheimer’s, stimulate innate self-repair mechanisms.

Read the article on scientificamerican.com>

2
Quartz

Google is Finally Admitting it has a Filter-Bubble Problem

The search engine reinforces your pre-conceived biases as a side effect of the way its algorithm parses your question. Google admitted to the issue and said it is actively working on solutions. The details have yet to be worked out.

Read the article on qz.com>

Tips for Creating Mobile Friendly Newsletters

It's no surprise that mobile usage in recent years has increased drastically. Today's mobile users often consider phone calls and text messages secondary functions on their devices, while everything from using social media apps, browsing the web, and of course checking emails are their primary uses. As of March 2017, data shows that 54% of emails were opened on a mobile device. That number continues to increase.

If you're using email newsletters as part of your practice's marketing strategy, it is important to create mobile friendly e-blasts so your message is delivered and properly displayed to all your recipients. To make your newsletter mobile friendly, here are a few tips to help guide you during design.

Related Article: 5 Examples of Great Dental Newsletter Practices

A Clean, Responsive or Single Column Design


When optimizing for mobile, it is important to realize that the limitations of screen space is the primary driver. Crowd it at your peril. Mobile users are willing to scroll down the screen, but not pinch and zoom in to read through the text.

A responsive template uses CSS to help control the layout of the e-blast on various screen sizes, most usually displaying multiple columns on a desktop, and single column on smaller screens.

A Single Column layout is an even simpler responsive layout that stretches the width of a single column up to a usual maximum size of about 600 pixels (which will increase as screen resolution gets better and better over time.

Either solution, will allow you to create a design that is mobile friendly, concise, and to the point, providing an optimal experience for your readers. A single column template becomes the lowest-common-denominator approach, while a responsive design allows you to take more advantage of desktop sized screens. Why not always go responsive? Because there are a surprising number of mail apps that don't yet fully support the CSS media queries’ which enable this functionality. So you might end up doing extra layout work that can't be taken advantage of on some email apps.
Remember, the greater the viewing experience, the higher amount of engagement, and the less chance of unsubscribers.

Here's an example of a newsletter for Toronto Children's Dentist, based on a 600 pixel wide responsive design. Much of the content is split into two columns on the desktop and shows as one column on smaller screens with the images shown above each text section.

Friday Five Roundup: From Dental Research to SEO Trends and ROI

1
Science Daily

Cavity Prevention Approach Effectively Reduces Tooth Decay

A scientifically based approach that includes a tooth-decay risk assessment, aggressive preventive measures and conservative restorations can dramatically reduce decay in community dental practices, according to a new study.

Read the article on sciencedaily.com>

2
Marketing Land

Local Search Industry Optimistic About 2018 — but Less Likely to Hire

The local search landscape is a constantly evolving beast, regularly changing at the whim of Google My Business and, more and more these days, reliant on consumer reviews. As such, the folks working in this niche of the wider SEO industry have had to be quick on their feet to adapt to changes.

Read the article on marketingland.com>

Friday Five Roundup: From Oral Health and Cancer to Bitcoin Scams

1
Science Daily

Oral Health May Have an Important Role in Cancer Prevention

The bacteria that cause periodontitis, a disease affecting the tissues surrounding the teeth, seems to play a part also in the onset of pancreatic cancer.

Read the article on sciencedaily.com>

2
Quartz

People are Getting Scammed by Facebook Ads Touting Bitcoin Miners

Beware of the accented letter in the domain name!
A fresh phishing technique has already caused losses. Will we see copycats in the near future? In 2010 Internationalized domain names were introduced. As a result, phishing perpetrators can purchase domain names that are eerily similar to well known companies and exploit people's interest in them.

Read the article on qz.com>