The 200 reviews that lived on the wrong site

The 200 reviews that lived on the wrong site

Meet a wedding photographer in Nashville. Two hundred glowing reviews — all on a third-party booking platform, almost none on Google.

She'd assumed reviews were reviews. They're not, not for the map pack. Google weighs Google reviews for ranking; the two hundred elsewhere were lovely social proof and zero local signal.

The debate was where to send new clients. The booking platform was easier — clients were already logged in there. Google meant friction, a separate ask, a link.

We split it deliberately. Booking-platform reviews still mattered for the platform's own search and for trust. But every happy couple now got a direct Google review link by text, two days after the wedding, while the glow was fresh.

Three weeks, nothing. Then the trickle started.

Four months later: 38 Google reviews, an average above 4.9, and a jump from page two of the local results into the 3-pack for "wedding photographer Nashville." Inquiries doubled.

The lesson: third-party reviews build trust but don't rank you locally. Keep both, but if it's a map-pack play, the review has to land on Google — every other platform is a bucket with a hole in it.