Facebook gave itself a facelift this past year which included revamping the way they present reviews and recommendations. Although there is still a “Reviews” tab, an actual written review only comes into play after someone leaves a “yes” or “no” recommendation. At that point, they are invited to leave a review.

This change was also accompanied by several others that account for the decline, including:

• Past ratings that had no accompanying review are no longer counted by Facebook in their tabulations of your star rating
• Star ratings are determined by a new algorithm that combines Recommendations and Reviews
• The new Facebook layout allows you to put the Reviews tab anywhere you like, so on many pages, it is no longer visible

You can opt to turn off the reviews/recommendations option, which some practices do after receiving negative feedback--in fact, we found that 8.3% of practices surveyed have them turned off. We strongly advise against this, because you need Facebook ratings and recommendations for your SEO.

In addition to affecting your search engine results, ratings and recommendations give you and your potential clients an at-a-glance idea of how your practice is perceived.

To increase your number of Facebook ratings and recommendations, it’s important that you have first verified your page—more on this later. Once that’s done, you can send your clients to check out your page and suggest that if they’ve had a good experience at your practice to leave a recommendation and review to help other pet owners in your community.