Google Ratings Suck

Anyone who uses Google Adwords knows how valuable those star ratings can be on ads. They provide a higher click through rate and a better conversion rate as well. Thats because they convey trust. But in some cases they are just downright wrong. Maybe even to the point of being, dare I say, downright evil.

Lets look at an example:

Not a bad text ad. And I’m not just saying that because I wrote it :) No problem there except when you click on the ratings. Then you get the following:

If you look at the breakdown on the right of the page its obvious something isn’t right. I mean I think my 5th grader could look at those numbers and tell you they sure as heck don’t add up to a 4.7 rating.

Looking at the ratings you’ll see they all come from resellerratings.com. So, just to follow up lets see if they have the same rating. Going to their store page we get a different picture. A very different picture.

A **4.4** out of **10** rating. That would be a **2.2 out of 5** in Google's rating system and one that isn't even close to being able to be eligible to show on an Adwords ad. 

So, what the heck is going on? They seem to be based on the same ratings, except Google seems to have positive reviews that Resellerratings.com seems to filter perhaps. Is Google really willing to add ratings for companies that spend big in Adwords even if they haven’t earned them? Did all those smart math wizzes over at Google actually get a formula wrong?

I don’t know the answers. But I do know that users of Google deserve some because their trust is being broken.