Which review sites matter besides Google, by industry
The lists name fifty platforms and put lead marketplaces alongside review sites. There is a two minute test that tells you whether any of them deserve your afternoon.
Search this and you get lists. Fifteen best, twenty-one best, fifty-five by industry. They are all written to the same shape and none of them answers the question you asked, which is not which platforms exist but whether you should bother with a second one.
For most Australian local businesses the honest answer is one, sometimes none, and there is a two minute test that tells you which.
The test
Open a private browser window and search the way your customer would. Your service, your suburb. Then look at what is on the first page besides the map.
If a directory appears there, it is worth a profile, because it is standing between you and people already searching for what you do. If it does not appear, its reviews reach nobody, however impressive the platform's own marketing is about its audience.
Two things called the same thing
The lists put hipages and Oneflare beside Google and Trustpilot as though they were the same kind of platform. They are not, and the difference costs money.
- A review platform holds your reputation. You create a profile, customers leave reviews, and it costs you nothing but the effort of gathering them. Google, Facebook and ProductReview.com.au work this way.
- A lead marketplace sells you introductions. Reviews are displayed, but the business model is charging you per lead, usually shared with several competitors quoting the same job. hipages and Oneflare work this way.
Joining the first is a reputation decision. Joining the second is a purchasing decision with an ongoing cost per job, and it should be judged against your other paid channels rather than against Google reviews. Complaints about these platforms centre on lead quality and pricing rather than on reviews, which tells you what they actually are.
Where to look, by industry
Candidates to run the test against, not recommendations. Most of the American platforms named in the international lists have no meaningful Australian audience, and the same caution applies to the directories worth claiming at all.
- Trades and home services: ProductReview.com.au, and Facebook if your customers are there. hipages and Oneflare belong in your advertising budget, not your reputation plan.
- Medical and allied health: the booking platform you already use, because that is where patients are prompted. Healthgrades and its equivalents are American and do not apply here.
- Hospitality: TripAdvisor still ranks for restaurant and accommodation searches, and for tourism specifically it can outrank your own website.
- Legal, accounting and professional services: usually none. Your industry body listing and your Google reviews cover it, and the American legal platforms have no presence here.
- Retail and product businesses: ProductReview.com.au, which is the largest of its kind in Australia and does rank.
- Anything selling to businesses: your customers check LinkedIn, not a review platform.
What a second platform actually costs
The sign-up is not the cost. The cost is that reviews are a stream, not a task, and you have just committed to running a second one indefinitely.
- 01Somebody has to ask for them, which means splitting requests between platforms or asking twice, and asking twice reduces both.
- 02Somebody has to reply to them, on a platform nobody logs into, where a complaint can sit unanswered for months.
- 03It will rank for your name whether or not you maintain it. An abandoned profile is a permanent second impression you are not managing.
Which is why one well-kept second profile beats four neglected ones, and why for a lot of businesses the correct number is zero.
Do reviews elsewhere help your Google ranking?
Not directly. Google ranks your listing on relevance, distance and prominence, and reviews on other platforms are not the review signal it is reading.
They matter for a different reason, and it is a real one. The customer who found you in the map does not stop there. They search your name, and what they read next decides whether they call. Reviews on a second platform are part of that page, and that is the case for having them, not the ranking.
How to gather reviews on any platform without breaching policy is covered in how to ask for a review, and what the count and the rating are actually doing for you is in how many reviews you need.
Which review sites matter besides Google?
Are hipages and Oneflare review sites?
Do reviews on other sites improve my Google ranking?
How many platforms should I be on?
What about the American platforms in every list?
Want to see what appears when somebody searches your name?
The free audit shows every profile and directory ranking for your business, what each of them says, and which are working against you.
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