Google trusts reviews on external platforms like Google Reviews, Facebook, LinkedIn, and UpCity more than reviews on your own website because they require sign-in and are harder to fake. This matters for SEO and how high you rank in search results.
Reviews are more than just the review on your website. There's a reason for Google reviews, and that's because you have to sign in and you are a verified person leaving that review. And that's the same for any external review site. UpCity was a great one, closed last year, but there's other great sites that you can leave reviews on, even Facebook or LinkedIn recommendations. All of those count for your SEO and they show up independently of your website. And if someone's searching for your name or your business with the word reviews on there, there's way more validity because everybody knows and every search engine knows that if you have a review on your website, it could be manipulated. It could even be completely made up. Because you're in control of the website. On these review platforms where you have to log in to leave a review, that fear is taken away.
