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Kay Nein

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I've made it one of my goals to increase our ranking on TA. We are #3 and thought #2 would be easy to achieve (#1 has 100 more reviews than us, so that isn't a goal at this time).
#2 has 10 five-star Excellent reviews (and only 10 reviews total). We have 14 five-star reviews and 3 four-star reviews (total 17 reviews). I thought that would put us into #2 spot. On closer review, I see that the #2 B&B pays for a Business Listing (the #1 spot does not have a business listing, but is clearly the leader given the number of reviews they do have).
Any ideas as to why we're still #3?? Surely it cant (or shouldn't) be because they are a paid member!
 
It's not the paid thing. (We hope.) It might just be you need to wait a little longer for the algorithm to run again. You may notice you bounce from 2-3-2 for a week or so.
I figured our latest 3 really good reviews would bump us out of 4th place and back to 3rd. We have at least 100 more reviews than the place that bounced us but we did not have the full 5 stars until a month ago. I think it might take us another 4-5 very good reviews to get that coveted #3 slot back again. (Above the ads.)
What helps otherwise...having guests who have a track record write reviews. Having readers select the reviews as 'helpful'. If all of your reviews are the only reviews your guests have written it makes them less 'valuable'.
 
It's not the paid thing. (We hope.) It might just be you need to wait a little longer for the algorithm to run again. You may notice you bounce from 2-3-2 for a week or so.
I figured our latest 3 really good reviews would bump us out of 4th place and back to 3rd. We have at least 100 more reviews than the place that bounced us but we did not have the full 5 stars until a month ago. I think it might take us another 4-5 very good reviews to get that coveted #3 slot back again. (Above the ads.)
What helps otherwise...having guests who have a track record write reviews. Having readers select the reviews as 'helpful'. If all of your reviews are the only reviews your guests have written it makes them less 'valuable'..
Madeleine said:
What helps otherwise...having guests who have a track record write reviews. Having readers select the reviews as 'helpful'. If all of your reviews are the only reviews your guests have written it makes them less 'valuable'.
Well, I had not even thought of those things. Makes sense. It's apparently a more complicated process than I thought...
 
The timeliness of the reviews makes a difference, too. How recent are your reviews? At what frequency do new reviews come in? It is possible for the #3 position to have more, and better, reviews than the #2 position, but if most of those reviews are "old" they won't count as much as the more recent reviews that the #2 inn has.
 
trouble is some reviewers reviews are worth more than others ie a guest like me who is a senior reviewer has a more valuable opinion than one with just 1 review as they are seen as a bit suspicious.
 
This whole scene has completely changed for us since ta scrapped the rating list for locations. We're in a small village, there are 3 others bandbs and they have about 20 reviews between them compared to our 400. We're no1 and save a chrisis will stay there, but no one looking for accommodation in this area is ever going to search for this village by name so it's pointless, even some people in Inverness 10 miles down the road haven't heard of our village.
I was always chasing people for reviews because I wanted to maintain our position on the lo chn ess listings, but since that's gone I'm happy just to have a regular turnover of good reviews.
I still maintain what I've always said, that I want to keep a flow of good reviews coming so if we ever get a stinker it's in a very small minority and will quickly get pushed down the list. It does worry me a little to see what impact this change will have on our business next year.
 
This whole scene has completely changed for us since ta scrapped the rating list for locations. We're in a small village, there are 3 others bandbs and they have about 20 reviews between them compared to our 400. We're no1 and save a chrisis will stay there, but no one looking for accommodation in this area is ever going to search for this village by name so it's pointless, even some people in Inverness 10 miles down the road haven't heard of our village.
I was always chasing people for reviews because I wanted to maintain our position on the lo chn ess listings, but since that's gone I'm happy just to have a regular turnover of good reviews.
I still maintain what I've always said, that I want to keep a flow of good reviews coming so if we ever get a stinker it's in a very small minority and will quickly get pushed down the list. It does worry me a little to see what impact this change will have on our business next year..
Highlands John said:
This whole scene has completely changed for us since ta scrapped the rating list for locations. We're in a small village, there are 3 others bandbs and they have about 20 reviews between them compared to our 400. We're no1 and save a chrisis will stay there, but no one looking for accommodation in this area is ever going to search for this village by name so it's pointless, even some people in Inverness 10 miles down the road haven't heard of our village.
I was always chasing people for reviews because I wanted to maintain our position on the lo chn ess listings, but since that's gone I'm happy just to have a regular turnover of good reviews.
I still maintain what I've always said, that I want to keep a flow of good reviews coming so if we ever get a stinker it's in a very small minority and will quickly get pushed down the list. It does worry me a little to see what impact this change will have on our business next year.
HJ, I hope that it affects you less than what it did to me a couple years ago when TA did the same to me. It happened mid year the year I paid for a business listing. Of course I did not renew and half hoped they would contact me for feedback as to why I dropped my paid listing. Nope!
 
It is a very complex algorithm. One of the most important factors is how new the review is. The reviews lose value over time, as well. There is also a factor for how many reviews, but once you are part the handfuls, it is no longer a factor. (So you can have 5 perfect and still be down the list.)
Popularity is very important, so views of the page can influence as well. Usefulness votes, the value of the reviewers also hold value. And you can all be so close and see no movement. Also, they seem to recalculate once a week or so and sometimes they skip for a while. I assume it matters on the CPU power they have and processing time. We noticed that while we moved up and down above and below people with 5 eyes, we showed up with 4.5 and it took quite a bit longer to get our 5th full eye back, in spite of no change of reviews.
Around here, the first 20 or so in my city are so close that a sneeze can move someone. But it's all differences that are so small that we basically all stay in place with minor movements.
 
Check out this video by Trip Advisor about how to increase your ranking at http://tripadvisor4biz.wordpress.com/videos/#TAMyths
 
Hi K9!
Well, it seems that lots of people have already covered this topic.
I totally agree with the date of the TripAdvisor review. It seems that the recency of comments plays a key role in the ranking algorithm. It is also quite interesting to read about Madeleine’s comments as well about having to wait a little bit longer for the algorithm to run again. I didn't know about that. I also love those videos that you’ve mentioned on the http://tripadvisor4biz.wordpress.com/ blog.
The other important element that I think I could contribute to is that TripAdvisor actually has an owner’s forum. Once you’re logged in your TripAdvisor account, just Google TripAdvisor owner’s forum, it will take you there. I have seen quite a few threads recently about ranking in TripAdvisor so that might be something else to look into where you could get more advice from operators.
Thanks!
I can’t wait to hear more about that topic. It’s really interesting and fantastic to get insights of that quality.
 
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