Beer Reviews and Google Search

Talk Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by MenryAZ, Oct 9, 2013.

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  1. MenryAZ

    MenryAZ Initiate (0) Oct 3, 2013 Arizona

    When I'm in a bottle shop or in a tap room, I (probably like many of you) Google prospective beers for the purpose of obtaining a review. I used to Google "Beer Name" followed by "Beer Advocate," but now I rarely do. What I'm noticing is, BeerAdvocate review pages for many beers have better SEO rankings than the actual brewery websites associated with said beers -- that is, in search, the BA ratings page often shows up first, before the brewery website.

    Therefore, in many ways, people who are interested in learning about a new beer find out about it here, where reviews are user-sourced and much of the marketing language around specific beers is filtered out.

    This is probably super obvious to any of you who are web/tech savvy, but I'm thinking of the broader implications, i.e., how important BA reviews are to the success or failure of a given beer. Thoughts?

     
    #1 MenryAZ, Oct 9, 2013
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  2. drtth

    drtth Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2007 Pennsylvania
    In Memoriam

    Until the internet beer sites enabled wide spread information access the Westvleteren 12 was virtually unknown outside of Belgium and one could drive to the Abbey and buy 6-12 cases without a problem. Once the beer was discovered they had to pre-schedule sales, put a quota on how much you could buy, and deal with a big surge of interest in the beer.

    If it weren't for sites like this one a beer called "Heady Topper" would be almost totally unknown outside of Vermont. Now people will drive hours to buy multiple cases to bring back for their friends.

    The list goes on...
     
    #2 drtth, Oct 9, 2013
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  3. BeerKangaroo

    BeerKangaroo Initiate (0) May 30, 2011 Alaska

    I wouldn't give it too much thought. Drink what you damn well please!
     
    #3 BeerKangaroo, Oct 9, 2013
    MenryAZ likes this.
  4. MenryAZ

    MenryAZ Initiate (0) Oct 3, 2013 Arizona


    I'm in grad school mode. You know, when everything is thought about too much and has no real-world relevance.

    :slight_frown: Am I ruining beer for myself?
     
    #4 MenryAZ, Oct 9, 2013
  5. MenryAZ

    MenryAZ Initiate (0) Oct 3, 2013 Arizona


    True story on Heady Topper. And many regional beers, I'd say.
     
    #5 MenryAZ, Oct 9, 2013
  6. BeerKangaroo

    BeerKangaroo Initiate (0) May 30, 2011 Alaska

    Nope, you're not ruining beer. Its all good, man.
     
    #6 BeerKangaroo, Oct 9, 2013
  7. herrburgess

    herrburgess Grand Pooh-Bah (3,077) Nov 4, 2009 South Carolina
    Pooh-Bah

    Think of the reviews -- and especially the Top Beers list -- in their current incarnations as a sort of Dow Jones Index during a boom period. Traders have artificially inflated the values of these new "sexy" beers, which gets newcomers, with very little knowledge of traditional brewing history, to buy into the hype and invest inordinate amounts of time/money into obtaining/tasting them. Then these newcomers come back on here to post pics of their "tasting events" and "what they are drinking now" in order to brag about their experiences as well as to seek out the next hot deal to trade for or otherwise obtain...which generates more hype among the seemingly endless stream of newcomers -- and new "best breweries/beers in the universe." And the cycle starts over from there.

    (p.s. this is meant facetiously...I think.)
     
    #7 herrburgess, Oct 9, 2013
  8. Fujii13

    Fujii13 Initiate (0) Apr 27, 2011 New York

    Don't forget that Google searches are specific to you. While BeerAdvocate may be your first result, it may be different for someone else, or in the Incognito Mode for that matter.

    Never ceases to amaze me when I see people explain how happy they are that their own blog ranks highly on all of their Google Searches. Well yeah, that's because it's one of your most visited sites...
     
    #8 Fujii13, Oct 9, 2013
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  9. ziggyzoggy

    ziggyzoggy Initiate (0) Apr 30, 2013 Ohio

    Imagine the power...........FEEL the POWER!!!! :grinning:
     
    #9 ziggyzoggy, Oct 9, 2013
  10. RickS95

    RickS95 Pooh-Bah (1,764) Mar 19, 2004 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

    I see more and more local beer places adding a tag with a rating from a competing website. I generally explain to the store workers that the other place sucks, and they generally agree. However, I was at a tasting a couple weeks ago and in addition to all the beer info (name, brewery, ABV, notes about the beer), there was a rating from BeerAdvocate.
     
    #10 RickS95, Oct 9, 2013
  11. kerry4porters

    kerry4porters Maven (1,495) Dec 31, 2012 Arizona

    I'm right there with Menry lately I always google a Beer before drinking thats actually how I Discovered Beer Advocate and decided to join after getting good advice fron various reviews
     
    #11 kerry4porters, Oct 9, 2013
  12. Fujii13

    Fujii13 Initiate (0) Apr 27, 2011 New York

    The real reason that they do that is because those numbers are 6-9 points higher per beer, which looks better to make sales. Not to mention that 50% of the beers on that site are 99 or 100s.
     
    #12 Fujii13, Oct 9, 2013
  13. MenryAZ

    MenryAZ Initiate (0) Oct 3, 2013 Arizona


    Yeah, that's interesting. In an effort to push more product, bottle shops put ratings up for beers that have high ratings to entice people to buy them -- another interesting way BA factors into the market.

    This could probably just be chalked up to the craft beer industry generating a really effective, grassroots/user-sourced method of quality control. For any of the 96,000+ beers reviewed on here, the people have spoken!
     
    #13 MenryAZ, Oct 10, 2013
  14. charlzm

    charlzm Initiate (0) Sep 3, 2007 California

    When I'm in a bottle shop or tap room, I ask the people working there for suggestions and/or if they've had the beer in question. I go by my own experience with the style and the brewery. And sometimes, I just take a shot in the dark.

    I leave my phone in my pocket.

    But to answer your question; BA reviews (and Untappd and RateBeer etc...) are probably more and more important to many people as craft beer interest explodes ahead of personal experience and knowledge.
     
    #14 charlzm, Oct 10, 2013
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