Here is another study from Joy Hawkins and friends. This study says that upvoting reviews tend to keep the reviews on the local listings up for a longer period of time.
Upvotes are when you thumbs up or like the reviews already left on a business local listing in Google. Here is a screenshot:
The study showed that generally the more upvotes a review has, the longer that review stays on the Google local listing. Joy said they "tracked reviews in several industries (lawn care, a jeweler, a marketing company, and a handyman) for six months to one year. According to our study, reviews with at least two upvotes stayed in the top ten, on average, for almost 100 more days than reviews with zero or one upvote."
Here is the chart showing the number of upvotes on reviews and how long those reviews lasted:
Joy said, "It does seem worthwhile to encourage customers to upvote reviews that they found helpful on your listing while they are leaving you a review themselves."
Forum discussion at Twitter.
