When Google pushed out the Google+ Local changes it brought to the front Zagat reviews, which replaced the Google star ratings in the Google Maps results.

Prior, Google showed the average of the five star reviews in the search results. The more stars, typically the more clicks you get from the search results. So when Google changed this, some merchants and stores noticed a huge drop in traffic and sales from Google.

Here is what it looked like before (courtesy of agency3):

Now, those stars are removed and replaced by Zagat scores:

Does this make a huge impact in the click through rate from the Google search results to the store or merchant? Some merchants are saying yes, it makes a huge difference.

A Google Business Help thread has one merchant who said on average he received 30-60 visits per day from Google from his maps result and not it is down to 0 to 5 visits per day. He said it is “destroying” his business:

Have you felt the same way?

Forum discussion at Google Business Help.