Why does Google show a 4.8 rating when I have all 5-star reviews?

So, I'm always striving for excellence and so far, I've been able to accomplish it.  But, as more Google reviews come in rating me a 5, I was very surprised (and upset lol) that my overall rating was not a 5.  Well, after some research, Google on its help page says:  "We calculate an overall rating based on user ratings and a variety of other signals to ensure that the overall score best reflects the quality of the establishment."

Obviously they are not calculating the average the way that most people calculate averages. If, like in the screen shot, you have 5 reviews that are all 5-star reviews you would be hard pressed to come up with 4.8 average if you did the math.

What is going on?!

Well, I found a very helpful article by Mike Blumenthal that explains how Google clearly is weighting 5-star reviews differently:  if there are less than a certain number, they are probably using an algorithm that is something like a Bayesian average (yeah, way over my head haha).  At least now I know why, although I'm still not happy about it since most people won't understand that logic.  

The problem is that Google doesn't really explain all of this and can be concerning when people looking for a wedding vendor see they are not rated a 5.   

Be clear that I am not hiding any bad reviews or removing them from Google whatsoever.  I'm take great pride in my work, I'm transparent and I give 110% to my clients I play for.  As rated by WeddingWire, I was the only harpist in the Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota area to win the Couples Choice award for 2015 - and I'm thankful that they use common sense math for their review rankings!!!  

For now, I will have to deal with this weird math calculations from Google and hopefully 20, 30 reviews later, Google will give me the rating I deserve...a 5! :)

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