It should go without saying that paying for reviews for your business that aren’t legitimate is not the greatest idea. But for a lot of people, this seems like the best answer for buffing up their positive Internet presence.
And why not? If it looks like a real customer and talks like a real customer, it must be a real customer. Not to mention if so many companies are doing it then it’s got to be legal, right? Wrong.
While you may or may not be aware, there are many reasons not to follow this path and stay legit.
It’s Fraud
Plain and simple, if you hire someone to write a phony review you are committing fraud. Think about why you want this person to write a review:to generate revenue for yourself.
With the popularity of online reviews in this era, they do translate to real money.
Fraud is defined as “the wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain”.
Sounds a whole lot like paying someone for a false review.
Real Results, Real Punishment
By 2015, Amazon had sued over 1000 people for writing fake reviews. Many of these reviewers came from the website Fiverr. And no—Fiverr was not sued—the individuals were. The websites on which your business is reviewed will not protect you or your reviewer, they will work towards ensuring the reviews on their website are as legitimate as possible.
Even Yelp and Alibaba have started to crack down on the fake reviews on their websites. And of course, Google has a reporting situation in place so they can handle fake reviews as well.
Want to keep your business’ reputation clean? Don’t pay for reviews.
Spotting a Fake Review
If you’re suspicious that a competitor is employing fake reviewers, there are ways to spot these reviews, or at least make an educated guess.
Take a trip over to Fakespot. Their system will scan for a number of factors including:
Overly positive language
Multiple reviews published the same day
If you want to do additional research yourself, check out the reviewer’s profile and see how real they seem. If you can’t find them in a quick Google search, they could very well be fake.
Tips for Real Reviews
It can be tempting to want to buff up your business by paying for fake reviews. But there are much better ways to get real reviews that you can actually feel good about.
Any time someone purchases from you or employs your services, just ask them to leave a review. Don’t offer gifts or coupons in exchange, simply learn how to pick out happy customers and get them to spread their joy.
And of course if any negative reviews appear, deal with them in a calm, professional manner.
Handle reviews properly and you’ll have a great reputation for your business online in no time!
Comments are closed.