Social proof has become indispensable to consumers. Therefore, business owners must take their reviews seriously. Depending on your business, reviews could be a major driver of sales. Consider how you shop: you’re not likely to visit a restaurant or stay in a hotel you’ve never been to if it has poor reviews. Reviews might similarly sway your opinions of products, services, movies, or books. People rely heavily on the opinions of their peers.
While anyone can make mistakes, and occasional bad reviews can happen to anyone, it’s frustrating when bad reviews are left by people who have never used your product or services. Spam reviews can have a negative effect, or even ruin some businesses. Sometimes, spam reviews can boost your search rankings only to have what people find be worst than not being found at all. Spam reviews can dissuade potential customers from finalizing purchases and can derail months or years of marketing and PR efforts.
Why do people leave spam reviews? The answer isn’t always easy to find. Sometimes, a fake bad review will come from someone who is a professional competitor or has a personal beef with you. Sometimes, a disgruntled ex-employee might make false claims or a person who has a problem with your political leanings or policies might take it out on your product or services. Some will embed links in their reviews, either to promote themselves or for nefarious purposes. Many do it for financial gain, either because they have been hired by a click farm/review farm, they wish to be paid to remove the bad review, or they simply believe your company will offer them something free as a remedy. Still others are just plain trolls, either bored, attention seeking, or wanting to chip away at public trust. Unfortunately, there are dozens of reasons someone might target your business for fake or spam reviews. No business is 100% safe from these kinds of attacks.
What can you do?
1. Be vigilant. Pay attention to your reviews as much as possible. Set a Google Alert, pay attention to your Google Business Profile and social media pages, and regularly search for your products or services in an incognito tab (so the SERP algorithm isn’t affected by your search history). The first step is knowing what reviews are out there.
2. Make sure your real reputation is solid. The more genuine praise you receive, the less weight negative reviews will have, particularly if they are fake. Work on building a solid reputation for quality of products and services and for stellar customer service. Ask for reviews from actual customers, and respond to reviews, whether they’re good or bad. Be professional and polite in your responses. Offer to remedy the situation when someone is dissatisfied and offer appreciation when someone is kind. Remain true to your brand’s voice and work on building community with real people.
3. Politely dispute false narratives. When you find reviews that are fake, politely state that you have no record of the transaction or interaction described and ask the reviewer to contact you personally with more details. This type of response helps potential customers trust you and know that if something does go wrong, you will make it right.
4. Publicly address the issue. If you’re seeing a large number of fake reviews, you might need to publicly address the issue with a press release or an official statement on your website and social media. You will want to handle this carefully and avoid the impression that you’re suppressing genuine criticism. Present the facts politely and state that you’re working toward finding a solution. Keep it short and simple. Avoid attacking the attackers.
5. Educate consumers about what spam reviews look like. Potential customers won’t be swayed by fake reviews if they can tell they’re fake. If you provide information on what fake reviews tend to look and sound like, people will be less likely to judge your business when you receive them. Some red flags your audience can look for: reviewers who are in several locations at once (complaining about bad food at a Chicago restaurant and impolite ticket takers at a theatre in Los Angelas within minutes of each other, for example), reviewers who consistently leave bad reviews for one business and good reviews for their competitors on the same day, and reviews with over the top, emotionally-charged language (gushing praise or deeply personal criticism, often with cursing). Another indication of spam is a flood of reviews (a business that has had ten reviews for the last year suddenly has thousands) or an amount that is out of proportion for the industry (every other accountant in your town has 100 or fewer, but one accountant has 10,000).
6. Report fake reviews to the platform in question. Reporting fake reviews can help, especially if there are a lot of them. Most platforms will at least investigate and even remove reviews that violate their own policies. Just be warned that it can be a long process and everyone won’t be as worried about your fake reviews as you are. Sometimes, they won’t do anything and you’ll have to be persistent. Here’s what to do on some of the most common review sites:
On Google, go to your Google Business Profile and click the flag icon on the fake review. Visit this page for additional resources. Note: you can only report reviews that are fake or otherwise violate Google’s policies. Flagging real reviews because they’re negative is not permitted.
To report fake reviews on Amazon, send an email to community-help@amazon.com.
Visit this page to learn how to remove fake reviews on Yelp.
On Facebook, visit the business page, click “reviews” below the cover photo, and click the three dots next to the review you want to report. You will be guided through the process.
For all other platforms, read through their Terms of Service and make note of violations. Contact customer service; if they can’t help you, they should be able to guide you to someone who can.
7. Get help. If all else fails, you may need to hire an Online Reputation Management company or seek advice from an attorney who specializes in defamation. Make sure you have kept records of the incidences, especially if the same person is harassing you repeatedly. A lawyer can issue a Cease and Desist letter and/or inform you of other legal options. This may be a costly endeavor, but it could save you from lost business and income in the future.
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