Fake negative reviews can hurt your business and even if they can not there is no reason to have that negativity online. Especially since it’s not truthful. This is just some person trying to hurt your business. That’s why it’s very important to find them, read them thoroughly, and report them. Don’t worry, if you find some online, we will show you how to get rid of them and how to report them as well. It’s illegal to make fake testimonials. Just read section 5 of the FTC Act 15 U.S. Code § 45. You will see all about it.
Ways to hurt your website
There are many ways for others to hurt your website and your business. The most difficult (and expensive) one is hacking your website. This one is also the most unlikely thing to happen. Writing a fake negative review is the easiest one and also the most common thing people do in order to try and hurt one’s website. That’s why you need to be careful and find out everything possible about it. You should find a reliable source where you can read more about it. Our suggestion is a website like Link Department where you can also find a lot of useful information about your website’s SEO as well.
How to spot fake negative reviews?
We are about to show you a few steps that you should take in order to spot fake testimonials about your website so check them out, it might be helpful :
- check the most important tracking metrics to see if there are any weird and sudden changes
- pay attention to all of the little details in the review
- check the complexity of words
- look for repeated exclamation points
- make sure to examine the reviewer’s name and avatar
- flag all the reviews without comments
- check to see if the reviewer has reviewed other businesses
- also, look at how frequent the reviewer leaves reviews (on your website or others)
How can fake negative reviews hurt your business?
Fraudulent reviews can be very harmful to your business, luckily there are a few ways to deal with them. People often use reviews to get a better insight into one company. Other people’s experiences are the best way to find out everything. If there are some fake reviews with some bad mentions of your business you need to take care of it. Just think if you are trying to buy some supplies and you see the reviews where you can read that the shop you are were thinking of buying from are frauds would you still buy from them? Or would you go to another place, just in case?
Reporting fake testemonials
First of all, you need to make sure that the review is false. When you determine that the review is false locate the three vertical dots that will be to the right. Click on the dots and the dots will bring up an option to flag as inappropriate. But you need to be sure that the review is fake because Google will penalize companies that report reviews that turn out to be legitimate. Google dislikes link buying as well. They prefer to keep it real.
Fake positive review and reporting other business for it
This is also a common occurrence. Sometimes businesses do it in order to look better. This is illegal as well and also harmful since those reviews are not legitimate. The process of reporting that kind of review is the same as any other. But, it is very hard to determine if that specific review is legit or fake. You need to be completely sure.
Removing negative Google reviews (from the Maps)
This is also a very popular topic and that’s why we decided to mention it as well. Here is a quick guide to removing Google reviews from Maps. First of all, you need to sign in to your Google account. Your next step is opening Google Maps. Then you should click Menu (that can be found in the top left corner). Click your contributions and then choose Reviews. The next thing you want to do is click More that can be found next to the specific review you are trying to delete. The option Delite will pop up. Choose Delete and simply follow the instructions. That is pretty much it. It’s pretty simple. Don’t worry, even if those reviews hurt your business a bit there are ways to improve your Google rank.
Stats about the reviews
- 86% of consumers rely on reviews (we are talking about people aged from 18 to 35)
- before trusting a local business people first read about 10 online reviews
- 40% of consumers only read reviews written within the last three weeks
- 57% of consumers will only use services of a business if it has 4 or more stars
- 91% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations (but in a way those reviews are personal recommendations you leave to strangers)
- 89% of people aged 18 to 35 (consumers) read businesses’ responses to reviews
If you see these stats you will understand just how important the reviews are. Not just the ones you have on your website but also on Google, Yelp, and such. One thing you can do is to make sure that you are providing a good service and good reviews will come. Of course, if you become a target you will encounter some fake negative reviews. But there is a way to deal with this and we just showed you some. Reporting it is very important since that is illegal. And also you don’t want those false reviews to stay online forever for your potential customers or readers to see.
Hire professionals
If you believe that you, your business, or your website became a target for such unfortunate invents you should consider hiring an expert. You want one that can get those fake negative reviews out of your way but also to find the source and the reason why all of this is happening. If there is a way to stop it, you should give it a try.