FAKE REVIEWS AND YOUR SEO RANKING

As Fort Collins SEO specialists, we know that in today’s online marketplace, an important part of attracting customers is brand reputation. This has many facets, but an obvious one is your Google reviews star-rating, and related comments from your clients. Unfortunately, many businesses have come under attack from all sorts of “negative SEO,” including fake reviews. How do reviews affect your business? How are fake reviews being used to discredit legitimate companies? And what can you do to monitor and protect your brand’s reputation?

How Reviews Work

The basics of reviews are simple: if you have happy customers, you get good reviews. The more good reviews you have on Google, the higher your SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) ranking will be. In other words, your web page will be closer to the top of Google’s search results page. Of course, the opposite is also true: negative reviews can cause your SEO ranking to sink and do harm to your business. Granted, there are real negative reviews out there from genuinely upset customers. A customer can have a legitimate cause for complaint about the quality of a product, the level of customer service, or any number of other things. However, negative reviews can also be misleading or outright fraudulent. What are some examples of fake negative reviews?

Malicious Reviews

According to Google, any review can be considered legitimate if the reviewer had a “customer experience” with the business in question. But what does a “customer experience” actually mean? Did the customer just call the company up and receive a voicemail message? Did he walk around the store for a minute or two and then walk back out again? As you can see, a reviewer with a “customer experience” may not have even attempted to make a transaction with the company. Instead, he is simply giving out misleading and damaging information for public consumption. Perhaps even worse than that are the multiple 1-star reviews that pop up within hours or even minutes of each other. Frequently, these reviews have no text, or the text doesn’t explain what actually went wrong, only the reviewer’s anger and frustration with the business in question. Whatever the type of malicious review, enough of this untrue, unwarranted negative press can do incalculable harm to your online presence. So what can be done to prevent and/or mitigate the damage?

Monitor, Respond, Report

The first step to protecting yourself against malicious reviewers is to keep an eye on what your legitimate customers are saying about your business. Encourage your satisfied customers to leave positive reviews. You can set up Google Alerts to keep you updated at regular intervals as to how your brand reputation is faring with your consumer base. You can also encourage customers who express their satisfaction to leave positive reviews by:

1. Making this a regular part of your business practice
2. Directing them to specific review sites like Trip Advisor, etc.
3. Incorporating your own review platform into your website

If you do encounter a negative review, be sure to determine if it is a legitimate complaint or a malicious attack. Either way, respond professionally and promptly to the criticism. Overreacting will only do more harm to your business’ reputation. Also, be sure to flag the review as inappropriate, and reach out to the Google Small Business support team. Be sure that your case is solid when you inform them that the review is fake. For example, why is it a fake review? Which Google policy does it violate? What evidence backs up your claim? In many cases, Google will remove fake reviews that have been a thorn in your side. In certain cases, you may even want to publicly expose the review as fake. Sometimes customers will rally to support you, and that negative review will turn into a positive for your company!

Learn More About Fake Reviews and SEO Rankings

Whatever the case, malicious, fake reviews from competitors or other adversaries are becoming more and more prevalent. Online SEO and marketing experts can help you protect your business from the harmful effects of these fraudsters. If you stay alert and proactively manage your brand’s reputation, no doubt you will be able to successfully ward off many of these attacks.