In 2016, ReviewMeta listed most new Amazon reviews as suspicious, but that number is slowly decreasing. It appears that Amazon’s efforts have paid off to curtail this practice. Strangely enough, most Amazon fake reviews are quite lengthy and read like brochures. Some companies would offer full refunds for reviewers who bought the product and left a glowing review.

The company took steps to counter these deceptive practices by prohibiting incentivized reviews for most products. Many products received numerous five-star ratings within a few hours or days after being posted. I am sure you have seen the online ads for “get paid to review websites or “make money reviewing Amazon products.”Īmazon paid reviews are also incredibly widespread.Ī 2017 study by ReviewMeta discovered a surge in suspicious activity. It might seem harmless enough, but there are massive legal consequences for fake reviews and other deceptive practices.ĭid you know that reviews are one of the top ranking factors for Local SEO? You can imagine how enticing it must be to write just one or two reviews to raise your companies profile.Ī few five-star ratings would not hurt anyone, right? How many happy customers passed up a chance to dramatically help a local business? Unfortunately, only about 15 out of 1,000 customers will ever leave any feedback. This fact leads to the unfortunate temptation of leaving fake reviews for better points. The same study found that 86% of customers cannot always spot fake reviews, meaning that they are likely to fall victim to false advertising.įurthermore, almost half of respondents will not consider a company unless it has at least a four-star rating.Įntrepreneurs know how well positive ratings can impact their business.Ī study from the Harvard Business School discovered that a one-star increase on Yelp led to a 5-9% revenue boost. Thanks to the rise of sites like Yelp, consumer opinions, and online reviews significantly impact your company’s success.Īccording to a BrightLocal survey 97% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.

Fake reviews on google