Fake Google Business Reviews....Is This OK?

Guy Blackmon

Roundtable Host 2009
I have noticed lately an increase in fake Google business reviews. 1 Business in our area has 20+ reviews all in the last 2 months (after having none). Now mind you the weather has not been what you would call conducive to washing in the NC area, what with all the snow, ice, teen & sub-teen temps. 2 of the reviewers don't even live in the US, 2 more don't even live in the State. It has taken us 2 years just to get the few we have, but all were from "Legitimate" Customers we serviced.

Is this an accepted business practice? As a business owner are you alright with this? Does Google look for or penalize Businesses with fake reviews?

If you are alright with this can you explain why?
 
Guy, I think some people would consider this just an SEO technique. In fact, there are companies that sell Reviews! I swear. This is what SEO guys refer to as "reputation management".

As far as whether it is business ethical or not, I would say that is a matter of opinion. I honestly do not blame contractors for doing this and years ago in the past I use to do this for SEO. Google Maps use to base their rankings off reviews. Also lots of consumers will not review if there are no reviews to begin with. So its kinda like getting the ball rolling. As long as you are an honest contractor and really providing quality service my opinion is its an SEO strategy. However, I see both sides of the argument on this one. A lot of competitors go out there way to make negative reviews on peoples pages. For example on my Facebook window cleaning page we got like 200 1 star posts. Not because we have 200 angry clients or we would not be in business. Because we have 200 angry competitors that don't like the fact we are doing good. Its sad, but true. So to protect that you would utilize a "reputation management" company.

I will say I hate YELP! We do work for hundreds of clients and 99% of them are happy. Then you get the 1 client that you can not make happy. They leave a negative review on Yelp. Then we start telling all our customers to leave reviews on Yelp but they dont use Yelp. So they have to sign up for Yelp to leave a review. Yelp doesn't post their reviews because they just signed up and they don't use Yelp enough to make it a "Real Review". Doesn't make any sense what so ever. So I think it goes both ways. Lots of great contractors do great work but with Google or Yelp deciding what comment is real it can make it seem opposite, because only angry clients go to post reviews. Happy clients are just happy and rarely post reviews.

Again I see both sides on this one.
 
I had a previous "SEO guy" that I just noticed the other day posted some reviews on my google plus page. I am pretty ticked off about it because they posted as if i did work for them and I did not. I think it's totally unethical. Reviews should come from customers about your work and peers about you as a person or your company.
 
I agree with Ty it's hard to get happy clients to post reviews. I try quite a bit and it's never easy. Even happy Angie's List customers often don't post reviews no matter how you follow up and ask them.
 
I see the obvious benefit of it SEO wise but I think it is completely unethical regardless. I know a local competitor who has several fake reviews on Maps and it is just pathetic when the rest of us are out here working hard soliciting our customers for real, legit reviews.
 
As far as whether it is business ethical or not, I would say that is a matter of opinion. I honestly do not blame contractors for doing this and years ago in the past I use to do this for SEO. Also lots of consumers will not review if there are no reviews to begin with. So its kinda like getting the ball rolling. As long as you are an honest contractor and really providing quality service my opinion is its an SEO strategy.

How can lying or deception be a matter of opinion? It's either ethical or unethical.....I don't see a "Gray Area" in this. How can you be an "Honest Contractor" taking business from others through Fake Reviews? .........that's called an "SEO Strategy"?

Please understand Ty I would like more discussion on this subject, I'm in no way attacking your point of view.
 
How can lying or deception be a matter of opinion? It's either ethical or unethical.....I don't see a "Gray Area" in this. How can you be an "Honest Contractor" taking business from others through Fake Reviews? .........that's called an "SEO Strategy"?

Please understand Ty I would like more discussion on this subject, I'm in no way attacking your point of view.

Guy, I know you. I don't think you are attacking me. I understand this is a civilized conversation. I am not on any side here to be clear. But for the discussion sake I will play Devils Advocate. I am not trying to open up a can of worms either.

I can explain how it is SEO strategy in others perspectives though. For example: Google bases the ranking on Google Maps by reviews amongst other things. So because of this, if you have more reviews than your competitor you show up better on the maps. Also, Google crawls the verbiage used in the review. So for example: You may be able to get your client to post a review for you, yes. But will you get them to use Keywords in their reviews? Probably not. Is it wrong to make a post saying simply: "This is a great power washing company in North Carolina" ?
Was the review a lie? Are you not a great power washing company in North Carolina? The answer is you are, so you are not lying by posting that. What about a post like: I recommend this power washing company in North Carolina to everyone. Do you not recommend your company to everyone? These are just some examples. You are technically not lying.

As far as creating Google accounts, you do not have to swear by any oath that the account you are creating is you. You don't have to provide a social security number or give proof of identity. I can create a google account with first name Power last name Wash if I wanted to. So I don't trust any reviews period. I consider all reviews as much as a scam as the real ones because I realize they could all be fake. That is why I never base companies I hire off reviews. I think we will come to a point where the reviews will have to be proven reviews but until then they are all fake in my opinion, unless I left it! haha

Also, is it right that competitors get to leave bad reviews on your Maps on purpose? No. Of course not. But it happens. So let me ask you this question, would you leave fake reviews to bring your reputation back up after your competitor has left fake reviews to purposely bring you down? Even from a time perspective, you can get real reviews, but you need to protect your reputation right away since this jerk left a fake negative review. So you may resort to leaving positive fake reviews to make up for the fake negative reviews. Is it right that a customer can look up your company see a fake negative review and decide not to call you because of it? No that is not right. So if I had to leave a fake positive review to cancel out the fake negative review I will. That is how I view it as a grey area because of that.

Lastly, since I went to debate class in high school, haha
How far is business ethical taken? Are we allowed to say North Carolina's Premier Power Washing Company our first year in business before we cleaned anything? How can you be the premier company before you even landed a job. You are not. But does that make that business owner a liar or an unethical person? What about Your #1 Choice for Power Washing? Are you really the #1 Choice for Power Washing? Probably not. Who keeps track of that? That does not make the owner a bad person.

Truth is the review thing does not work properly yet. Once it becomes real without any chance of fake than it may work and I would agree its unethical to post fake ones. As of now, I am either way on reviews.
 
If the reviews are not from your customers, your lazy! Your work ethics are probably poor at best. Why not take the time to build legitment relationships with your customers and have them leave you a review. Yes, it will take time- not everyone has google+ or gmail accounts and not everyone likes leaving reviews. Fake reviews are comparable to shady SEO techniques, it will more than likely hurt you in the long run.
 
Don't worry, Google will discover it and remove them eventually. Someone in my area did the same thing.

Ty, are you an SEO guy or just web design?

I consider myself both. But SEO guy is a hard term to pin, I know what I know. Don't claim to know all of Google's algorhytms. Anyone who says they do is full of it! I don't sell Snake Oil. I do offer Off-Page SEO as well as On-Page SEO when developing my sites though.

So you know, not all eventually get removed. Most of them do however, the ironic part is that Google does not punish you for fake reviews yet. They just remove them. But Nick said it best, long term I bet it will hurt you. If Google thinks the accounts are real because you use them for some reason they are never removed. And that is why the fake negative reviews will stick because it might be a business owners account that he uses so they stay on there.
 
As I'm not even in my first full year yet, I found out how important reviews are in the beginning, I used thumb tack as my lead generator and every job I did I asked for a review and thumb tack would as well. Now that I wanted to get on Angies List they require a business to have at least 2 Angies List customer reviews, which not sure about you but if I am paying for an AL subscription and needed a pressure washing service you aren't even on my radar. I am in the process of going back through ally customers to see if any have memberships and if they would be willing to leave me a review. It hasn't been easy and I have been tempted to leave one, but that would take the Accountability part out of the title of my name. I struggle to find work at times and am great full for the jobs I do get and treat each one as if it where my home. My thumb tack reviews are all great, but that and Facebook are the only places I've gotten them, and the search engines don't seem to be looking there. All I can do is hope that the website and word of mouth work well because I am pounding the pavement daily with flyers business cards etc. A fake review is fake and only really hurts the company that's doing it. Negative reviews on another company is unethical and destroys the whole integrity of the industry. As I said I'm still new to all this but I have learned a lot from all the different pressure washing blogs and forums and have had great mentors in the industry give me advice, will I succeed? Time will tell but that is my wholehearted intention.
www.accountabilitypressurewashing.com

dgatton@accountabilitypressirewalking.com
 
I consider myself both. But SEO guy is a hard term to pin, I know what I know. Don't claim to know all of Google's algorhytms. Anyone who says they do is full of it! I don't sell Snake Oil. I do offer Off-Page SEO as well as On-Page SEO when developing my sites though.

So you know, not all eventually get removed. Most of them do however, the ironic part is that Google does not punish you for fake reviews yet. They just remove them. But Nick said it best, long term I bet it will hurt you. If Google thinks the accounts are real because you use them for some reason they are never removed. And that is why the fake negative reviews will stick because it might be a business owners account that he uses so they stay on there.


Sorry Ty. What I meant was do you offer SEO services for PWI or UAMCC members?
I tried to send you a PM but your box was full :)
 
Sorry Ty. What I meant was do you offer SEO services for PWI or UAMCC members?
I tried to send you a PM but your box was full :)

No need to be sorry. I appreciate the thought. Yeah, shoot me an email info@websitedesignphoenix.com - we can discuss.

My box is always full on PWI. Wish Ron would give us more space in there! haha
 
I feel it's completely unethical to get reviews that don't reflect a customer's or colleague's experience in dealing with you.
I've seen some professional cleaning contractors with reviews beyond that and I honestly am bothered by it.
 
I am personally very bothered by it as well... It's starting out your business relationship in a lie.

I just started using Google +... I feel if you have an extremely satisfied client, which most of us will have quite frequently, there is nothing wrong with asking them to voice their opinion in a review... It's 2015's references. With that being said, would you fake a reference just to pick up another client? Would you start out your business relationship in a lie?

I feel it can help keep us in the service industry as honest as possible, while continuing to offer great service. If there is a risk of a negative review, and possibility for a positive review, you might rethink delivering sub par work.

I have seen reviews for companies that were strictly from other cleaning companies, or clearly not a customer who used their service who is located somewhere else in the country or world. I question the ethics of the business owner for allowing it to happen, and wonder if they truly care about a great reputation or not. It's trusting a company who starts with a lie in my opinion.
 
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