Fake Review Problem Is Now Worse Than Ever

BrightLocal has been studying the impact of consumer reviews for the last nine years and, in that fourth dimension, we've seen a huge fasten in importance. In our first-ever Local Consumer Review Survey carried out in 2010, fewer than seven in ten local consumers trusted reviews as much as a personal recommendation and just seventy% of people had gone online to find a local business. Fast-forrad to 2019 and ninety% of local consumers had looked online for local businesses while 91% of consumers say that positive reviews make them more than likely to use a business. As reviews have become more ubiquitous, the need to remove fake online reviews has soared in tandem.

While both fake positive and negative reviews are illegal and good for no-one in the long term, the growth of this dubious tactic is quite enlightening. Despite the fact that Google tin identify imitation reviews, huge amounts of time, energy and resources are being poured into faux review spamming, indicating just how valuable information technology tin can exist to accept a decent number of reviews.

The ongoing presence of fake reviews online also tells u.s. that reviews are a big function of the consumer decision-making process and underscores exactly how important they are for local SEO. As always in SEO, if someone's trying to short-cut or cheat something, it tends to suggest that doing it properly is worth the effort. You can find our five-step guide to building your review profile the right way, here.

It'due south fair to say that negative reviews are every business organization owner's worst nightmare. When they're imitation, that feeling is magnified tenfold. Over and to a higher place reputational impairment, fake reviews could – at to the lowest degree in the short term – give unscrupulous rivals a leg up.

There are plenty of reasons that you'll want to remove both false positive and negative reviews to protect your business organization, especially given how prolific they are becoming.

Let'due south take a await at some heart-opening statistics that are sure to convince even the skeptics to accept fake reviews seriously.

74% of consumers have read a fake review in the last year, though they're not always easy to spot

According to BrightLocal research, 82% of consumers have read a imitation review in the last year. Amongst 18-34-yr-quondam consumers, the proportion is even higher, with 92% maxim they've seen fake reviews online (more than on that shortly).

The sheer volume of fake reviews being observed is obviously a cause for concern. It highlights how prevalent online fake reviews now are, underscoring the importance both of being vigilant and of knowing how to go them removed.

The extent to which fake reviews take infiltrated this expanse of reputation management threatens the trustworthiness of reviews as a whole – should consumers be exposed to an increasing number of fake reviews, it's perfectly feasible that we'll presently brainstorm to see confidence in peer-to-peer recommendations existence eroded.

That being said, it's not time to hitting the panic button just yet. While simulated reviews continue to emerge, it'due south worth begetting in mind that the same Local Consumer Review Survey also shows that trust in reviews and recommendations is on the up.

92% of 18-34-year-olds have read a fake review online in the last year

As we touched upon earlier, more eighteen-34-year-olds have read a fake online review in the last year than consumers of any other demographic. While 89% of this younger age grouping say they take read a imitation review in the last 12 months, only 74% of 35-54-year-olds accept seen a false review in the terminal year. This number drops to just 59% for consumers over the age of 54.

It's clear that 18-34-year-olds find fake reviews much easier to spot online. This could exist considering they take grown up online as digital natives and so are savvier when it comes to navigating the online mural. It's likewise possible that this constant exposure has given them digital street smarts to the extent that they're naturally more suspicious or untrusting of user-generated content such as online reviews until given expert reason to think otherwise.

This wariness should raise a few red flags for business owners. First and foremost, if your target demographic falls inside the 18-34 age group, your immediate concern may (rightly) be that earning their trust and their dollars is going to exist an uphill struggle. Afterwards all, when information technology's universally understood that reviews are critical to the consumer purchase procedure, how do y'all span the gap when reviews are accounted to be fake and then oftentimes?

A second worry is that this statistic suggests future generations are already beingness programmed to be wary of online reviews. If that'southward the case, yous'll need to notice new ways of establishing trust with future customers.

In gild to tackle fake reviews and instill confidence in those aged 18-34, it's important to be proactive. Responding to reviews is a local SEO ranking factor but replying can too help to boost trust because it shows that you recognize and value feedback.

Reviews with repeated assertion points are more than probable to come from reviewers who have never made a purchase

According to inquiry conducted past MIT, deceptive reviews (those submitted by consumers who actually haven't fabricated a buy from the business beingness reviewed) have a trend to utilise repeated assertion points such as '!!' and '!!!' in the text of the review.

Use of assertion points may not seem like a huge problem on the surface merely delve a niggling deeper and it'southward the connotation that becomes troubling. Multiple exclamation marks indicate a heightened emotion such equally excitement or frustration. The use of multiple assertion marks mimics colloquial syntax and grammer on social media and messaging apps. Add this to the indicated heightened emotions and there is the worrying prospect of consumers believing the false review because it's written in a fashion that the reader themselves too employs twenty-four hour period to day.

Some business owners may non feel the impact of these deceptive reviews, given that their power to mislead consumers depends on the business organization's own demographics. If your particular target market doesn't employ similar styles on social media, you may not need to worry that your audience will be swayed.

Fake reviewers are much more likely to make specific requests to the seller or business

MIT researchers studying reviews without purchases discovered that those leaving a review without having fabricated a purchase contain significantly more words and are much more than likely to contain requests for the business such equally 'please', 'bring back', 'offering more than' and 'become back to'.

This item statistic can exist quite problematic for those responsible for reputation management because information technology's necessary to reply to detailed reviews – even if you lot're sure it'southward a fake review or that it has been left by someone who hasn't fabricated a purchase.

As review response speed and frequency is a local SEO ranking cistron – and something that 89% of consumers will read – it'south still important to formulate a professional person, courteous response. In his post, Google My Business gold product good Ben Fisher recommends that yous should yet respond to evidence genuine consumers that you take all reviews seriously.

Every bit with whatever response to a negative review, whether it's true or false, it's wise to demonstrate a willingness to fix the issue beingness raised. Invite the reviewer to become in bear upon privately, either by private message, e-mail or telephone to resolve the issue. In the example of a fake review, you evidently won't hear from the reviewer simply publicly, you take demonstrated y'all care almost service levels, product quality, opportunities for improvement and the customer experience.

The United kingdom'southward Competition and Markets Say-so (CMA) estimates false reviews potentially influence £23bn of United kingdom client spending each twelvemonth

The CMA has launched a program of work after a lengthy investigation into faux reviews determined that they potentially influence around £23 billion of Uk consumer spending each year. It says millions of shoppers consult reviews online before booking holidays and ownership products or services but constitute that some companies were buying reviews or paying third party agencies to write fake reviews about products and services.

The 2008 Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations forbids this practice. The CMA says,

It is a banned practise to use editorial content in the media to promote a production where a trader has paid for the promotion without making that clear in the content or past images or sounds conspicuously identifiable by the consumer. It is likewise a banned practice to falsely claim or create the impression that a trader is non acting for purposes relating to his trade, business or profession, or to falsely represent oneself every bit a consumer.

The CMA says that the use of fake reviews is a business concern due to the volume of adults relying on reviews to make purchase decisions and the amount of money at stake. Fake reviews also pose boosted problems in that they mislead consumers to spend money with a business or on a product they may non have otherwise chosen. This could mean other businesses are losing out on revenue they may have earnt, had it not been for the fake or misleading reviews.

For some sectors, simulated positive or simulated malicious reviews take a bigger impact – findings from the CMA suggest pocket-sized businesses in the hospitality sector in detail are badly affected by fake reviews.

Ruby-red-picking or suppressing negative reviews can too mislead consumers and touch the ultimate purchase choice.

I in seven TripAdvisor reviews could be fake

An investigation past the consumer group, Which? concluded that up to i in 7 TripAdvisor reviews are false. Its research determined that several height-rated hotels in 10 meridian tourist cities bore the hallmarks of imitation reviews, with those reviews then boosting rankings and pushing the hotels upwards into the list of the best in that region.

TripAdvisor confirmed that a number of the hotels under suspicion had previously been warned about the utilise of false reviews. Which? said,

The 15 that looked about blatantly suspicious included some of the all-time-rated hotels in the Middle Due east, four of the best-rated hotels in Las Vegas, and one of the hotels in United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland's second-biggest hotel concatenation, Travelodge. When we reported them to TripAdvisor, it admitted that xiv of them – 93% – had been caught with dodgy reviews in the past twelvemonth.

As we saw from the CMA findings, small hospitality businesses are specially vulnerable to simulated reviews. The utilise of fake reviews to boost TripAdvisor placement ways that not only are travelers at risk of disappointing trips when selecting accommodation based on five-star TripAdvisor reviews and urban center ratings, but independent hoteliers not partaking in faux reviews could exist missing out on bookings and revenue, putting their businesses at risk.

Suspicious reviews tin be reported to TripAdvisor – hallmarks of fake reviews include a large number of five-star reviews from users who have only submitted one review, and reviews from lots of users who haven't reviewed other locations. Ownership reviews, offering incentives for reviews or posting reviews for your own business are all confronting TripAdvisor review policies. Our guidelines for the height local review platforms including TripAdvisor can be found here.

61% of electronics reviews on Amazon are fake

Research carried out by The Washington Post has adamant that 61% of reviews for electronics on Amazon are fake. The fake reviews affect categories such equally wireless Bluetooth headphones and Bluetooth speakers, though other categories such as testosterone pills and diet pills were likewise found to be impacted.

Analysis showed that 50.7% of reviews for the top x Bluetooth headphones were imitation forth with 55.half-dozen% of reviews for the top 10 weight loss tablets, 58.2% of Bluetooth speaker reviews and 67% of reviews for the leading testosterone products.

Amazon dominates the due east-commerce industry, accounting for 54% of online sales and 5% of all U.s. retail sales. It too handles 54% of production searches – making it even more powerful than Google for merchants. This proliferation of imitation reviews is therefore all the more worrying, especially for retailers. The numbers alone suggest that there are serious benefits upwards for grabs from faking Amazon reviews.

As per the Washington Mail service analysis, the abundance of fake reviews artificially giving greater visibility to certain items without merit makes information technology very hard to achieve shoppers on Amazon without also engaging in fake reviews. One small business organisation owner told The Washington Postal service faux reviews have a "devastating" effect because they "make it impossible to sell anything on Amazon if you play by the rules."

While Amazon is primarily a B2C site, this underscores exactly what the business bear upon of faux reviews can be. With reviews important to Amazon rankings, having a procedure in place to acquire genuine reviews and build an authentic review profile is essential to prevent further pass up in visibility.

54% of consumers would not purchase a product if they suspected it to accept imitation reviews

Then, past now, it should be pretty clear that fake reviews are a very real problem, only this statistic from Bazaarvoice shows that faux reviews could negatively affect your business concern, too.

It makes sense that consumers would be wary of faux reviews and would and then project that mistrust onto the business concern or product, too. Not just does this mean that you should by absolutely no means purchase faux reviews or get involved in review schemes, but (arguably more chiefly) y'all need to prove consumers that you can exist trusted!

If your reviews look at all suspect, you could run a risk missing out on 50% of customers. That means getting a steady stream of detailed reviews should exist a priority for y'all. To ensure searchers can tell your reviews are authentic, consider offer your customers some prompt questions so that when they review you it really reflects the experience they've had with your business.

For example, if y'all run a pizza restaurant, consider asking your customers what their favorite topping you lot offer is, what kind of vibe the restaurant suits, how they find the menu price points, so on.

We've established that consumers can struggle to spot fake reviews, so make sure your concern doesn't ship the wrong signals!

Conclusion

Consumer trust in online reviews is at an all-fourth dimension loftier. They are a vital tool in the determination making process with a potent review profile having clear financial benefits for local businesses. Reviews are now so important, both to sales and to SEO, that fake reviews are becoming more than prevalent. This raises several issues for businesses and consumers alike, with consumers increasingly probable to be faced with fake reviews and businesses increasingly being placed at a disadvantage if they don't join unscrupulous competitors in buying or faking reviews to win visibility on review platforms and e-commerce sites.

Withal, as the inquiry above shows, there is a concerted endeavour being made by consumer groups, journalists and government bodies to crack downward on fake reviews, so whatsoever investment in faux reviews is likely to backfire sooner rather than later. Do the right affair: generate reviews in a natural manner and you lot'll be rewarded.

Jamie heads upwardly BrightLocal'south content team, ensuring we produce insightful articles, research and resource that enable businesses and SEOs to go even better results in local search.

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Source: https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/fake-reviews-are-a-real-problem-8-statistics-that-show-why/

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