Online business reviews are common, but it is crucial for any owner to know if they are fake or not. In this article, you will learn a lot on finding out if a review is legit or not
Introduction
Before the internet existed, a customer’s decision relied on corporate advertising. Today, the buying decision of majority of customers are influenced by online business reviews – positive or negative ones.
Normally, the fake ones come up when customers receive discounts or payments from companies that ask for positive reviews. Sometimes, spotting them is easy – just watch out for any promotional or unbelievably positive language. Most of the time they are deceptive.
There are several ways you can do to find out if the review is real or not.
Spotting fake reviews:
1. Incomplete Details
It is difficult to describe a product or experience if it never took place. Most of the time, fake news give a general praise instead of talking about specific details. Watch out for reviews like this because here is a great possibility it is a fake one.
2. Generic Names and/or no Profile Photo
Another way to spot a fake review is when it comes from faceless offshore company that pushes bulk site reviews using different accounts. If you want to spot them, look for general names and they will most likely have no profile photo.
3. Too Good to be True
There is a healthy amount of skepticism that shields you from fake reviews. If the product’s positive review is unusually high compared to negative ones, you should be cautious. This is especially the case when the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. In addition, if it also sounds to pitchy or salesy, the review is fake.
4. Timing of Reviews
If there is a sudden spike in the number of reviews available, there is a chance that not all of them are real. This is an indication that there was a targeted campaign to gain more reviews. However, there are exceptions but you will know if that is the case or not. A review management software will not detect this, so you should be the one to spot this.
5. Ignore those 5-Star Ratings
Most of the time, fakers will manipulate or request reviews to make sure they are given a five-star rating. Another way of getting a more leveled view of the product is to ignore them. Reviews with lower number of stars are more credible than those that are always giving five stars.
6. Too many Verbs Compared to Nouns
Real reviews heavily focus on situations described with nouns, and the fake ones replace those with verbs. The action words were placed there to make reviews seem convincing, but it does the opposite. Review management tools can be used to find reviews that seem fake.
If you want to know how to get more Facebook reviews, having fake ones on your business site is not the way to go. Always filter them out to be sure.
