More and more consumers are turning to online review sites to learn more about local companies and make a more informed purchasing decision. But popular online review sites such as Yelp have recently come under fire for their acceptance of fake reviews.
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There are too many people out there that write and post fake reviews in order to make their business look good, make other companies look bad, or to simply earn some sort of reward. These fake reviews hurt those consumers that use these sites in hopes of receiving valuable and honest information.
But instead of ignoring these sites because you’re afraid of trusting a fake review, it’s important that you learn the difference between real and fake reviews. The following are five signs to look for to let you know you can trust the review.
1. It doesn’t overuse the company/product name.
When professional writers are hired to write fake reviews, they often stick to their internal selling side and mention the company or product name on multiple occasions. If you notice that the company or product is being overused (especially if the full name is being used instead of an acronym or nickname), then it’s likely a fake review. If the review instead only mentions the company name once or twice, it’s real.
2. It’s not too perfect.
Fake reviews that are written by professionals can be spotted due to their perfect grammar and spelling. Yes, there are consumers out there that can write well, but mistakes are likely to occur every now and then. When reviews have noticeable errors, it’s likely it was written by a real reviewer and not a paid professional.
3. There’s a profile.
Most online review sites require their users to create a profile before writing a review. If you’re having a hard time deciding whether or not the review is real, take a look at the reviewer’s profile. If the profile is complete and has a picture, the review can typically be trusted. Individuals that write fake reviews won’t typically take the time to completely fill out their profile.
4. There are multiple reviews.
Along with looking at the profile of the reviewer, take a look at the other reviews they’ve written. If there is a steady stream of reviews that vary from positive to negative, then the review can typically be trusted. If this is the only review written, you may want to be a bit skeptical but not completely rule it out, as this may have been a certain experience that forced someone to leave a review for the first time. IF you notice that there are a handful of reviews that contain the same type of content (such as all negative or all positive reviews) and if you notice they’ve been published around the same time, the reviews are likely fake.
5. They get to the point.
Most real reviews will get to the point about their review, whether it was good or bad. These people don’t have a ton of time to give details about their experience other than what’s important. Reviews that are shorter in length and get to the point are typically real.
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Caleb Grant is a reputation manager and avid blogger from Houston. He is currently teaching other review trackers how to track review alerts.
