Why Buying Google reviews hurt your business
There you have it, your business on Google Maps, with a rating of 2 out of 5 stars and four reviews. Unfortunately, you had a couple of angry customers who left bad reviews because of no fault of your own other than unfortunate circumstances. They all but wrecked your internet reputation before you could build it up. The next time someone searches for your company, they are likely to scroll right past you.
You may feel desperate at this point; you understand your online reputation’s importance, and starting low could be better. So you look for an efficient solution, even if it is costly. And so you consider buying Google reviews. Is it worth it? Let’s find out.
What are the consequences of buying Google reviews?
Google has made it clear that reviews must be honest about a customer’s experience at a business. “Review information should not be provided solely to alter a location’s ratings, and don’t publish phony content or use several accounts to post to the same area.”
Unlike Yelp, which issues consumer alerts to businesses with fake Yelp reviews, Google can remove the infringing business’s entire listing based on the Google review policy. In other words, doing fake reviews to get as much attention as possible will end up giving you no attention.
Is buying Google reviews a good idea?
The simple answer is No. Reviews and SEO (search engine optimization) work together to make a brand more visible online. As a result, Google reviews have become an essential component of many businesses’ local SEO strategies.
Suppose you buy Google reviews to get to the top of local search results. In that case, you risk seeing your rankings plummet once Google realizes that your evaluations don’t accurately depict the consumer experience.
Furthermore, purchasing Google reviews has legal ramifications. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act was made to protect consumers and punish anyone who tries to buy Google reviews or any other kind of fake review. The FTC will hold you accountable if you are detected utilizing fake or paid reviews.
The FTC fined a weight loss supplement business $12.8 million in 2019 for using fraudulent Amazon reviews. You’ll have to pay a hefty fine if you use fake reviews. If you’re caught buying Google reviews, you might not have to pay as much, but the penalty can still hurt your business’s finances.
No matter what “Google review merchants” say, you’re bound to get a few online reviews that are so obviously false that they don’t help your business’s reputation at all. Consumers today are sophisticated and have various methods for detecting online review fraud.
If your firm buys Google reviews, it will also be unable to use valuable and authentic unsolicited feedback, essential for fostering meaningful business improvements. You may also lose sight of real customer experience issues or problems your team needs to solve, which could help your brand’s online reputation in the long run.
What can you do to improve your Google reviews?
Instead of buying Google reviews to help your company rank higher and get more business, you could devise effective ways to ask for reviews on Google.
This type of outreach will benefit your company in the long term. Proactively soliciting feedback and knowing how to get Google reviews organically should also strengthen customer connections and connect your company to the voices that count the most.
When combined with a proactive strategy to monitor your local search position, your business can eventually compete with, and even overtake, the local competitors in terms of visibility in search results, which should assist in boosting customer acquisition.
It isn’t worth the risk to pay for a service provider’s reviews on Google.
Instead, read both good and negative comments to determine what is effective and what needs to be changed. Often, unhappy customers will return if you know how to respond to bad reviews. Unfortunately, businesses that purchase Google reviews are unlikely to have mastered the skill.
It would be best to put the most effort into creating enjoyable experiences. Delivering consistently superior customer experiences and cultivating “wow” moments with customers is the most straightforward, most efficient approach to increasing (and improving) the number of Google reviews for your business.
Contact Yourlabel today to turn your customer experiences into stars!