The internet is buzzing the last few days with statistics stating 1/3 of all internet reviews are fake. I am not shocked by that percentage but I have to wonder if as a business owner you feel buying good reviews is a good idea?
It is common knowledge that we need reviews for SEO purposes as well as business purposes. When a client looks you up on the internet and see you have reviews the odds are they are going to read them before they make a decision to purchase from you or hire you for your services. I take a look at the reviews and expect to see a mixture of good and bad reviews and if you really want to dig further into the reviews a lot of times you can see a history of the end-user leaving the reviews. It is also real easy to spot the fake reviews if you are curious and begin to dig deeper.
As a business owner you have to make decisions every day about how to run your business. It is a known fact that at least 5 google reviews will help improve your SEO. A lot of companies are obsessed with trying to get the most reviews and some even pay for those reviews. It really isn’t that hard to remind some of your clients to leave a nice review when they have time. It takes effort and a bit of time to build up your reviews bu there is no need to rush to the gates and collect 200 reviews over night.
If you do ask for reviews always remember to have your clients leave reviews in different areas of the web. For instance ask some of your clients to leave a review on your Google+ Local page ask some of your clients to leave a review on your Yelp page and so on. Remember all of these review sites are technology and there are times technology will fail. If you collect all of your reviews on one site and that site happens to loose all of your reviews (and it happens all the time) you basically start from the beginning all over again. But if you have reviews on other pages this lose will not be as dreadful.
I do not condone buying reviews but I also don’t see the big urgency to rush out and purchase reviews. Your online business should be built with the same sound structure that you build your off line business with and as we all know there are no short cuts!
