What Are Fake Shopify Reviews?
- paid to write the review or
- given free product(s)/service(s) to write a good review.
How does Google Feel About Fake Reviews On Shopify?
Google Will Penalize Fake Shopify Reviews
However, Google will penalize fake Shopify reviews as having them on your website is a violation of their terms of service. Penalization by Google could spell disaster for your business. You will- Lose out on organic search by being removed from search results, or
- Be banned from Google entirely!
How Google Finds Fake Shopify Reviews
- images
- videos
- FAQs and Q&A
- captions
- tags
- links
- metadata
The impact of reviews is so important that Google says "Reviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased. (For example, business owners shouldn’t offer incentives to customers in exchange for reviews.)” Make sure that you are not caught with fake or misleading data on your website. Google is looking for those things.
Add Verified Testimonials To Your Store Today!
How Can Fake Reviews Hurt Your Business?
You're probably wondering how fake reviews can even hurt your business right? Well, there have been many major cases where a business has faked reviews and have gotten nailed for it. Just recently in October of 2019, Sunday Riley (a skincare brand that sells through Sephora) got slammed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They asked their employees to create fake accounts through Sephora and leave glowing reviews on their products. Many customers now no longer trust the brand because of this manipulation and brand trust is so hard to build, but so easy to ruin. Now customers feel like they can't rely on reviews to decide whether something is good or not.Other real-life businesses fined for fake reviews:
- New York: Attorney General Settles With 19 Companies In Fake Review Crackdown
- California: Car Dealers Fined $3.6 Million For Fake Reviews & Deceptive Practices
How Does Shopify Combat Fake Reviews?
In addition to getting fined in real life by hosting fake reviews on your Shopify store, there are other consequences. Posting fake reviews is against Shopify's Terms of Service, and they will crack down on you. Shopify understands that the ecosystem of the entire platform is put at risk by a few unscrupulous merchants. Your store can be shut down by Shopify at any time if you are caught- running a random review generator on your website or
- uploading fake reviews through an app
That means no more revenue and no more customers!
Add Verified Testimonials To Your Store Today!
Other Drawbacks of Fake Shopify Reviews
When you use fake reviews, not only do you lose trust from your customers, but you aren't getting valuable feedback to help you improve your product. How can you know what is working and what isn't when you don't have any real reviews? How can you know that the pigment in your eyeshadow isn't strong enough or that the extension cord you have for your chargers isn't long enough? You can't improve without feedback. There is nothing wrong with hearing negative feedback. If you don't address it your business can't move forward and the problem will happen with future customers who will leave truly negative reviews. That is why you should always respond to reviews good and bad on your website. Doing so helps people see that you are an active business and are always looking to improve.Dealing With Fake Reviews
First, if you have fake reviews on your Shopify store, remove them IMMEDIATELY. Have fake reviews that are left by your competition? Respond to them in a friendly manner, and offer the poster a refund for their purchase! There was no purchase, but it shows that you are willing to work with people who have had a bad experience and this will help future customers feel better about doing business with you.How to Gather Legitimate Reviews
If you are looking to gather reviews, consider using an app that helps you verify the accuracy of your reviews. There are lots of great Shopify apps like Fera that will help you verify, manage, gather and display- reviews
- photos
- videos
- shopper counts
- recent sales pop-ups
- any other user-generated content
Get Your Shopify Reviews Verified By Fera
Fera will help your shoppers see that the data is verified by Fera so they know they can trust you and the content they are seeing.Your business is important, it may be helping you save or retirement, buy a new house, feed your family, or just buy cool vacations. Either way, using fake reviews could make you lose business quickly if your shoppers realize you are lying to them.