Yelp review website:
The famous review website Yelp was founded in the year 2004 by some PayPal workers. Within a span of few years, Yelp has become the biggest crowd-sourced review websites. As per latest statistics, Yelp has got 145 million monthly visitors & approximately 135 million reviews posted on their website.
If you use negatively, Yelp can be used to damage the business of their owners. Most business owners believe that a positive review is very much important for longevity of any company.
Does Yelp has any correlation with decreased business?
As a report of California University in 2011, even a half star can increase or decrease in your online business ratings. Most of the business owners are unaware of the algorithm in Yelp reviews.
You need to be stay proactive as the damage caused by unhappy employee can be serve. Fake or spam reviews have been increased a lot. A new term has been introduced “Astroturfing”. What is Astroturfing? It is the practice of masking reviewers as authentic and original. It occurs when the companies pay for reviews.
How to spot Astroturfing/fake reviews?
Exaggeration:
Fake/ spam reviews contains exaggerated statements. Just keep an eye on the content – if you find a review that is extremely positive means there’s too much praise for the company, consider it as a fake review.
Grammar:
Most people hire fake reviewers in countries where English is not the native language. You will find plenty of grammar mistakes.
Use of keywords:
If you find such reviews that contains the repetition of keywords which is also the part of “black hat search engine optimization (SEO)”. This practice affects the Google search engine rankings.
Without any logic:
If the written review is completely useless, does not make any sense. The reviewer has written about the restaurant, while the Yelp page is of a medical doctor. So, does it make any sense? No, you can spot such fake reviews that are illogical.
No recent activities:
You can easily determine whether the Yelp profile is genuine or not. See the previous posts of the Yelp profile, if the reviewer has posted reviews multiple reviews on multiple occasions then his profile is considered to be a ‘genuine’ one. If you find a contrast between the reviews, like in one review the reviewer has written all the positive things for a company and in the next review he has shown the negative aspect of another company.
Yelp’s content removal guidelines:
Let’s conclude the discussion:
Hope you have the idea how to recognize Astroturfing Yelp Reviews. Be proactive and try to respond firstly when you find such reviews. Your Yelp review page speaks on your behalf.
The famous review website Yelp was founded in the year 2004 by some PayPal workers. Within a span of few years, Yelp has become the biggest crowd-sourced review websites. As per latest statistics, Yelp has got 145 million monthly visitors & approximately 135 million reviews posted on their website.
If you use negatively, Yelp can be used to damage the business of their owners. Most business owners believe that a positive review is very much important for longevity of any company.
Does Yelp has any correlation with decreased business?
As a report of California University in 2011, even a half star can increase or decrease in your online business ratings. Most of the business owners are unaware of the algorithm in Yelp reviews.
You need to be stay proactive as the damage caused by unhappy employee can be serve. Fake or spam reviews have been increased a lot. A new term has been introduced “Astroturfing”. What is Astroturfing? It is the practice of masking reviewers as authentic and original. It occurs when the companies pay for reviews.
How to spot Astroturfing/fake reviews?
Exaggeration:
Fake/ spam reviews contains exaggerated statements. Just keep an eye on the content – if you find a review that is extremely positive means there’s too much praise for the company, consider it as a fake review.
Grammar:
Most people hire fake reviewers in countries where English is not the native language. You will find plenty of grammar mistakes.
Use of keywords:
If you find such reviews that contains the repetition of keywords which is also the part of “black hat search engine optimization (SEO)”. This practice affects the Google search engine rankings.
Without any logic:
If the written review is completely useless, does not make any sense. The reviewer has written about the restaurant, while the Yelp page is of a medical doctor. So, does it make any sense? No, you can spot such fake reviews that are illogical.
No recent activities:
You can easily determine whether the Yelp profile is genuine or not. See the previous posts of the Yelp profile, if the reviewer has posted reviews multiple reviews on multiple occasions then his profile is considered to be a ‘genuine’ one. If you find a contrast between the reviews, like in one review the reviewer has written all the positive things for a company and in the next review he has shown the negative aspect of another company.
Yelp’s content removal guidelines:
- Yelp is liable to remove the entire fake and spam reviews. Reviews that exhibit conflict of interest include reviews by former competitors. If the review is completely plagiarized then it would be likely to be removed by Yelp.
- If the review contains offensive content or has written private information about the employer or employee.
- The review contains incorrect information will be removed by Yelp as it has violated the Yelp policies.
Let’s conclude the discussion:
Hope you have the idea how to recognize Astroturfing Yelp Reviews. Be proactive and try to respond firstly when you find such reviews. Your Yelp review page speaks on your behalf.
