If You Are Thinking To Buy Google Reviews Think Twice

Regardless of your business's size, reviews play a vital role in growing your business. These reviews benefit people looking for a particular service or product they want because they help them know about how others are using it, what their experiences are, and most importantly, whether they are facing any after-purchase issues. Business owners know and understand this and use it to increase their sales and make a good impression of their product or service among the people; they Buy Google Reviews. Reconsider if you own a business and have a product and are considering buying Google Reviews. Would it be good or bad? Legal or illegal? What could be the consequences if Google finds any fake reviews? In this guide, you will find everything essential to understand before purchasing reviews on Google.  

Why does Google Reviews have significance?

Google reviews play a crucial role in running a business online, especially in its digital presence, since most users nowadays simply search for a product or company on Google and read what people have to say about it. "The better the review, the better the sales and brand imageI." It holds a strong significance towards building the customer's trust. As per the report, more than 70% of consumers still believe in reviews they find on Google. 

Why do people buy Google reviews?

There are a lot of reasons why Google reviews are purchase. running a business is a bit challenging and reviews offer them a faster approach to get the success since it makes a direct connection with the company and the consumer. Here are some of the most common thoughts behind purchasing fake reviews.

• Businesses are willing to compete in the market because of heavy competition; an extra 5-star rating can help them to stand out.
   
• Those businesses that have fewer customers because they are new in the market struggle with getting more reviews and reaching new customers.
   
• A handful of bad reviews can potentially decrease their ratings, which is why they seek help from AI-generated reviews and try to compensate for the ratings game. 

Legal and Ethical Angles regarding Fake Reviews.

Buying fake reviews also comes with illegal and ethical consequences. Fake reviews are illegal and banned in many countries, and regulatory bodies have strict guidelines regarding the practice of any related activity. 

• "In the United States, companies found guilty of buying fake reviews can face penalties of up to $43,792 per violation, as outlined in the FTC's Penalty Offenses. The director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, Samuel Levine, said, "Fake reviews and other forms of deceptive endorsements cheat consumers and undercut honest businesses." He also added, "Advertisers will pay a price if they engage in these deceptive practices." You can read it here:  
   
• The  CMA in the United Kingdom has taken decisive action against purchasing or creating fake reviews that are done by businesses.

Consequences

The consequences for buying fake reviews can be severe, and here are some of them that include some strict actions as stated below.

• Removal of fake reviews by Google: Google continuously detects and deletes reviews that violate its policies. 
   
• Account suspension: Many people have faced such account suspension or have been temporarily banned by Google if any such fishy activity is identified. Google's policies are intended to provide original and true information on the internet to its users about a company or product. 
   
• SEO gets affected: Here, these fake reviews will impact a business in such a way that it loses visibility in local search results, and its potential customer won't find their product and services, eventually losing them, and consumers will find competitors' products and services. Some SEO penalties include-
  • Search Rank Penalties are when the business reduces its visibility in search results.
     
  • Complete delisting from Google's Local Pack and Maps means users won't find the business even if they search for it.
     
  • Loss of legitimate reviews since Google will remove flagged fake reviews, but there is also a high chance that genuine reviews will also be removed. 
     
  • It affects the organic search traffic through several factors, such as signaling low trustworthiness where fake reviews breach the quality standards, creating inconsistencies because fake reviews feel unnatural and low engaging, and damaging CTR or click-through rates that strongly hurt the SEO performance report. 

Reasons to say no to purchasing fake Google reviews.

• Paying for the reviews is unethical and illegal. Many countries have strict laws against fake reviews. One such country is the UK, where the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) takes action against agencies because they breach the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, which can lead to civil or criminal proceedings. Similarly, the US has the Federal Trade Commission that handles and provides guidelines for such activities.
   
• Google may find it not lawful. You have to understand that Google's entire business runs on trust since users trust Google for the authentic and genuine information Google provides them, and when it comes to fake reviews, it breaks users' trust in Google. Here, Google does not bump your My Business local search box out of the search results in case it finds a number of fake reviews. 
   
• Fake reviews are easily spotted. Anyone can spot fake Google reviews because they generally contain poor wording and are irrelevant to the company or product in question. The accounts' profiles have a wide range of reviews on a variety of companies and products in a short period of time. 
   
• Your company's visibility and ranking will be badly affected. Say no to such manipulative practice of buying fake Google reviews because it can badly affect the ranking on Google search since Google's algorithm uses advanced AI and ML technologies to identify whether your company or product has fake reviews or not. Your company's growth, organic traffic, and visibility decreased, which potentially leads to damaging online presence and brand image. 

Practices must consider buying Google reviews instead.

• You should not ask third-party digital marketing agencies to write fake reviews for you. 
   
• You should not write reviews about your products because it won't help you find the true response and suggestions that may help your product to be improved and your company grow. 
   
• You must make sure that any third party you are considering to work for your digital marketing adheres to the guidelines and rules.
   
• You should consider working with a reputable Google-licensed review partner who can manage authentic reviews on behalf of your business.
   
• Happy customers write positive reviews, so work for your customers' satisfaction and keep taking feedback from them. 

Final Thoughts

In this digital era, where customers are blindly relying on what is written about the product instead of doing their own research, companies are purchasing fake reviews so that they can build their brand image and growth, but it is completely illegal and comes with severe consequences. Hopefully, you have read this guide and found out why it is not good to buy Google reviews and think twice before doing any such activity. It may give you a benefit, but only for the short term. In the long run, you are putting your brand or company's reputation at risk.