The Dos and Don’ts of Buying Google Reviews . These days, potential customers consult online reviews before making a purchase more often than not. In fact, 84% of consumers say that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. And when it comes to local businesses, nearly 90% of searchers say that they’ve used online reviews to determine whether or not a business is worth their time and money.
The Dos and Don’ts of Buying Google Reviews
Given the importance of online reviews, it’s no wonder that some businesses have resorted to less-than-ethical means to try and increase their number of positive reviews. However, if you’re thinking about buying Google reviews for your business, think again. Here’s why:
It Violates Google’s Terms of Service
This one should be a no-brainer, but we’ll say it anyway: buying Google reviews violates Google’s terms of service. And if you violate Google’s terms of service, there’s a chance that your business could be suspended from using Google My Business—which would be a disaster for your local SEO efforts.
Not only that, but when Google catches wind of the fact that you’ve been buying reviews, they may also take manual action against your site. This could result in your site being penalized, which would cause it to drop in the search rankings. In short, buying Google reviews is a risk not worth taking.
Your Customers Will Know (and They Won’t Be Happy)
Even if you manage to get away with buying Google reviews without getting caught by Google, there’s a good chance that your customers will figure it out—and they won’t be happy about it. In today’s social media-savvy world, customers are quick to call out businesses that they believe are engaging in shady practices.
And even if your customers don’t figure it out on their own, there’s always the possibility that one of the people you paid to leave a review could slip up and let the cat out of the bag. After all, most fake reviewers aren’t exactly professionals. So, even if you do manage to pull off buying Google reviews without getting caught by Google, there’s no guarantee that your customers won’t find out—and when they do, they probably won’t be too thrilled about it.
It Doesn’t Work Anyway
Even if you’re willing to take the risk of violating Google’s terms of service and angering your customers, buying Google reviews probably won’t even work anyway. That’s because Google has gotten pretty good at spotting fake reviews and they will filter them out accordingly. So even if you do manage to buy a bunch of fake positive reviews for your business, chances are good that none of them will actually show up on your GMB listing.