Tempted to buy reviews on Google? Do this instead

Customers begin their search on Google, and a recent Birdeye study found that 92% of customers read at least two reviews before making a choice. While taking shortcuts by buying reviews on Google might be tempting, it is the most disastrous thing you can do for your business.

Gaining the perfect 5-star Google reviews by paying third-party providers or using bots or fake profiles to portray your business as “the best” to increase customer reviews might seem like a quick fix, but Google can easily spot these tactics.

There’s a better way to boost your business’s online reputation honestly. 

In this post, we’ll reveal proven strategies for encouraging satisfied customers to leave genuine reviews: no shady tactics, just honest feedback.

Can you buy reviews on Google?
No. Buying Google reviews is illegal and can lead to Google removing your Google Business Profile (GBP) from their platform. 

Scroll on to know more! 

What does it mean to buy Google reviews?

Buying Google reviews can mean a business: 

• Offering incentives to its customers for leaving positive 5-star reviews
• Paying third-party service providers to generate fake reviews from non-customers to rank higher on Google Maps 
• Accessing software or bots that auto-generate positive reviews

All these cases generate fake Google reviews and do not reflect the experience with the business. 

Is it legal to buy reviews?

No. Paid Google reviews are misleading endorsements that are illegal to promote as a genuine account of your customer’s experience.

FTC landmark judgment bans fake reviews and celebrity testimonials

On August 14, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took a major step to combat the growing prevalence of fake reviews and testimonials online.
Key provisions of the rule:

• Fake reviews and customer testimonials: Prohibits businesses from creating, selling, or buying fake reviews, including AI-generated ones or those written by people without experience.

• Incentivized reviews: Bans businesses from offering incentives for reviews with a particular sentiment.

• Insider reviews: Prohibits businesses from disseminating reviews written by company insiders or their relatives without clear disclosure.

• Review websites: Prevents businesses from misrepresenting the independence of review websites they control.

• Review suppression: Prohibits businesses from using threats or intimidation to suppress negative reviews and requires transparency about review gating practices.

• Fake social media indicators: This law prohibits selling or purchasing fake social media indicators that misrepresent a person's influence.

How can buying Google reviews hurt my business?

In addition to legal action, when you buy Google Reviews, it can backfire in several ways:

Clear violations of Google guidelines

In their restricted content guidelines, Google clearly states that the reviews customers leave have to be authentic. When you pay for Google reviews, you generate inauthentic and disingenuous reviews that misrepresent your business and promote fake engagement. 

Did you know: A Seattle-based plastic surgeon, Dr. Javad Sajan, and his clinic, Allure Esthetic, was penalized with $5 million for review manipulation?

To make his brand look perfect and achieve a 5-star reputation, he:
‣ Created fake profiles to post positive reviews
‣ Pressurized the patients to remove negative reviews
‣ Threatened them with illegal NDAs
‣ Offered incentives for leaving positive reviews

Birdeye is against such malpractices and alerts other businesses to follow the ethics of running a business honestly.

Heavy fines from regulators

As mentioned before, the FTC can fine businesses nearly $52,000 per violation of its guidelines, so if you get caught buying reviews, you could be facing steep financial penalties, lawsuits, or even criminal charges.

For your convenience, we’ve compiled a six-minute video covering why buying Google reviews is a big no-no. We’ll address the risks  if you’re discovered with purchased reviews and provide authentic methods to generate more Google reviews from satisfied customers. 

Damaged reputation with potential customers 

Customers are savvy, and they know when a business is trying to rip them off. If customers feel that your reviews aren’t genuine, they will lose trust in your brand and seek out competitors. 

Negative word-of-mouth spreads quickly, and customers lose trust in a company that prioritizes deception over honesty.

Also, your existing customers might mention the incentive in their reviews. Let’s say a customer writes, 

“This place was awesome. They gave me a $5 credit just for leaving a review! Great pizza.” 

Anyone who reads that review won’t be convinced the pizza was great. They might even assume the opposite because the reviewer was incentivized to write it – erasing its authenticity.

Low-quality reviews

When you buy Google reviews, you don’t have control over the quality of their content. Often, businesses receive vague or generic reviews—something like:

“This place is great!”—which won’t help their online reputation in any way.

Potential customers trust reviews and can easily spot fake Google reviews to better understand your business/products/services. A generic review does not help and may result in losing a potential customer. 

Review sites can detect fake reviews

Like Google, other review sites have sophisticated algorithms specifically designed to identify fake reviews. They penalize businesses that manipulate their reviews. This can lead to lower search rankings, making it harder for potential customers to find your business.

When they see a business buy business reviews, some sites generate pop-ups, so every time someone visits that profile, they’re confronted with a flashy warning not to trust that business.

All these may eventually lead to your GBP suspension as well. 

You won’t know what’s working and what’s not

You can’t improve your business without honest feedback. A customer might have been disappointed with some aspect of your business but leave a falsely good review because they’re receiving a reward. Their problem will go undetected and could occur again, deterring customers from returning and possibly resulting in a bad review.

Buying Google reviews might seem like a quick fix for a struggling online reputation, but it’s a risky gamble that often leads to more problems than it solves. 

6 Signs you're being scammed by fake review sellers

- Unrealistic offers: Avoid promises of quick, easy, or guaranteed results.
- No questions asked: Legitimate sellers want to understand your business.
- Excessive secrecy: Be wary of sellers who are secretive about their methods.
- Prepaid payments: Avoid upfront payments.
- Negative reviews: Check for complaints about the seller.
- Promises of fake reviews: This is illegal and unethical.

Why do businesses buy fake Google reviews?

Businesses may be driven to buy Google reviews for the following reasons: 

• Online reviews play an important role in ranking higher for local searches, and the competitor may have a substantially high review count. 
• Their business has not been doing so well, and they wish to get ahead of their competition quickly without investing time and resources in online reputation management. 
• Their GBP is filled with negative reviews from angry customers, and they wish to balance the scale with fake positive Google reviews quickly. 
• They do not have a system to ask customers for Google reviews and want to take the easy way out of buying reviews. 

Read this blog that covers 14 tips to help you deal with difficult customers smartly!

When businesses buy reviews on Google, they risk their online reputation, SEO efforts, and the trust they have established in the market. So why do it? 

6 proven strategies to boost Google reviews without buying

You don’t have to sacrifice your ethics and buy Google customer reviews to promote your business online. There is a better, more comprehensive approach: 

• Provide an excellent customer experience
• Consistently request customers to leave reviews
• Monitor eCommerce review sites to identify negative reviews 

All these accelerate the process and help you maximize the power of positive reviews with automated software like Birdeye.
Here are some essential tips to help you get more Google reviews and boost your ratings quickly and, most importantly, authentically:

How many Google reviews do you need to rank higher?

The number of Google reviews needed to rank higher isn't a fixed quantity. It's influenced by various factors, including:
- Your industry's competitiveness 
- Your business's location 
- The quality of your reviews 
 - Other ranking factors like website optimization, social media engagement, and link-building 

While there's no exact number, consistently acquiring positive reviews from satisfied customers is a proven strategy for Google Maps optimization that’ll improve your search rankings.

1. Ask for reviews immediately

Request your customers’ feedback while the experience is still fresh in their minds. Sending an email with a review request days after the customer interacted with your business may be annoying or wholly ignored.

Businesses can automate the review generation process by integrating the generation tool with their CRM systems. This way, as soon as a customer completes a transaction, the system triggers a review request. This chain of events shows customers that you care about their feedback and want to build a strong relationship beyond just transactions. 

Consequently, they are likelier to leave a detailed Google review about their experience.

2. Respond to all reviews

Whether good or bad, responding to feedback shows you care about what customers write on Google reviews. This displays your accountability to all potential customers reading reviews to choose a business. It also encourages other customers to leave reviews on Google. 

Responding to positive reviews shows customers that you value their feedback, allows businesses to turn customers into advocates, and boosts engagement on your Google Business Profile. Seeing positive reviews’ impact on a business can encourage customers to leave a review, even if they initially did not intend to. 

On the other hand, responding to negative reviews allows businesses to show they hold themselves accountable and are willing to hear customer feedback and act on it. This would deter potential customers from choosing a competitor and encourage other customers to share constructive feedback instead of reviews.’

Want to know more about responding to reviews? Read our ultimate guide to responding to reviews for more information and templates. 

Pro Tip: If you want to improve the quality of your responses or need assistance in saying the right thing, work with Birdeye, the only AI-powered review software. With a single click, you can craft responses, check grammar/spelling, improve the tone, and translate non-English reviews. 

3. Add a Google review link on your website and social media

Add a direct link to your Google review page on your website, social media profiles, and email signature. The easier it is for customers to find your review page, the more likely they are to leave a review.

Did you know: All you need is 1 Google review link to turn happy customers into loyal supporters? 

Leverage SMS channels to send a review request

The easier it is for customers to write a review, the more likely they will do so. With the rise in mobile usage, it’s crucial for businesses to adapt. Enhance the convenience of leaving Google reviews by sending review requests via SMS or email. 

A recent Birdeye study highlighted the effectiveness of SMS for review requests, showing that customers open 98% of them, with 95% responding within the first three minutes. As a result, more businesses are shifting from email to SMS for sending review requests to customers.

Building a strong SMS campaign can help you reach your customers immediately and secure their Google reviews. 

5. Make it super easy

Transitioning from a text message to a review site should involve minimal effort so the customer doesn’t have to think twice about continuing. Birdeye integrates with Google’s private API to route your customers directly from text messages to Google reviews.

Our customers, their stories: 

“I switched to Birdeye because it integrates with my practice management system and automatically sends review requests to all the patients who come in for an appointment. It's simple, easy, and automated, with no staff involvement. This has allowed me to double my Google reviews in a few months."

- Dr. Peterson Pierre, Pierre Skin Care Institute

6. Automate review generation for your business

Review management is not simple. It involves sending review requests, monitoring each location for new Google reviews, responding to them, handling negative feedback, and marketing positive reviews. 

Effective review management allows businesses to build a solid online reputation, which is critical to generating a higher volume of Google reviews. The stronger your business seems online, the easier it is to convince customers to write a review. 

Switching to automated review management software like Birdeye can help businesses save time, money, and resources while increasing efficiency. 

We integrate with your CRM tools, alert you when a new review drops, and consolidate all Google reviews for you to respond, action, and market from a single dashboard. This takes human error out of the equation and keeps those Google reviews coming for your business.

Generate genuine Google reviews instead of buying fake reviews

While buying reviews might seem like a quick way to boost a business’s image, earning genuine reviews is the most effective method to enhance online reputation. Purchasing Google reviews can result in legal issues, damage your reputation, and attract a slew of poor-quality feedback. 

Therefore, businesses must focus on improving customer experience, simplifying the process of leaving Google reviews, and automating the process for better results. 

Frequently asked questions about buying Google reviews

Want more Google reviews? Do it legally with Birdeye

Are you looking to manage multiple Google Business Profiles across locations, generate Google reviews, and manage them all from a single dashboard? Birdeye has you covered. 

With Birdeye Reviews, businesses can:

• Connect with CRM to automate review requests 
• Send review requests via SMS and email channels 
• Display QR codes that lead straight to the reviews page to improve review generation from offline channels like retail outlets, events, and trade shows 
• Monitor, view, respond, and manage all reviews from a single dashboard across locations 
• Leverage AI to improve review responses, translate non-English reviews, and generate review summaries 
• Market reviews on social media channels with a single click. 

Birdeye Reviews is built for large multi-location businesses to simplify their reputation management efforts and build a more substantial presence on Google. Watch the free demo to learn more.