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Comments from customers in review websites are considered by most business owners as a serious matter. With the accessibility of the internet, a lot of people are relying online for information and that includes information about local businesses. Review websites such as Yelp enable consumers to leave a review on different businesses to help other individuals decide which companies are credible while at the same time enabling business owners to promote their company for free. While genuine reviews, regardless of whether these are positive or negative, are always a good thing, Yelp false reviews can kill your business especially if these contain comments that are damaging to your reputation. False reviews are actually very common and business owners may resort to such dirty tactics to ruin the credibility of their competitors while duping customers into thinking that their products are far better. 

How Reviews Can Affect Your Business

Review websites are not only common but are also very popular among consumers. It is a means of getting an overview about a certain product to help a consumer decide if it is worth his or her money.   Aside from being able to post individual reviews, these websites also usually have online forums and discussion groups. Given the fact that more than 90% of people actually go online to check different businesses, this means a large number of people can view reviews about your business anytime in any part of the world. This is why most business owners focus on getting positive reviews and try to avoid getting bad ones. Having stellar reviews can boost business sales mainly because it helps attract customers and also exposes you to more clientele by increasing your rank in search engine listings. Negative reviews, on the other hand, can make it difficult for customers to trust you, slowing down business and putting you behind in search engine ranking. 

What To Do About Fake Reviews

Yelp false reviews can kill your business if you do not do anything about it. It can drive away potential customers and lessen your exposure to more client leads. You cannot delete the false review yourself but there are certain measures you can take to try and have it removed. If you suspect that the review is really false, you can mark it as inappropriate and submit a complaint to the web publisher of Yelp. Yelp’s publisher will then decide if there is sufficient data to support your claim regarding the authenticity of the review. If the publisher finds due cause or the review is in direct violation of any of the site’s terms and conditions, the review will then be removed from Yelp. Another option is to file a lawsuit against the writer of the review for defamation. If the court rules in your favor, Yelp will have to remove the false review even if they are in no way liable for it. 

Yelp’s Review Filter

Knowing that Yelp false reviews can kill your business, Yelp has set up a review filter to help screen out fake reviews from genuine ones. This is part of Yelp’s effort to provide consumers with reliable reviews since their main goal is to connect customers with local businesses.

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