Reviews are important for any local business and generating fake reviews has become a focal point for many. Whether the review is positive or negative you should treat it the same. For smaller businesses that manage their own reviews, they would likely know if the review lines up with the transactions they’ve had in the past. For larger companies or companies who manage their client reviews, here are some clues to find fake reviews.
The 1st item to check is to see if the review even makes sense. Sometimes the people who make fake reviews, don’t take the time to check out the business they are leaving a review for. So if you are a car dealer getting a review on how great your pizza is, this is likely fake.
The next item to check is to look up your listing in Google Maps. Scroll down to your reviews and click the profile link for the review in question. Look for clues like if the person left reviews for a ton of places in say 10 mins, or if the person left reviews for 8 different law firms. Unless the person is very unlucky, it's unlikely the person went through 8 car accidents.
Once you are confident the review is fake, click on the review in Google maps and look for the three dots on the right. Click these dots and click Flag as inappropriate. You can also flag reviews through your Google My Business dashboard. Be sure that the reviews you flag are one of the following violations:
-This review is not relevant to this place
-Conflict of interest
-Offensive or sexually explicit
-Privacy concern
-Legal issue
Flagging a review simply because it was a negative review left by a legitimate customer will not have the review removed and lower your accounts trust score. This could lead to less success when you actually report a fake review down the road.