Full Transcript
Lauren: Okay, so picture this. You open up your Google Business Profile in the morning, coffee in hand, and there's a brand new 1-star review. Vague, no details, from someone you've never heard of. And you immediately know it's fake. What do you do?
Honor: Welcome to the 805 Web Minute with Lauren and Honor. We make website stuff make sense. Let's get into it.
Honor: Yeah, this happens way more than people realize. And the gut reaction is either panic or rage, both totally valid. But there's actually a pretty clear playbook here.
Lauren: Okay, first question. How do you even know it's fake versus just a real customer who had a bad day?
Honor: Good question, because not every bad review is fake. Sometimes someone had a legit terrible experience and they want everyone to know. That's fair. But fake reviews have patterns. Click the reviewer's name. If they have no profile photo, one or two reviews total, and the text is super generic like, quote, terrible experience, would not recommend, no specifics at all, that's a red flag.
Lauren: What about if three bad reviews show up in the same week?
Honor: That's review bombing. Usually a competitor or someone with a personal grudge. Another tell is if the reviewer lives in Miami and your plumbing business is in SLO, something's off. And check if they also reviewed your competitors. If they gave your competitor 5 stars the same day they gave you 1 star, that tells you exactly what's going on.
Lauren: Okay so I've spotted it, I'm sure it's fake. Now what? Google's gonna swoop in and delete it, right?
Honor: I wish. Google does take this seriously. In 2023 they removed over 170 million policy-violating reviews. So they are paying attention. But their system is automated, and automated systems miss stuff. Sometimes a review gets removed in three days. Sometimes it takes a month. Sometimes it never gets removed at all.
Lauren: That's frustrating. So what's the reporting process look like?
Honor: Three steps. First, open Google Maps, find the review, click Flag as Inappropriate, pick your reason. Second, go to your Google Business Profile dashboard and report it there too, belt and suspenders. Third, if you're getting hit with multiple fake reviews at once, search for the Google Business Redressal Form and fill that out. That one gets more attention than a single flag.
Lauren: And then you just wait?
Honor: You wait. But here's the thing that matters more than the report itself. Respond to the review publicly. Every future customer who reads your reviews is going to see your response. Keep it calm, keep it professional. Something like, we take all feedback seriously but we don't have a record of serving someone by this name. If you did visit us, please reach out directly. Done.
Lauren: Oh that's smart. You're not accusing them of lying, but anyone reading it can figure it out.
Honor: Exactly. You look reasonable, they look sketchy. And while you're at it, start asking your happy customers for reviews. Every real 5-star review pushes that fake one down and dilutes its impact on your rating.
Lauren: What about posting fake positive reviews to balance it out? Just a few, nobody would notice, right?
Honor: Do not do that. 97% of consumers think businesses caught using fake reviews should be punished. And the FTC can now fine you up to 51,744 dollars per fake review. Don't become the thing you're fighting against.
Lauren: Yikes. Okay that number scared me.
Honor: As it should. Here's the honest truth though. Google doesn't catch all fake reviews. You might do everything right and still have that fake 1-star sitting on your profile six months later.
Lauren: So what's the real defense?
Honor: Having enough real reviews that a fake one is just noise. If you have 50 reviews averaging 5 stars and someone drops a fake 1, your rating goes from 5.0 to 4.9. Nobody cares. If you have 5 reviews and a fake 1-star lands, you drop to 4.3. That hurts. Put your energy into building up the real ones.
Lauren: That's the quick tip for today.
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Lauren: Thanks for listening, and keep growing.