Love them or loathe them, online reviews are big business. Your star rating can play a huge part in whether someone chooses you or your biggest competitor.

But we all know reviews aren’t always fair, honest, or in some cases, even real. From glowing fake feedback to defamatory lies, the world of online reviews can get a little sticky, legally speaking. 

In this guide, we’ll break down the key legal rules and cases that every US business and review writer needs to know. 

Reviews and the law: TL;DR

The reality of reviews 

Good, bad, or fake, every online review is subject to the law.

For businesses, it’s not just about customers breaking the law; your own actions can also lead to legal headaches. Staying up-to-date on the law can help you avoid lengthy lawsuits and significant fines. 

Review site guidelines vs. the law 

Let’s start with guidelines. Yelp, Google, Facebook, and all other reputable review sites have extensive terms and conditions and review guidelines for users to follow.

These guidelines aren’t the same as the laws around US reviews. Doing something perfectly legal may get you a telling off, or even a ban from some review platforms if it’s against their own rules.

For example, there is no hard and fast rule around incentivizing for reviews, but platforms, including Yelp, are firmly against this. 

When you sign up for review platforms, you’ll often end up agreeing to their terms and conditions. This means that, in theory, if you break these, you could end up breaking contract law. Of course, what’s included in these terms can’t be illegal, but there’s more to think about than just US law. 

The big one: FTC Final Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials

In October 2024, the Federal Trade Commission announced its long-awaited online reviews Final Rule, formally known as 16 CFR Part 465: Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials. 

While not the first legislation influencing online reviews, this Final Rule seeks to give clear national guidance on a previously grey area. It aims to stop the buying and selling of fake reviews, with big penalties against “knowing violators”.

This includes: 

Fake reviews and testimonials 

Reviews and testimonials are now banned if they are written by someone who;

1. Doesn’t have real experience of a business
2. Misrepresents their experience. 

This includes AI-generated fake reviews, or fake review attacks by real people aiming to damage or boost a business’s reputation unfairly. It also covers testimonials falsely attributed to celebrities.

It is now against the law to buy and sell fake reviews if the business “knew or should have known” that the reviews or testimonials are false.

Buying positive or negative reviews 

Businesses can no longer give money or other incentives if they are conditional on customers writing a positive (or negative) review. This is true whether the incentive is clear or just implied. 

This doesn’t mean that incentives are completely out of the question. Businesses are still legally allowed to reward customers for leaving a review as long as it’s unconditional on whether this review is positive or negative. However, make sure you check the individual review site’s guidelines before doing this, as platforms including Yelp are against this.

Insider reviews and testimonials 

Reviews written by someone with a vague link to the company are now prohibited. This includes reviews written by managers and officers, and any testimonial that the business should have known was written by a company insider. 

It also imposes rules on reviews solicited from immediate family members, employees, or employees’ families. Transparency is key here. If a family member or employee has a legitimate reason to leave a review, they must disclose their connection to avoid misleading consumers. 

Review suppression 

Businesses are not allowed to threaten or attempt to intimidate review writers to prevent or remove negative reviews. This includes both physical and legal threats. 

The Final Rule also bars businesses from misrepresenting the reviews shown on their website as if they represent all or most submissions, when in fact negative reviews have been hidden or suppressed. 

This doesn’t mean you need to showcase your worst review front and centre on your website. But if you claim you have a perfect five-star rating on Google and this isn’t actually true, you could be fined. 

Company-controlled review websites

The Final Rule makes it clear that businesses can’t pass off websites they own or control as independent sources of reviews or opinions if these include reviews about their own products and services. 

This applies to company-run microsites, blogs, or platforms that look like review hubs but are in fact controlled by the business being reviewed. Even if the reviews themselves are genuine, failing to disclose a link is considered deceptive and could land you a fine. 

Misuse of social media influence indicators

This is not related to online reviews, but the Final Rule also stops the buying and selling of fake indicators of social media influence (e.g., followers or views by bots or hijacked accounts). 

This is limited to cases where the buyer “knew or should have known” that these indicators were fake and misrepresented their influence. This practice can mislead consumers about a business’s popularity or credibility.

Fines and the Final Rule

Rulebreakers won’t face jail time, but instead face civil penalties (AKA fines) of up to $51,744 per violation, or per day for ongoing violations. That’s not exactly pocket change for most local businesses. 

Before the Rule, the FTC needed to jump through additional hoops to bring enforcement under Section 5 of the FTC act. Now, they can fine violators directly. 

It’s important to note that the Final Rule doesn’t replace earlier laws or cover all areas of online reviews law (which we’ll touch on below). Instead, it strengthens the toolkit for the regulators, businesses, and local marketers fighting against fake and unfair review practices. 

For those who want to dig deeper, the FTC has published the full 163-page ruling, which lays out the specifics of what is and isn’t allowed. 

Other US laws and online reviews 

While the FTC’s Final Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials is a strong cover all for fake reviews and misrepresentation, it isn’t the first rule to touch the murky world of online reviews. 

Previous laws and cases already tackle some of the more pertinent issues surrounding reviews, while the Final Rule covers the gaps.

Other laws to be aware of include: 

• Defamation laws
• Anti-SLAPP rules
• The Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA) 2016
• Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

We’ll cover each in brief below.

Defamation laws

When it comes to online reviews and the law, one of the biggest legal risks comes down to defamation. In the U.S., defamation is defined as “a statement that injures a third party’s reputation”. To prove defamation, it must be: 

1. A false statement pretending to be a fact
2. Published or communicated to a third person
3. Be malicious or negligent in its intent (i.e., they knew it was wrong or should have checked)
4. Caused harm to the reputation of the subject 

Opinions (“The food was bland”) are protected by the First Amendment, but false claims presented as fact (“The food was laced with arsenic”) can cross the line into defamation. 

Sharing a genuine bad experience is protected. But making up or exaggerating facts to damage a business’s reputation could land a reviewer in court. 

Anti-SLAPP rules 

SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation) have been used to intimidate or silence people through costly and baseless legal action. 

In the past, some businesses have attempted to sue customers that left negative (but perfectly truthful) reviews. Even when these cases had no real chance in court, the threat of legal proceedings can intimidate reviewers into taking down their reviews. This kind of intimidation not only harms the reviewer, but also stops other consumers getting a full picture of a business. 

The introduction of Anti-SLAPP laws aimed to stop people from using threats of lawsuits to those exercising their First Amendment rights. These laws remain in place and continue to protect free speech and public participation in honest opinions and criticisms.

Consumer Review Fairness Act

The Consumer Review Fairness Act (CRFA) 2016 is a federal law that protects consumers’ rights to share honest experiences online. It made it illegal for businesses to add clauses to contracts that prevent customers from posting honest reviews or penalize them for negative feedback. It also tackled the requirement for customers to give up intellectual property rights in reviews. 

This law meant that customers could speak freely about their experiences without being punished or fined by businesses. 

Like with the FTC Final Ruling, breaking the terms of the CRFA can lead to fines. 

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

When it comes to online reviews, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is one of the most important laws businesses probably won’t have heard of. Essentially, it shields websites and review platforms from being held liable for content posted by users. 

This means if a customer leaves a negative review, a business cannot then sue Yelp or Google for hosting the review. If a business is unhappy with the legality of the review, it must either take the reviewer to court or attempt to get the review taken down if it’s against the site’s terms and guidelines. 

Review responses and the law 

It’s not just the practices surrounding reviews and what customers can write, but also how businesses choose to respond. Responding to reviews is a key part of managing your online reputation, but these responses are still bound by the law.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CRPA)

California’s CCPA and CRPA privacy laws protect consumers’ personal information and regulate how businesses can use it. When responding to reviews, avoid sharing any details that could identify a customer or reveal private information. 

Other states including Virginia, Connecticut, and Utah have their own privacy protections in place. Avoid the risk of a lawsuit no matter the location of your customers and never disclose personal information without consent. 

HIIPA

For healthcare businesses, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a critical consideration when responding to online reviews. 

HIPAA protects patients’ private health information, meaning you can’t share any details about a patient or their treatment in a review response, even if the patient has publicly shared their own details. Avoid mentioning appointments, treatments, diagnoses, or any other information that could identify the patient. Even thanking a patient by name can be risky. 

If a reviewer raises a serious concern, the safest approach is to address it in private by asking the reviewer to contact you directly. This way, there is no chance of breaking the rules. 

GLBA

Financial services businesses such as banks, credit unions, or lenders should be familiar with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) when responding to reviews. GLBA protects consumers’ private personal financial information, including balances, credit history, and other sensitive financial data. 

This means businesses can’t disclose any financial information in review responses, even if the original review raised specific concerns on these. Like with HIPAA compliance, the best way to tackle issues is to encourage the reviewer to get in touch privately. 

How to handle illegal reviews

Reviews sometimes cross the line into defamation, false accusations, or harassment. When this happens, it’s important for businesses to act carefully and legally. Follow our step-by-step plan to make sure things don’t get worse. 

1. Stay calm and assess the situation

Start by assessing whether the review is truly illegal or just hurtful. A review only crosses into lawbreaking if it includes defamation or involves threats or harassment. As you assess, keep in mind the Streisand Effect: could the effort to silence the review actually draw more attention to it? 

2. Document everything

Before taking action, make sure you have a full record of the review. Save screenshots, note the date and time, and capture any related correspondence with the reviewer. This evidence is essential if you escalate to the review platform or go down the legal route. 

3. Contact the review platform

Review platforms, including Yelp and Google, have procedures for reporting reviews that violate their terms of service and content guidelines.

Provide clear evidence that the review is false or illegal. Be prepared that platforms are often cautious and may only act when the violation is clear-cut.

4. Get legal advice

If you think the review may break the law, consult a lawyer who specializes in defamation to help you decide if your case has merit. Next steps may include a cease and desist letter or even pursuing a full lawsuit. 

Keep in mind that the bar is high: courts generally won’t punish opinions, so legal action tends to only be successful if you can prove the review is false. 

5. Get more reviews 

While you’re working your way through potentially lengthy legal and review platform processes, work on strengthening your overall reputation. Encourage recent customers to share their genuine experiences so that the illegal review has less visibility and effect on your overall star rating. 

Stay smart, stay legal

Online reviews are a powerful tool for businesses, but the legal landscape in the US around them is complex and constantly evolving. Between the FTC’s Final Rule on Consumer Reviews, defamation and anti-SLAPP protections, and state-specific privacy laws, it’s easy to get tangled in legal grey areas. 

The good news? Most honest reviews and responsible responses are perfectly fine. Don’t buy fake reviews or indulge in dodgy practices, and you’ll stay on the right side of the law. 

Please remember nothing here replaces professional legal advice. When in doubt, a qualified lawyer is the only person who can guide you safely through online reviews and the law. 

According to Yell Business, reviews can also help improve communication and customer service. They give your business credibility and act as social proof, even for very new businesses. Online reviews also provide other customers with valuable company information, with first-hand insights that business owners may not have thought to share.

Reviews are also becoming more prominent as a content format in their own right. Star ratings are increasingly visible in search results, with review add-ons for Google Ads and ratings in local search via Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business). Sometimes, snippets of actual reviews appear in results, making them a highly visible source of information and a frequent stop on the customer path to purchase.

In ranking terms, reviews are also important. The 2017 LocalSEO Guide ranking factors study pegged reviews as one of the most important local ranking factors. The number of good and bad reviews received was determined to play a part in local pack positioning, as was the speed and frequency of response.

Responding to reviews is a way of showing the world how much you care about the customer experience — as well as being a way to earn a few more local SEO brownie points. All reviews should be acknowledged promptly, but it’s particularly easy to succumb to temptation and respond to a negative review as soon as you see it. Before you give in to this impulse, it pays to be aware of the six core types of reviewer so you can formulate an appropriate, effective response to fit.

1. The First-time Reviewer

With only 63% of consumers having left a review for a local business, there are still plenty of shoppers out there who haven’t ever felt moved to review a business.

When you do encounter a first-time reviewer, keep in mind that if yours is the first review they’ve left, they clearly feel quite strongly about their experience (whether good or bad).

How to deal with the First-time Reviewer

You should take a first-time reviewer seriously and if good, appreciate that your service must have been outstanding to push them into leaving a review. Make sure to pass this feedback on to your team, and congratulate them on a job well done!

On the flip side, negative reviews must be delicately handled and considerable thought given to the response.  It’s unlikely that you will receive further interaction after the initial review, even when you do respond, but that shouldn’t impact how you proceed.

In the case of a negative review, ask yourself if there is any truth in the feedback and if changes need to be made internally to rectify the issue being flagged up. If valid, your response should outline the steps that will be taken to avoid this issue again in the future. And, if you disagree with the reviewer’s claims, politely and professionally provide your side of the story. This will help provide context to readers. 

2. The Serial Complainer

Serial complainers are the exact opposite of first-timers and will be prolific reviewers. They’ll have a long and storied history of leaving negative reviews and will likely review every business, product or service they use. They may well be incredibly picky and have unrealistically high standards or expectations of what they have actually paid for.

How to deal with the Serial Complainer

Tread carefully here, as the serial complainer has had lots of experience with other businesses just like yours. They are professionals at making you look bad. Your response will need to be very measured while also addressing the points made. Look at how other businesses have fared when dealing with them and avoid making the same mistakes.

Be aware that the serial complainer is very likely to continue the conversation and will respond back to your comments, often with additional complaints or disagreements. And if you can’t change their mind, don’t be too disheartened! 

3. The Direct Communicator

The direct communicator won’t mince words. They’ll get straight to the point and expect someone senior to take note. These are people who don’t direct their reviews to the world at large, but to you, the business owner.

If they’re negative, they’ll want to receive a very personal response and likely want to have the discussion on the public review site rather than over a private email conversation.

How to deal with the Direct Communicator

When dealing with a direct communicator, don’t be tempted to be similarly abrupt in your response.

Be clear but not overly wordy and don’t resort to a direct or confrontational style. Avoid making excuses too – the direct communicator values straight talk and expects swift action.

4. The Storyteller

The storyteller takes time to craft exceptionally detailed reviews.

They will share the smallest of details and paint a picture of their entire experience – typically including lots of information not directly related to the product or service being reviewed. You can recognize a storyteller by the length of the review. There’ll also be plenty of the reviewer’s own recommendations, suggestions, and advice.

How to deal with the Storyteller

If your storyteller is posting a negative account of their dealings with your business, take time to check and re-check your response before posting, as the storyteller will often be highly critical of replies which aren’t equally as thought out.

This doesn’t mean you should match the tone or length – don’t be tempted to add lots of background info if it doesn’t serve a purpose. Likewise, if they’re sarcastic and snide, don’t be tempted to match this tone, as it’ll likely backfire, and potentially damage onlookers’ opinions of your business.

5. The Sharpshooter

The sharpshooter pulls no punches. The review will be brief and to the point,  and perhaps poorly written or rushed. Don’t respond in kind to a sharpshooter or go too far the other way with a long-winded response.

How to deal with the Sharpshooter

When dealing with a review from a sharpshooter, be conscious that your reply should be concise but not short. Use succinct, clear sentences rather than wordy, elaborate ones to better reflect this type of reviewer’s communication style.

6. The Faker

Most businesses will have fallen victim to a fake review at least once. If you’re in that boat, you’ll agree that the faker is the worst kind of reviewer.

A faker has never used your business or purchased your product. Despite this, they have a grudge and delight in leaving one-star reviews with made-up complaints to damage your online reputation. They may be working on behalf of a competitor (or even be a competitor!) Do some research on them and see if they have links someone who would have beef with you. The review itself may also shed some light on this.

How to deal with the Faker

If you suspect a review is fake, check your customer records to determine if they have ever used your business.

Don’t be tempted to reply straight away if you think it’s fake. Instead, take a look at BrightLocal contributor Ben Fisher’s guide to getting fake reviews removed. In the meantime, focus on acquiring new positive, genuine reviews to push the fake one star down.

We’d love to hear your thoughts

What kinds of reviewers have you encountered and what tips do you have for responding? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.

Not only can this help you identify potential issues and address them promptly to minimize their impact, but it also enables you to respond quickly to all reviews left for your local business. 

This is important for two reasons. Firstly, businesses that respond to reviews tend to perform better in local search. And secondly, because today’s consumers actively check for review responses from business owners. 

How do you monitor reviews?

Monitoring your online reviews simply means you’re going to keep tabs on customer feedback left for you on relevant platforms like Google, Yelp, or Facebook. You can do this manually by checking each review platform individually or by using review monitoring tools.

The first step to monitoring online reviews for your business is to make a list of review sites. This should include both general review sites and industry-specific review sites relevant to your business. If you’re in the hotel or restaurant business, that could mean Tripadvisor. If you’re a tradesperson, that could be Angi. If you’re a contractor, Houzz. You get the idea.

If you’re unsure which review platforms are most relevant to you, you could ask your customers which ones they use. 

You can also add competitors into the mix here and piggyback off their activities. Find out which review platforms they’re most active on—do they have certain badges on their sites, such as a badge from TripAdvisor or Trustpilot? When you search for the company name, which review sites appear at the top of the results page?

As you build your list of sites to monitor, keep a record of any important sites that you don’t already appear on. You’ll need to initiate the review generation process on these platforms.

Manual review monitoring vs. review monitoring tools

When it comes to online review monitoring, you have two options—use a review monitoring tool like BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager or do it manually. 

Manual review monitoring is more time-consuming and runs the risk of reviews being missed. To reduce that possibility, ensure that:

• Your email address is registered with the review platform
• You’ve opted in to receive an alert each time a new review is published. Consider setting up a dedicated email folder for review alerts. 

A review monitoring tool is a more efficient and effective way to keep track of your online reviews.

It’ll do the time-consuming task of checking for new reviews for you. This removes the risk of reviews being missed and enables you to respond promptly. This means you’ll be able to take action quickly in the event of a negative review appearing. Many even offer the opportunity to respond immediately in the tool.

Tools usually allow you to monitor all your review platforms in one centralized location, too.

Whichever route you choose, be sure to keep a log of the frequency of reviews, the volume of negative versus positive reviews, and any action taken as a result of each review. If the rate at which you’re earning new reviews slows down, then further action will be needed to understand why that’s the case.

Understanding trends in your reviews

If you’re manually undertaking review monitoring, you’ll need to carry out an additional task to then make sense of your data. To understand the sentiment and identify common themes, you’ll first need to consolidate the text of the reviews together in one central location, such as a shared Google doc. 

Once you’ve done this, you can use a word cloud generator (Google has a free app here) to help you make sense of the data. The word cloud will show you common words and phrases that have been used. This will give you insight into which products, services, and themes are being discussed most frequently.

Look out for phrases such as ‘fast delivery’, ‘helpful’, ‘good customer service’, and individual product names. This will clue you in as to what people are liking, buying, and wanting more of.

You may also notice that there’s a correlation between these attributes and the reviews in a prominent position on your Google Business Profile. Google takes note when people regularly mention a particular element of service, such as ‘fast delivery’ or ‘outdoor dining’, and will add this as a highlight to your GBP on mobile devices.

How to use BrightLocal for online review monitoring 

If you’re looking for a streamlined way to track reviews across multiple platforms or for multiple business locations, BrightLocal’s Monitor Reviews is a strong option (if we do say so ourselves!) 

Monitor Reviews pulls in reviews from more than 80 review sites, including the big ones like Google, Yelp, Facebook, Tripadvisor, and Angi, as well as industry-specific platforms, all in one handy dashboard. 

This means you can see every new review without hopping between multiple websites, as well as respond to reviews and showcase the top ones on your website, all using BrightLocal. 

Here’s how to get started: 

1. Sign up or log in

Log in to your BrightLocal account, or start a 14-day free trial if you’re new here (welcome!) Then choose the business location or create a new one. Connect your Google and Facebook listings, and BrightLocal will start finding your reviews in the background.

2. Choose the review sources to track

Click Actions → Edit Report Settings to add the additional review sites you want to monitor. You’ll need the listing URLs for each site.

3. Set up alerts

While in the Reputation report settings, choose how often you want the report to run and how often we should email you with your review insights—daily, weekly, monthly, or only when new reviews are found. This ensures you never miss important feedback.

4. Spot trends with Review Insights

Use the Review Insights overview to dig into your review data and see where you need to improve. You can:

• Track review growth over time and spot spikes
• See your average star rating across all review sites
• Check the distribution of star ratings
• View the split of rating per review site to know which sites to focus on

5. View and respond in Reviews → Manage Reviews

After analyzing the data, jump into the full reviews in Reviews → Manage Reviews. Here you can:

• View all your reviews in one place
• Filter by star rating, review site, timeframe, or reviews that haven’t been responded to
• Respond directly to reviews (learn how here)

For more advice on mastering online review monitoring with BrightLocal, enroll in our free Academy course: Level Up Your Local SEO with BrightLocal.

How do I monitor Google reviews?

Monitoring Google reviews can be done either manually or by using an online review monitoring tool. Manually monitoring involves checking Google Business Profile (GBP) for new review alerts. You’ll also be notified via email when a new review is shared, with this notification going to the email address used to manage the GBP account. 

To access reviews, log into GBP and select ‘Reviews’ from the left-hand navigation.

How do I track negative reviews?

You can perform online review monitoring to identify negative reviews as they appear. This can be achieved by using a review monitoring tool or by manually checking the review platforms associated with your business. 

It’s important that negative reviews are quickly addressed to prevent damage to your reputation, so an automated tool is often the best bet. You can find our tips for how to handle negative reviews here.

Track Your Reviews in Real-time

Good or bad, monitoring online reviews doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Whether you track them manually or use an online review monitoring tool, you can see feedback as it comes in, respond quickly, and spot trends to help build reviews across the platforms that your customers use. Here’s to five stars! 

Perception of your business will have a strong influence over whether a potential customer makes a purchase or not. It also plays a part in turning a first-time customer into a loyal fan of your brand.

One of the best ways to build and boost your reputation online is through Google business reviews.

Although Google isn’t the only place you can receive this kind of feedback, it’s undeniably the most commonly-used tool for finding information online. This means it should always be your first port of call when building your reputation or managing your online reviews!

Google Reviews For Business

Google reviews are left by customers on your Google Business Profile.

You, as the business owner, then have the option to respond to this feedback. Doing so is a fantastic way to demonstrate that you’re engaged with your audience and that their feedback is valuable to you.

These reviews are important for a number of reasons, which we’ll explore further later!

Giving a Google Business Review

To leave a Google business review, a customer must give a star rating out of five—with five being the highest mark and one being the lowest.

Based on this, Google allocates an overall star rating to your business, which is then visible alongside your Google Business Profile (GBP) listing. The more stars you have, the more confidence potential customers will have in your business.

While giving a review, users also have the option to write in detail about their experience and to add photos:

Photos added during a review of your business will automatically feature in your GBP listing. You won’t have any control over which photos get shown, or in which order they appear, but you can flag a photo for removal if you feel it violates the Google Photo Guidelines.

Once a review is submitted by a customer, it’ll become visible on your business listing. Each review will feature the name and profile photo of the person who wrote it, which helps potential customers assess the legitimacy of each recommendation.

Anyone can click through to a user’s profile and read all of the reviews they’ve left on GBP listings. Being able to check previous reviews can help a user trust in the validity of a person’s experience. 

Google Local Guides

As well as getting reviews from regular users, you may also get them from Google Local Guides. Involvement in the Google Local Guides program requires contributors to submit reviews and photos of local businesses, as well as to make edits to business information, answer questions, and check facts on Google Maps.

Guides are rewarded for their contributions with special perks and badges—read more about Google Local Guides here.

If you’re a Local Guide, Google may ask you to expand on your business review with what is sometimes referred to as ‘sub-review’ content. Additional prompts (seen below) might focus on specific products purchased or ask you about local business facilities.

These are then displayed on the published business review to provide helpful snapshots for other users.

Where do Google reviews for businesses appear online?

The Local Pack

When a user searches for a local business in Google, they’ll usually be presented with the best three results at the top of the page. These three results are separate from the additional organic listings, and this section is known as the Local Pack.

Within the Local Pack, the average star rating from reviews will be shown within the listing:

Google Maps

When a user is searching for local businesses in Google Maps, the reviews will appear within each result as a star rating:

When a user makes a specific search for a particular business within Google Maps, they’ll be presented with comprehensive information from the GBP listing to the left of the map.

Users can scroll down through this area to find the review summary with an overall star rating, followed by photos and snippets from reviews. These reviews can be filtered by keywords, or sorted according to relevance, recency, and rating: 

Review Justifications

When a searcher provides specific intent for a local search, such as ‘vegetarian cafe’, then Google will take information from reviews to provide the most relevant results.

As you can see in the image below,  part of the search term appears in bold where mentioned—these results are known as review justifications:

Encouraging your customers to use specific keywords when leaving reviews can help you to improve your search visibility for relevant terms.

Your Website

As well as appearing in various places in Google Search and Maps, Google reviews can also feature directly on your business website. You’ll definitely want to show yours off so that prospective customers can better understand the benefits and value of your business.

Our Showcase Reviews widget is an easy-to-use tool that enables you to display your Google reviews on your website. This tool also allows you to showcase your customer feedback from more than 80 other review sites!

Why are Google reviews for businesses important?

As many as 96% of consumers will read responses to their reviews, with many expecting a prompt reply as standard. This expectation means that responding to reviews has become a normal aspect of good customer service. 

Earning a consistent stream of positive reviews from past and present customers will encourage others to have trust in your business. Amplifying your online reputation through reviews is a free way to increase sales and grow your future profits. 

What’s more, research has determined review responses to be a Google ranking signal, meaning you can easily give your brand a boost by simply taking the time to reply.

How to Set Up Google Reviews For Your Business

If you don’t have a Google Business Profile for your business, then you’ll need to set one up before you can start collecting reviews. Read our step-by-step guide on setting up a GBP listing to get started.

Once your listing is set up, you should spend some time optimizing it before you move on to thinking about reviews. For full details on how to optimize GBP, check out our Google Business Profile Learning Hub.

In Google Business Profile, managers of single listings now manage their profiles—and their reviews—directly within Google Search and Google Maps. 

Simply type the name of your business into the search bar, and you’ll bring up the GBP control panel. From here, you can navigate to the ‘Customers’ section, where you’ll find the ‘Reviews’ area. Here you can view and reply to customer feedback:

How to Get More Google Reviews For Your Business

Requesting feedback from your customers might not always be as easy as it sounds.

Check out Brian Barwig’s guide to asking for reviews for some simple tips on getting started, as well as an expansion on the many benefits of getting more reviews.

For more in-depth guidance on getting reviews specifically on Google, check out this dedicated guide.

How to Respond to Google Business Reviews

Responding to your customer feedback is essential for building and maintaining an amazing reputation.

You’ll be notified by Google whenever a customer leaves you a new review—making the monitoring process practically effortless. However, once you receive a notification email, you shouldn’t put off providing a response.

Types of reviews can be broken down into three categories:

• Positive
• Negative
• Fake

Regardless of the sentiment or legitimacy of a review, it’s still important that you respond!

Always responding in a timely and professional way can be tricky. Fortunately, we’ve taken the hard work out of it for you with these review response templates.

How to Respond to Positive Google Reviews For Your Business

You’ve received a positive review—great! You now have an opportunity to build upon your relationship with the reviewer and hopefully turn them into a repeat customer.

Begin by thanking the customer (by name) for taking the time to leave their comments. You should then address the feedback in a personable way. Make sure to reference any specific points that they have raised to avoid a ‘cookie cutter’-sounding response.

It’s a good idea to always end your reply by inviting the customer to visit your business again soon.

How to Respond to Negative Google Reviews For Your Business

Negative reviews are not only disheartening, but can also be damaging to your reputation.

Whenever you receive negative feedback, avoid the urge to immediately reply. Instead, take some time to absorb this feedback and to craft an appropriate response. You may have an opportunity to turn this situation around, and to repair the relationship with the unhappy customer.

A negative review response should still begin by thanking the customer for sharing their thoughts. Continue by apologizing for the negative experience, and invite the customer to share further feedback on what went wrong.

Make sure you supply contact details should they wish to discuss the matter further. You should also always make it clear that you’d like the opportunity to put things right.

How to Respond to Fake Google Business Reviews

Fake reviews can be just as harmful to your reputation as negative ones…and even more frustrating to deal with. 

If you receive a review and you believe it to be fake, then stay calm and refrain from responding immediately. Take some time to figure out if the feedback has come from a genuine customer or not. If you think it’s fake, then politely respond by asking the customer to get in touch directly. You can then decide if you want to report the incident to Google or not.

Google has created a tool specifically for requesting the removal of fake reviews which also helps business owners to track and manage the escalation process. Getting to grips with this tool will help you to understand how to delete Google business reviews. 

A BrightLocal study revealed that a shocking 82% of consumers will have read a fake review in the last year, demonstrating just how prevalent this problem is.

Trust in Online Reviews

Word-of-mouth advertising has long been recognized as one of the most powerful methods of marketing, and this is still true today.

For example, we know that 92% of consumers would trust a product or service recommendation from someone they know over any other type of advertising. 

In the digital age, online reviews are effectively word-of-mouth recommendations between strangers. Although these reviews don’t have the same personal touch as those from friends or family, they are generally perceived as a trusted source of information by consumers. 

Research has shown that 84% of people trust online recommendations just as much as they trust those from their peers. This highlights the importance of establishing and maintaining a positive reputation online.

This can be achieved through:

• impeccable customer service;
• high quality products/services; and
• responding to every review you earn.

Conquered Google Business Reviews?

When you’ve conquered the process of getting Google business reviews, responding to them, and using them to your business advantage, you’ll be asking yourself “what’s next?”

Depending on the size of your to-do list, you’ll be pleased to know there are many other places online that you can source customer feedback and enhance your reputation.

Ready to discover the next steps in your customer satisfaction journey? Let’s go!

What’s more, the tactics used to leave good or bad feedback for interactions that never really happened can differ from platform to platform. A red flag that helps identify a fake review on Google may not raise suspicions when you’re searching for fake Yelp reviews. 

So, why are fake reviews a problem? The reality is that fake reviews aren’t just a frustration or inconvenience. They have a real bottom-line effect that no local business can afford to ignore. The reputational damage inflicted by unjustified poor reviews can be costly in itself, but it becomes more pronounced if low-star ratings impact on consumer decision-making.

Fake reviews don’t just erode consumer trust in a local business though. Whether it’s via Google, Amazon, Yelp or Facebook, negative reviews could cause your local search ratings to suffer, costing you search visibility and putting you at a disadvantage against competitors. They also undermine your efforts to build a strong review profile – something that could have taken years to achieve. 

Tips for identifying fake reviews

With our review research confirming that 62% of people believe they have seen a fake review in the last 12 months, it pays to know what to look out for so you can take swift action against bogus feedback left for your local business. Here are our tips for spotting a fake review, regardless of the platform.

1. Look for clusters of reviews posted simultaneously 

Multiple reviews appearing at the same time could be a sign that something is amiss. If the timing for several reviews matches, it may be that the business has purchased feedback, paid for five-star listings, or offered incentives such as cash or free products to customers in exchange for their rating.

If you’re a local business that has been subjected to a series of poor reviews in quick succession, checking if the time of the submissions is roughly the same could be an indication that they are fake. If that’s the case, it may be that a competitor is trying to drive down your star ratings. 

2. Be wary of over-the-top descriptions 

Receiving complimentary feedback about your business, your team, and your services is a bonus of being proactive about building your review profile. 

However, comments that seem incredibly over-the-top, enthusiastic, and effusive could be suspicious. If the language seems to be very exaggerated in its praise, it may be that the reviewer isn’t genuine. This type of fake feedback will often be littered with exclamation points, too.

3. Look for specific details 

A lack of detail and specific information also gives food for thought when it comes to deciding if a rating is genuine or not. While most of us will admit to leaving just a star rating and perhaps a word or two when we’re pushed for time, a lack of detail can also indicate the person writing the review doesn’t have first-hand experience with that product or service. 

4. Be alert for words such as refund or discount 

Another warning sign that a competitor could be manipulating their review profile to artificially boost their local business is the use of words suggesting monetary payment or free products. Be alert for words such as gift code, voucher, discount, and refund which may suggest that the reviewer has been paid or coerced into leaving a positive rating. Incentivizing reviews is against most platform guidelines. 

5. Look for very similar reviews

If a local business has several reviews, but many of them are worded in much the same way, it’s likely you’re looking at a series of fakes. Genuine customers sharing their genuine experience of a business will naturally write in different ways, and use different styles of language and varied vocabulary. Fake reviews are often created and posted in bulk so are little more than duplicates. 

What does a fake review look like? 

In 2020 alone, Google removed 55 million fake reviews and terminated more than three million fake Google Business profiles. Its hard stance on inauthentic reviews saw it remove almost one million reviews reported by Google Maps users, too. 

However, buying and selling fake reviews is big business. So much so that Amazon has launched legal action in both Europe and America targeting more than 11,000 websites selling fake reviews.

With bad actors getting ever more inventive when churning out fake reviews to deceive consumers and artificially inflate (or drive down) business profiles, it pays to know what a fake review really looks like. As a small business owner, being able to identify malicious or phony feedback is the first step to taking remedial action – such as flagging it to the review platform and requesting removal. 

• Use of all caps: This review title is all in caps, which instantly raises a red flag. All of the other reviews on this product page have a lowercase, descriptive but not over-the-top title:

• Poor grammar: While it’s entirely possible this person is a non-native speaker, the poor grammar and unnatural use of language both indicate this is a fake review. 
• Excessive multimedia: The consumer group Which? says that many sellers who use incentives to gather reviews require pictures and videos to be included. This review stands out because it includes both a video and two images, which could be considered excessive for earphones in a box. 
• Overly favorable: The use of “the best” in the title in caps raises a red flag.
• Keyword stuffed: The word ‘the best’ is repeated twice in the short review. The text also notes the price is “only” £3.99 and ends with “highly recommend”. The overall impression is that the text has been written for an algorithm, not a genuine consumer. 
• Lack of profile information: This user has no profile information at all. Few details could signal this is a fake account created for review spam. 
• All positive reviews: This reviewer has posted a very small number of reviews, but they all follow a similar format with poor grammar, spelling mistakes, over-the-top praise, and a call to action for the reader to buy the relevant product.

Spotting fake reviews on Google

Your Google review profile is one of your most valuable online assets as a local business, and we’ve gone into detail about the benefits of reviews before. Not only is it known to be a local SEO ranking factor, it also directly impacts consumer decision-making. That means it can influence whether you make a sale, receive a booking, make a reservation, or lose out to a competitor. 

Knowing how to spot a fake Google review can therefore help your business to weed out unscrupulous feedback and protect your lucrative online reputation. 

Check the reviewer’s Google profile 

Most inauthentic ratings come from accounts that are set up specifically for that purpose. That means they won’t have posted many other reviews. Whether excessively good or incredibly poor, if you suspect a bad actor, it’s easy to see how active that profile is on Google. You’ll see the number of Google reviews they have posted displayed as a numerical figure under the account holder’s username. A very small number of reviews could be evidence of fakery at work. 

Check the reviewer’s activity 

In addition to seeing the number of reviews a user has posted, you can also see the reviews themselves. This is a great tip for local business owners who are keen to learn how to spot a fake Google review. A glance at previous reviews left by that person can quickly reveal whether they are a genuine user or not. 

Check if the places reviewed are within the same local area. If most places are in entirely different locations, such as different states on the other side of the country, it could well be a bad actor at work.

If images have been uploaded with reviews, browse through those to get a sense of whether that reviewer has images in places they have reviewed. Fake reviews won’t be accompanied by genuine, related images. 

Look at timings

From the user profile, you can also check the frequency of review postings. Has the reviewer your suspect to be a fake posted clusters of reviews at the same time or are they sporadic? A flurry of reviews posted at the same time suggests that the ratings are not authentic. 

Cross-reference with your sales logs

Google will often display a reviewer’s name above their review. If that’s the case, it’s possible to perform a cross-reference of your own records. Compare your sales logs with the name of the person leaving the review to determine if they are a genuine customer. 

Does the reviewer have a profile picture?

Fake reviewers often won’t share too much personal information on the profiles they create. Along with other red flags, the lack of a profile picture raises suspicions. Likewise, very generic or cartoon images can also indicate that the reviewer is attempting to hide who they are. 

Does the comment reference specific aspects of your business? 

Genuine reviews will often provide specific details about the user’s experience so, part of knowing how to spot a fake Google review is being able to check for those factual inclusions. Are specific team members mentioned for example? Are the names right if so? Are service details factual or, does the review refer to services or products that you don’t offer? Inaccuracies are a tell-tale sign that the review has been created by someone without first-hand experience of your local business.

How to spot fake Facebook reviews

With 75% of users said to visit a local business Page at least once per week, it’s essential that local business owners know how to spot a fake review on Facebook. 

Is the text vague? 

A very vague piece of text may suggest that the person writing the Recommendation hasn’t truly interacted with that local business. 

Genuine reviewers will often pick out specific aspects of their experience, whether good or bad, to explain why they Recommend (or not) that business. Very brief, vague comments can be one clue that the Recommendation is fake. 

Is the Recommendation too complimentary? 

Using language that’s way over the top is another clue that the Recommendation has been created to artificially boost ratings. Descriptions that sound too good to be true, with lots of superlatives that really oversell things are a tell-tale sign that you’re looking at a fake review. 

Does the user have a profile image? 

Much like with Google reviews, the lack of a profile picture or the use of a cartoon image instead is another warning sign that the reviewer isn’t genuine. You’ll be able to see the profile picture for the account holder sharing the review to the left of the review itself. 

Does the reviewer have Facebook Friends? 

Another clue that you may be looking at a fake Facebook review comes from the reviewer’s profile. Clicking on their profile picture will take you to the profile page. How many friends are on their friends list? If the profile doesn’t have any Facebook friends, or only very few, you have another indication that the review is fake. 

Spotting fake reviews in specific industries 

While all consumer reviews matter, in some industries, being able to trust the content of a review is even more important. For professions such as lawyers, healthcare workers, real estate brokers, and so on, dishonest reviews could have serious consequences including financial loss. 

How to spot fake hotel reviews 

Hotels rely heavily on reviews to attract new guests, but how can you tell if the ratings are genuine? 

• Be wary of all 5-star reviews: It’s not realistic to expect that a property will have only five-star feedback. While you’d expect to see a good portion of five-star reviews for a great destination, a natural review profile will also have its share of other star ratings too. 
• Look at the most recent reviews: Some review platforms will sort by the top-rated or most useful reviews. Sort by most recent to get a true picture of what guests are actually experiencing right now and then look for comments that stand out as being very different from the general consensus. 
• Compare with other review platforms: Looking at reviews across two or more platforms is a good way to get a sense of the overall feedback about the hotel. You’re then better placed to pick out those reviews that seem wildly different in their experience than the majority of other guests. 

How to spot fake reviews in real estate 

With intense competition and huge commissions at stake, it’s no secret that real estate can be a cutthroat business. If you suspect a competitor may be inflating their profiles with fake reviews, here are a few things to look out for: 

• Look at the language: If the language used in the review is littered with acronyms or uses an abundance of industry jargon, it could be a fake. 
• Does the review talk about the property? A genuine reviewer is likely to make reference to the property they have just bought or rented. If the review contains no references to the property at all, it may be that the person writing the review hasn’t really used that realtor’s services. 
• Does the review mention any challenges or issues? Buying a house is seldom straightforward. If a realtor’s profile is packed with reviews that claim the whole process went smoothly, something could well be amiss. You should expect to see some comments about challenges, issues, or delays encountered in at least some of the reviews. 

How to spot fake reviews for healthcare professionals

Fake reviews are especially concerning in the healthcare industry, where patient health could be put at risk by unscrupulous rivals. 

• Is the description of the service provided realistic? Consider the language of the review and the tone of the reviewer when describing their experiences. Does it align with the service provided? For example, it’s unlikely that anyone will wax lyrical about teeth cleaning at the dentist so a review that is extremely complementary with excessive use of superlatives should raise a red flag. 
• Are other healthcare provider names or brands mentioned? If the reviewer compares one experience with a named local competitor, it may be that the reviewer has been paid to paint the rival in a bad light. Likewise, reviews that mention certain branded products multiple times should be treated with a degree of suspicion. 

Tools to detect fake reviews

Bad actors are increasingly sophisticated and constantly evolving new techniques to avoid detection. This can make manually checking for fake reviews a time-consuming process – the good news is that there are a number of helpful tools available which can do most of the heavy lifting for you. 

Fakespot

Fakespot is a specialist tool for detecting fake reviews. It’s compatible with a range of platforms, including Amazon and eBay. Powered by AI, it sniffs out bots and fake accounts and flags up fake reviews. 

Transparency

Transparency‘s Machine Learning algorithms use metrics such as profile data and review content to detect fake reviews. 

Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice uses fraud detection techniques to assess whether the reviews it collects for brands are genuine. It will flag up reviews it suspects are counterfeit. 

ReviewMeta

Designed specifically for those who want to know how to spot fake Amazon reviews, ReviewMeta applies a series of tests to review text to determine if the review is genuine. Reviews that are trying to game the system get removed or are given less weight, so they don’t artificially impact the product rating. 

What to do when you spot fake reviews

So, you know how to spot a fake Yelp review or fake Facebook review, but what steps should you take next to ensure your rivals aren’t gaining an unfair advantage? 

Each platform has its own specific procedure that you’ll need to follow if you suspect a review is fake – whether that’s a review that impacts your own profile or is benefiting a competitor.

Methods for each platform:

• Our guide to Google reviews contains helpful information on how to deal with fake Google reviews.
• Our guide to Yelp reviews has everything you need to know about dealing with fake reviews on that platform.
• Found a fake Facebook review? We’ve covered how to deal with fake Facebook reviews in our guide. 

Although reputation management and review management are often used interchangeably, they’re not the same thing. Review management focuses on collecting, monitoring, and responding to online reviews, which is an essential part of building local search visibility and winning new customers. Reputation management is broader and encompasses the entirety of a business’s reputation. 

In this guide, we’ll explore reputation management and online review management, identifying the key differences, explaining why they matter, and describing how local businesses can master them. 

What is online reputation management?

We live in the Information Age. Details about a business, its products, its personnel, its culture, its ethics, and how it treats its customers are available on demand, online, and in any location. 

Whether you’re the head of a large national business or you run a ‘mom-and-pop’ convenience store, what people say and think about your brand and business matters. 

Online reputation management (sometimes known as online presence management) is the strategy to ensure consumers find positive content about your business. A TrustPilot study found that a company’s positive online reputation was the biggest factor affecting consumer trust. 

Online reputation management includes a range of tactics to emphasize favorable content and opinions about your brand. A reputation management strategy will consider how to conduct the brand messaging, how to amplify reviews, how to secure positive media mentions, and include plans for dealing with a PR crisis arising from negative publicity.

What is online review management?

While reputation management covers the full scope of brand perception, online review management focuses on one of the most influential factors: customer reviews.

Reviews are used at each stage of the buyer journey, and play a key role in the final decision to purchase or not. Our research finds that 96% of consumers read online reviews when browsing for local businesses, with 70% saying they’ve written a review in the past year. Turn your back on reviews, and they’ll face your customers without you.

The power of reviews isn’t restricted to review platforms. A cohesive online reputation management strategy will allow you to repurpose and leverage your reviews across a range of channels to amplify their impact. This could mean sharing reviews on social media, posting them on your website, creating case studies with them, or showcasing them in a TV ad.

How to build an online reputation management strategy

Developing a reputation management strategy doesn’t need to be intimidating. Think of it as a fact-finding mission followed by the creation of a plan to focus your efforts on the things that matter most to you.

Step 1: Research your current online reputation

Your first task is to understand where you stand right now. What are people saying about you? How are they rating your products and services? What is their perception of your business?

Assembling all of this information can be daunting, but you don’t have to do it manually. There are numerous tools available to automate and speed up this process.

For small amounts of data, take a sample of statements from across these channels to get a general idea of how people are feeling about your brand. Be sure not to let your unconscious bias lead you to pick only very good or very bad comments. Cast a broad net.

Step 2: Send an NPS survey

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a scale that runs from -100 to 100. You ask a series of questions and then apply the scale to measure how willing your customers are to recommend your business.

NPS helps you to understand loyalty and sentiment. This is useful when developing your online reputation management strategy as it shows you what you’re working with, highlights any reputation problems to address, and indicates where your focus should be. 

You can use a tool such as Reputation Manager to ask your customers to give you feedback or reviews, and then apply the NPS scale to determine how they feel. Make sure to repeat this on a regular basis to see where you’ve improved. 

If you don’t want to email your customers, you could add an NPS pop-up to your site. Many popular CMS systems, including WordPress, have NPS plugins that you can simply download and activate.

Step 3: Find out what matters to your customers

The purpose of this step is to find out what your customers expect from you.  Are they likely to forgive slow shipping if your customer service and product quality is top notch? Do they expect a highly personalized service or do they appreciate more straightforward communications?

A crucial part of this stage of the process is determining where your customer spends their time online. Which social networks do your demographic favor? Which newspapers do they read? Which forums are they active on? Which review platforms do they use?

The purpose of asking these questions is to narrow down where it’s most important to build and manage your reputation. Referring back to the research conducted in step one should give you the answers to these questions.

Step 4: Set online reputation management goals

For the time you invest in your online reputation management strategy to really pay dividends, your actions must be both measurable and accountable. The goals you set will directly influence the tactics you choose, and gauge whether or not your approach is effective.

Ask yourself what you want to achieve. For example, if the results of your NPS survey were disappointing, do you want to see that improve by the end of this project? How are you going to go about that? Does your poor online reputation stem from a genuinely poor customer experience? If so, you’ll need to start by resolving that.

You could well find that you need to add to or adjust your goals as you begin to execute your chosen reputation management tactics, and that’s fine. Don’t be afraid to adjust them as you get to work so that they continue to help you measure the success (or otherwise) of your efforts.

Step 5: Decide on your tactics

Deciding on the tactics you’ll use for reputation management is the final piece of the strategic puzzle. From review generation to social media monitoring, you’ll need to choose the activities that help you meet your reputation goals. 

You might decide to take on some of these tasks yourself or within your team, but it’s also worth remembering that there are online reputation management services available to save you time.  

Reputation management tactics

Deciding on the right tactics can feel tricky, so here are some tried-and-true approaches to consider. 

Google Business Profile monitoring

Consumers naturally turn to Google when they want to find a local business or share their experiences, with 60% of consumers defaulting to Google or Google Maps for local searches. And yet, only 35% of SMBs have a Google Business Profile (GBP).

Claiming and monitoring your Google profile lets you stand out from the competition, collect reviews, and be visible where your customers are already looking.

In addition to the reviews function, GBP has lots of other useful features for online reputation management, such as the option to share news and offers via Posts and respond to questions in the Q&A section.

If you haven’t claimed your GBP listing yet, it’s free to do so. Our guide has step-by-step instructions.

Social media monitoring

Today’s consumers don’t just use social media to catch up with friends; it’s increasingly a place to discover new brands and products, aid in decision making, and connect with local businesses. 

Adding a social media monitoring tool to your reputation management arsenal means you can keep abreast of what’s being said about your local business on social media. Popular options include HubSpot, Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social.

Monitoring brand mentions on the web

Opinions and comments about your local business aren’t just restricted to review platforms and social media; they can appear anywhere, from local newspapers and trade press to industry forums and blogs.

Keeping tabs on brand mentions online can be largely automated. Simply go to Google and set up a Google Alert for your business name.

It’s also advisable to set up alerts for your own name if you’re closely associated with the business and any brands or products specific to you. If you have the budget, there are a number of dedicated tools available. Brandwatch, Awario, Mention, Meltwater, and Brand24 are good starting points.

Public relations

Reputation management marketing isn’t just about reacting to what people are already saying; it’s also about actively creating positivity around your business. Traditionally, this falls under the umbrella of public relations and generating positive press about your company.

Gone are the days when this meant you had to be well-connected to every editor on Fleet Street. Getting your name in print is entirely achievable for local businesses, though it takes time to build momentum and secure coverage..

With that in mind, you’ll need to incorporate other PR tactics, such as sponsoring local events or organizations and entering local business awards. Both of these are also good ways to build links back to your site from reputable, relevant local sources to help with your local SEO.

HubSpot has a series of free PR templates, along with examples and tips for creating a newsworthy press release to boost the chances of your news getting picked up by journalists.

Crisis management

We’ve all heard the old saying that ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’. Crisis management is one area where it really does pay to be prepared. The last thing you want is to find yourself faced with a crisis and have no plan in place for minimizing the damage.

The easiest way to do this is to create a list of the worst-case scenarios you can think of. Divide them into levels of crisis, such as bad, very bad, and the worst, and then outline what to do in each instance.

Crisis management is a big deal, so it’s worth doing your research. Meltwater has a free crisis communications guide, and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations also has a best practice guide.

If you need a little inspiration, take a look at examples of the best-managed PR crises from brands, such as KFC (running out of chicken), Starbucks (reacting to the actions of a racist employee), and Crockpot (ever seen This Is Us?)

Online review management

Just 3% of consumers will use a business with two-star reviews or lower, making a poor reputation extremely costly.

Online review management covers four core areas:

1. Generating reviews
2. Monitoring reviews
3. Responding to reviews
4. Showcasing reviews  

How to generate reviews

When it comes to online reviews, the recency of reviews matters as much as the quantity to consumers and search engine algorithms alike.

The best way to boost your review count is simply to ask for reviews. One easy way to do this is to set up an automated email or SMS that goes to consumers soon after their purchase or visit. Your request should thank the customer for their business and request that they leave a review to share their experience. 

If your favored review platform offers a widget, you can install this small piece of code on your site to display a button inviting visitors to review your business.

Or if you have a physical brick-and-mortar store, you could hand out cards requesting a review with purchases, or have a tablet set up by the exit with your preferred review platform loaded up. This will encourage customers to leave a review right then and there. Tripadvisor and Yelp provide businesses with free stickers to pop in the window so make sure to grab yours.  

How to monitor online reviews

If you don’t have reputation management software, general review sites along with niche review platforms will need to be monitored manually. 

To monitor performance and find out about new reviews, it’s often much easier, quicker, and more effective to use an online reputation management tool like BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager. This is especially true if your business is present on lots of review sites or you’re managing multiple locations.

How to respond to online reviews

Negative reviews can be detrimental to your online reputation if left unanswered. So, you’ll want to reply promptly to address concerns raised and attempt to restore confidence in your business (read our tips for responding to negative reviews for inspiration). 

Replying to reviews can be as simple as creating a few different templates to thank each customer for their feedback. Make sure each response is personalized to reference the reviewer’s name and refer to specific points they raised in their review. As a starting point, try: 

• Thanks so much for your feedback [name of reviewer]. We’re delighted to hear we were able to help! 
• Hi [reviewer name], We’re happy to hear that you enjoyed your visit and look forward to welcoming you back again soon! 
• Hello [reviewer name], It’s great to hear that you enjoyed the [service or product]. Thank you for sharing your feedback! 
• Hi [reviewer name], Thank you for your kind review and detailed feedback. We’re glad to hear you appreciated [insert points from review]. Your comments help us improve, and we hope to see you again soon.

How to showcase online reviews

Because reviews are so important in aiding consumer decision-making, you’ll want to show off your five-star reviews on your own site. This will serve as a conversion optimization tool and provide social proof. 

Some review sites have widgets you can add to your website to show your best reviews. If you’d prefer to use reviews from a range of different review sites or jazz up the design, you’d be better off with a third-party tool like BrightLocal’s Showcase Reviews. 

A final option is to manually add your favorite reviews to your website. However, this process is the least efficient, as you’ll need to regularly set time aside to update the reviews you showcase.

Mastering online reputation and reviews for long-term success

Reputation management builds a positive image for your business, while review management ensures that customer feedback actively supports that image. Reviews are often the first thing people see, making them the foundation of your reputation online.

When combined, these strategies help you highlight positive feedback, respond effectively to criticism, and guide how your brand is perceived. By managing both reputation and reviews together, you can boost visibility, earn trust, and create stronger customer relationships for long-term success.

The benefits of online reviews for local businesses span a number of different areas, but key to their usefulness is that they offer social proof, are used as a reference point for local consumers seeking trustworthy local businesses, and are a known local SEO ranking factor.

Broadly speaking, these advantages can be split into two camps: increased visibility and increased sales.

What are the benefits of online reviews for customers?

Let’s explore the benefits of online reviews, and learn how reviews can be used to drive local business success.

1. Reviews are often used by customers when searching for local businesses

Small businesses are especially well-placed to benefit from positive reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, or Facebook. Our annual research into online review trends finds that 96% of consumers read reviews when looking for local businesses, with 29% saying they use reviews every time.

This means that a strong review profile can help highlight your excellence, especially as consumers will see your reviews when they’re looking at your products or services. If your customers go looking for reviews and there are none to look at (or worse, only bad ones!) they might move on to the next business.

2. Reviews help customers trust businesses

Reviews are a vital tool in establishing trust among customers, which is essential for beating competitors to sales, bookings, or subscriptions. 63% of consumers lose trust in a business after seeing mostly negative reviews—a pretty sizable chunk of your potential new customers. Positive feedback shows that a business delivers on its promises, helping customers feel confident choosing you over competitors even if they haven’t heard of your brand before.

When shopping or researching online there’s no salesperson to question, so online reviews from peers provide valuable information about the company, product, or service. 42% of people trust reviews as much as recommendations from a friend or family member, while 27% trust them as much as articles penned by subject-matter experts.

Reviews give shoppers confidence when it comes to making a purchase, with average star ratings, volume of reviews, detail offered in reviews, length of reviews, and recency all enhancing confidence levels.

3. Positive reviews win new customers and drive sales

Trusting a review isn’t a passive action and doesn’t happen in isolation. When consumers trust online reviews, they tend to do something next. That action could cover anything from calling the store, visiting the location, buying online, or making a booking.

Think of the relationship between positive reviews and new business as a revenue relationship. The better your review profile, the more revenue you could potentially earn.

Having a range of good reviews gives you a head start in the race to secure business over a competitor. 55% of consumers won’t use a business with fewer than four stars, while 85% wouldn’t consider using a business with less than three stars.

One oft-cited study found that an increase of one star in a restaurant’s Yelp rating increased revenue by 5-9%. While this study is a little out of date, it’s no big leap to assume that the link between online reviews and revenue growth still remains.

4. Reviews give businesses a chance to connect with customers

For many consumers, how you respond to reviews is very telling and can make or break the reputation they’re building of your brand. Consumers are twice as likely to use a business that responds to every review than one that ignores them completely.

Responding to reviews gives you a chance to interact with your customers, thank them for their business, learn from their experiences, and express your company culture to potential shoppers. How you handle negative reviews can also be positive as you’re demonstrating that you take customer feedback seriously.

5. Reviews help businesses get better

Online reviews are inherently valuable because they put you in your customer’s shoes. This gives you real-world insights into how your business can better serve those it relies on for survival. While they’re the reviews that all business owners dread, negative reviews can actually be the most useful of all.

If you run a hotel and guest reviews routinely mention ‘slow check-in’, for example, you have a heads-up that your process likely needs fine-tuning to ensure a more positive first impression.

6. Reviews help build your reputation beyond your website

Consumers rarely start their search on your site or at your business location. Instead, they turn to platforms like Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor, Facebook, or Angi to compare local options. And what do these platforms have in common? Reviews for businesses!

Collecting online reviews across these sites helps you reach customers in the discovery phase, not just those who already know your business. These reviews don’t just build credibility for people looking at your listings—they also influence how you rank on many of these platforms.

Once you have a strong review profile, make the most of it in your marketing. Showcase positive reviews on your website as social proof, feature them in email campaigns, and share them on social channels. Don’t wait for potential customers to stumble across your reputation: put it front and center on every channel they use.

7. Reviews impact local SEO rankings

We’ve established that consumers love reviews and, in many cases, use a good or bad review to validate their decision to do business with you. Search engines also take a similar stance.

It should come as no surprise that reviews and SEO are closely linked because they have much the same objective. A search engine wants to help its users find the right product, service, or information in the timeliest manner possible. One of the key benefits of reviews is to help consumers find the best local business for their needs.

Having a strong local SEO presence is non-negotiable if you want to ensure the long-term success of your business, and this is one reason why reviews are important for online visibility.

According to the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, reviews play an important role in ranking in the local pack in Google search results. Google considers the relevance, distance, and prominence of a business when deciding which listings to show first, with reviews impacting its assessment on prominence.

Having reviews on a number of review platforms, lots of positive sentiment, and having keywords within the text of reviews are all used by search engines when deciding rankings. Sterling Sky also found a significant link between rankings and how recently reviews were gained, even if the business already had a strong review profile.

Google confirms that the star rating and frequency of the reviews your business receives makes a difference to your search position: “High-quality, positive reviews from your customers can improve your business visibility.”

8. Reviews influence AI responses

Reviews are also increasingly shaping the way AI tools like ChatGPT and other large language models provide recommendations for local businesses.

When consumers ask AI-powered tools for recommendations, responses are built on a range of data sources including business listings, reviews, and business’s own websites.

BrightLocal research found that LLMs use reviews from Yelp, Google Business Profile, and other sources to form responses, with Yelp being used as a source in a third of all searches with local intent. This means that having strong, fresh reviews across multiple general and niche platforms increases your chances of being surfaced in AI-driven recommendations.

Appearing in AI results matters for local businesses because it increases visibility to customers who rely on AI tools, potentially driving new leads, calls, or visits. As AI search becomes part of the consumer discovery journey, reviews are more important than ever. They don’t just help humans make decisions; they help machines too.

9. Reviews unlock Google Ads

A strong review profile can also boost your advertising efforts. For Google Ads, you’ll need at least 100 reviews and a minimum 3.5-star rating to activate the shop ratings ad extension.

Star ratings and reviews also have an impact on rankings within Local Services Ads, with businesses with higher star ratings and more reviews booking more jobs, according to Google.

How businesses can improve online reviews

Reviews will happen whether or not you make them a priority for your business. We live in an age where consumers treat online reviews as the norm, rely on them to make purchase decisions, and create an impression of new businesses.

There’s no doubt that consumer expectations are high in this area, and that can be daunting for any local business owner or marketer. You need a constant influx of reviews, a high quantity of reviews, new reviews added daily to compensate for older reviews losing value, and even available resources for responding to reviews.

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If you want a stronger review profile, to improve online reviews and maximize the benefits of online reviews for your business:

1. Deliver memorable service: Going the extra mile encourages glowing feedback that surprises and delights your customers.
2. Ask at the right moment: A friendly follow-up email, text, or thank-you note with a review link to your preferred review sites makes it simple for happy customers to share their experience.
3. Keep reviews fresh: Consistently adding new reviews keeps your business active, trusted, and top-of-mind.
4. Respond with care: Thank customers for positive reviews and show you’re listening by handling negative feedback thoughtfully.
5. Manage reviews with ease: BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager helps you monitor new reviews, respond quickly, get more reviews, and showcase your best customer feedback.

Ultimately, understanding why reviews are important, embracing the benefits of online reviews, and managing reviews for businesses helps you build trust and attract more customers.

As one of the most-used review platforms out there, Yelp is a powerful tool not only for consumers, but increasingly search engines and AI tools to figure out which businesses are top notch. 

In this article, we’ll explore what makes Yelp business reviews special, and how to use them for local business success.

What are Yelp reviews? 

With Yelp, customers post reviews of local businesses that potential customers can see when looking for services like yours. 

Yelp business reviews combine star ratings (1-5 stars), detailed comments, and user-generated photos and videos to help potential customers choose between local businesses. 

It’s designed to be local-first, helping consumers discover the next restaurant, dentist, or car dealer to try and trust. While it specializes in brick and mortar businesses, Yelp also helps mobile businesses and contractors such as plumbers and electricians connect with customers.

Why do Yelp reviews matter?

As we’ve already mentioned, our annual Local Consumer Review Survey shows that Yelp is one of the most popular review platforms for consumers. Data shows that in recent years it’s become the second most popular site for reviews behind Google.

Every day, 2.5 million people visit Yelp looking for local businesses. And with more than 308 million reviews to sift through on the platform, strong Yelp reviews make it easier for potential customers to trust your business.

Yelp reviews can have a big impact on the bottom line. Back in 2011, a Harvard Business School study found that a one-star improvement in restaurants’ Yelp ratings led to a 5-7% increase in revenue. 

Today, Yelp reports that 82% of users go on to hire or buy from a business they found on Yelp within a week of searching. Frankly, leaving your Yelp profile unclaimed and uncared for is leaving money on the table. 

While the exact Yelp algorithm remains a closely guarded secret, a steady stream of high-quality reviews will help your listing get seen by more potential customers. Yelp’s default search focuses on the user’s search terms and distance, as well as the business’s ratings, transactions using Yelp’s tools, user engagement data, and relevant reviews. 

And now, it’s not just your real-life customers who are looking to Yelp for information; it’s AI, too. We found that Yelp is used as a source in a third of LLM searches for local business-related prompts. Not only do LLMs use Yelp to extract business information, but they also pull content from customer reviews to answer queries. Yelp also entered a partnership with Perplexity AI and is used as a source in nearly all of its results.

Put simply, Yelp reviews are a key part of building a strong online presence and attracting new customers.

Claiming Your Business on Yelp

The first step to getting reviews on Yelp is to get your business listed on the website. Before you go ahead and add your business, you should first check if it’s already there by searching for your business.

You can follow our step-by-step on how to add or claim a Yelp listing, but the gist of it is:

• Create a Yelp business account
• Add your information, like business phone number, address, website, and category
• Verify your business, either by phone or email
• Add images and descriptions
• Add additional locations

Then you’re ready to start collecting reviews.

How to Optimize Your Yelp Business Page

Much like your website, your Yelp business page needs careful optimization if you want to maximize results.

A complete, keyword-rich Yelp profile with eye-catching photos and videos helps you get found and gives customers confidence in choosing your business.

The first step in Yelp optimization is to check you have all your information filled out. This includes your business name, address, phone number, website, business categories, and more. Make it simple for customers to reach you and trust your information, because mistakes can cost you leads.

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Much like other business listings, Yelp is open to user-suggested edits. It’s important to regularly review your profile to check that your details stay accurate and consistent across the web. It’s also important to keep everything up to date, which you can do from centralised tools with your other listings.

Tools like BrightLocal’s Active Sync allow you to manage listings, including Yelp. They help you monitor them for unexpected changes, keep track of reviews, and push out your own updates. 

What is a ‘good’ Yelp review? 

So you know you need to get loads of good Yelp reviews for your business… but what does that actually mean? 

In short, a “good” Yelp review is genuine, detailed, and helpful. Reviews that describe specific experiences, mention particular products or services, and include photos or videos are highly likely to be useful to Yelp users. 

The Local Consumer Review Survey shows that customers pay attention to recent reviews, high star ratings, and the overall number of reviews when deciding which local businesses to trust. A business with a steady stream of positive, detailed reviews instantly looks more credible and appealing.

Yelp reviews tend to be longer and more detailed than other review platforms. Research from the FTC found that just 2% of Yelp reviews contained fewer than 100 characters, compared to 50% of Google reviews. For consumers looking for genuine advice, Yelp is often the first port of call. 

When writing a review, Yelp users are guided using Interactive Review Topics that suggest areas to cover. Once these are included, you get a satisfying green tick. 

Yelp has its own criteria when choosing which reviews to highlight. Reviews are categorized as Recommended or Not Recommended, with the latter tucked behind a link. Some of this is due to Yelp’s big position on non-incentivized reviews (more on this below), but unfavorable or incomplete reviews can also be filtered if Yelp doesn’t know enough about the reviewer.

Like all review sites, fake Yelp reviews can be a challenge, but Yelp has measures in place to combat these. 

Yelp-specific review features 

Yelp business reviews are more than just 5 stars and a couple of words. Yelp continually enhances its platform to provide users with richer, more engaging ways to share and discover experiences. Check out some key Yelp review features:

Video and image reviews

Visual content is powerful. Users can upload photos and short videos to Yelp reviews to showcase their experience and help potential customers know what to expect.

Community-generated information

With Yelp, it’s not just reviews you need to keep a close eye on. There are plenty of opportunities for the community to share information and get questions answered by others. If you’re not monitoring these, misinformation could easily sneak in. 

Review Insights

Yelp launched AI-powered “Review Insights” for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses in December 2024. This feature summarizes customer sentiments using intuitive icons, helping users quickly grasp the overall sentiment of reviews. This feature isn’t widespread yet, but could be one to watch for the future. 

Review Contributor Badges

Yelp’s Recognitions program awards badges to active reviewers who contribute valuable content. Similar to Google Local Guides, these badges highlight top contributors and encourage quality reviews across various categories. The Yelp Elite Squad launched in 2025 to highlight the most prominent reviewers, with perks and exclusive events. 

Advertiser perks

For businesses with the budget to boost visibility, Yelp offers advertising and profile-enhancing features, including:

• Yelp Ads: Promote your listing in search results and competitor pages
• Request a Quote: Let customers contact you directly–super useful for service area businesses! 
• Yelp Guaranteed: A money-back guarantee for customers using eligible services
• Verified License: Showcase your credentials by showing Yelp has checked your license is legit
• Portfolio: Display your best work and projects
• Business Highlights: Emphasize the key offerings and features that make your business stand out 

Promoted listings put your business in front of more people, but you’ll need a strong review profile so those extra eyes see you as a business worth choosing.

By leveraging Yelp’s features, businesses make it easier for potential customers to find and trust them. Yelp is constantly evolving to improve the experience for both customers and local businesses, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the platform’s latest features.

How to get more Yelp reviews

We are often asked how to get more reviews. In many cases, the answer is simply, “Just ask.” 

But when it comes to asking for Yelp reviews? This is not the case. 

Yelp has very strict guidelines on review solicitation. Yelp believes that asking for reviews can lead to biased ratings, as some businesses only ask happy customers for reviews (also known as review gating). They say:

“It shouldn’t be about who has the time and resources to ask the most people to write reviews. Great Yelp reviews and ratings should come from consumers who had a great experience that they’re inspired to tell others about.”

But that’s not to say your Yelp listing should be a secret from your customers. Make it simple to find your Yelp profile, linking it on your website, in emails, social channels, and even in-store. Businesses in the US and Canada can request a Find Us On Yelp sticker to pop in their window or at the front desk to spark customers to leave a genuine review.   

The best way to get good reviews is to deliver exceptional customer experiences that naturally motivate reviews, but of course, that’s far easier said than done! 

Responding to reviews on Yelp

You should always be responding to the reviews you receive, both positive and negative. 

When you get a negative review, your response says a lot about your business. If you’re defensive or quick to anger, it’s going to make you and your business look bad. But apologizing for the bad experience and publicly attempting to make it right can go a long way in the eyes of review readers.

If people see that you’re happy to respond to reviews, they’re more likely to leave them. 

Reputation management software can help you stay on top of your reviews, so you can action feedback and respond as soon as possible. 

Using your Yelp reviews

Getting reviews is only half the battle, and where many businesses stop. But we believe the real value comes from how you use these to make a better business. 

Reviews can have a huge impact on future customers, so why not make sure your best reviews are seen beyond those looking at your Yelp listing? Highlight glowing reviews on your website, social channels, emails, and print materials to build trust with potential customers. You can easily and professionally display your best feedback with Showcase Reviews, part of the BrightLocal Reputation Management offering.

But don’t just stop at promotion. Every review is also a window into what your customers think. Keep an open mind to complaints or common suggestions: these could highlight areas where you can improve. Keep an eye on competitors’ reviews too. If their customers rave about something you don’t offer, consider whether it’s worth adding to your own services.

In short, stop seeing Yelp reviews as testimonials of your past work. They’re opportunities to grow in the future.

Yelp and you

Yelp remains one of the most important review platforms, especially for businesses in the US and Canada. It continues to shape customer decisions and is increasingly used to feed AI tools with valuable insights. 

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Keeping your profile up-to-date and engaging with your customers on Yelp ensures you remain visible and trusted by potential customers. 

Data confirms that consumers overwhelmingly turn to Facebook to research products and services more than any other platform. In fact, 51% of consumers say they use Facebook most for that purpose, with just 30% preferring YouTube instead. 

Source: Lucid Software

Why do Facebook Recommendations matter?

Facebook Recommendations provide a simple way for potential customers to judge whether a local business could be a good fit for them. As with other review platforms, Recommendations on Facebook allow consumers to share their experiences of local businesses with their peers. This is something that many local consumers value as a key part of their decision-making process when choosing a local business. 

The latest Consumer Review Survey confirms that more consumers are reading online reviews than ever before, with 77% ‘always’ or ‘regularly’ reading reviews when researching a local business. 

While this is a powerful statistic in its own right, it becomes even more compelling when combined with the fact that local consumers turn to Facebook more than any other social network for business and product information. These two behaviors clearly illustrate the potential power of a positive review profile on Facebook.

Over the last four years, Facebook has made Recommendations more important for Pages and made them a more prominent feature. It’s made it even more essential to claim your Facebook Page.

One of the interesting things about this new emphasis on Recommendations, is that social media is primarily a peer-to-peer space. This lends itself perfectly to reviews and the influence of reviews on Facebook, especially given how many people put as much trust in online reviews as they do personal recommendations. As a local business, knowing how to get Recommendations on Facebook can allow you to tap into the benefits on both sides of that coin. 

How do Facebook Recommendations work?

Previously known as reviews, there are two types of Recommendations on Facebook. The first is where users can take to their feed and ask for someone to recommend a product or service (such as a local handyman, date venue, or removal service). Other Facebook users can then respond with suggestions of local solutions that fit the bill. 

The second type is where Facebook asks if a consumer recommends a business that they’ve used, with the local consumer able to select simply yes or no. 

After making their choice, there’s the option to provide a more detailed text-based review, giving more context to the feedback. 

The Page visitor will see a points-based score out of five. 

Reviews gathered prior to the switch to Recommendations will still be displayed on the reviews tab, but it doesn’t appear that the additional information offered by reviewers choosing from the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ options is currently published. Facebook is in the process of making changes to how its review system works, so this may change and we’ll update this information to reflect any new developments as they happen. 

How do I find Recommendations on Facebook?

Locating your Recommendations on Facebook is easy. Simply log into your Facebook account, pull up your Facebook Page, and look for the ‘reviews’ tab along the top of your screen (just below your cover image). 

How to Get Recommendations on Facebook 

Growing your positive Recommendations on Facebook isn’t as daunting as you might think. 

Check That Your Reviews Tab Is Enabled

The very first thing to do before devising a strategy for requesting Recommendations on Facebook, is to ensure that you’ve enabled the reviews tab. If you’ve previously received reviews, Recommendations will also be enabled unless you’ve turned them off. 

To check, you’ll need to log into Facebook and have your Page open. You’ll see a ‘Manage Page’ menu on the left side of your screen. Scroll down to the ‘Settings’ option. 

Next, click ‘Template and Tabs.’ 

Now you can turn reviews on or off with the toggle. 

Devise Your Review Request Strategy 

If you’re already in the habit of requesting reviews for other platforms, such as Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business), you can use many of those same techniques to get more reviews on Facebook. 

• Email: You may already be sending out emails to customers after you’ve successfully delivered the purchased product or service. Your email review request template can easily be adapted to include Facebook as an option for those who are happy to leave a review of your business. Include a link to your Facebook Page and a brief outline of how to locate the reviews tab. 
  
• SMS: SMS is a tried-and-tested method of growing your review profile and can work just as well for Facebook as other mediums. Just be sure to include your Facebook Page link in your SMS review request to get the full benefit of the incredibly high SMS open rates.

• Share a post on your Page: If you already have a respectable follower count on Facebook (or other social networks) share posts on a regular basis inviting your followers to leave a review. The standard rules of requesting a review apply here — be polite, thank your followers for their time, keep your message brief, and provide clear instructions for how to do so. Given the creative freedom you have on social media, you could even include a video or graphic with your post to demonstrate how to leave a review.

Requesting reviews on social media, finding reviews and feedback, and sharing those reviews with your social audiences isn’t quite as straightforward as you may expect. The reason? Many social reviews take the form of user-generated content rather than formal star ratings or recommendations.

Mastering this aspect of your reputation management can yield rich rewards, thanks to social media’s increasingly important role in the decision-making process.

Handling user reviews on social platforms works a little differently than your standard review management. So we’re going to give you tips to get back to basics.

What are Social Media Reviews?

In its simplest form, a social media review is feedback given about a particular business, product, or service posted on a social media platform.

However, that isn’t quite the full picture. One of the challenging characteristics of social media reviews for local business owners is the wide range of formats this feedback can take.

Some sites have a specific review option where users can rate or recommend a business or local service provider. One familiar example of this is the Facebook Reviews and Recommendations tab on Business Pages. Other popular sites, such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn don’t offer this clear review functionality.

That doesn’t mean that users don’t share reviews via their favorite social channels. Instead, it means reviews are shared in the formats they do have available to them. This could include detailing their experiences in a comment, sharing multimedia such as images or tagging local business profiles. 

How do reviews on social media differ from reviews on traditional review sites?

If you’ve been handling review management for any period of time, you’ll be familiar with how traditional review sites work and how to ask for reviews in a traditional manner. There’s a set structure and format which often takes the form of a star rating plus comment system. That’s not the case when dealing with many reviews on social media.

Only a very small number of the major social media networks have formal review structures in place (Facebook and YouTube which has a thumbs up/thumbs down system are the two notable exceptions). 

Due to this lack of infrastructure, most consumers share reviews in the same way they share their regular content on social media. That means reviews may take the form of comments, status updates, or tags.

The result is consumer feedback on local businesses that’s not always clearly marked as a review. This makes life difficult for local businesses asking for reviews on social media or seeking out consumer feedback which their clients are organically leaving independently across their preferred social networks.

You may find reviews for local businesses shared as:

• A status update posted on an individual consumer’s own profile or feed
• A comment left on a third-party post (such as a post by a friend asking a question or requesting recommendations from their network)
• A comment or reply left in response to an update from the business itself on their official page
• A picture or gallery of pictures, in a feed or as a temporary story
• A video
• A tag
• A retweet or reshare
• A thumbs up or down or star rating on a network which enables more traditional reviews
•  In the form of a direct message to the business via one of their official social profiles

That’s a lot, and often people won’t even tag you, so you could miss valuable information or feedback.

How do you find social media reviews?

Social media reviews can be particularly powerful. That’s because globally, online consumers spend 2.28 hours per day on social media.

Finding inspiration for things like products and services is among the top 10 reasons consumers spend so much time each day scrolling their social feeds. Pinterest, for example, is used by people to find ideas they particularly like the look of, including travel itineraries, local restaurants, or ways to improve their homes. Likewise, finding similar information is the second most common reason Instagram users log on. It’s a similar story on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Twitter.

Local business owners simply can’t afford not to know what their customers are saying about them socially.

The bad news is finding social media reviews isn’t as straightforward as monitoring traditional review platforms. Predominantly taking the form of user-generated content (UGC), sniffing out reviews across the social media ecosystem requires some manual research and a platform-specific approach in certain cases.

So let’s have a look at how to do it across different social platforms.

Finding reviews on Facebook

Finding reviews on Facebook is more straightforward than on many other social networks thanks to the star rating and recommendations system. If you’re already in the habit of asking for reviews on social media, you may already have a series of ratings and recommendations stored up. Finding them is easy. Just go to the Reviews tab at the top of your Page. You’ll see an overall star rating and then comments left by consumers who have opted to add a comment alongside their recommendation.

It’s important to keep in mind that not all consumers will leave a comment when recommending your business. Some may offer feedback and reviews on your main page rather than via the Reviews tab. There are a couple of ways this can be done.

A local consumer could comment on a recent post you shared and provide feedback about their experience, for example. You should already be regularly reading and responding to comments left by followers on your Page. If not, you’ll need to get into the habit of reviewing comments so you can pull out any review content.

A second way that a Facebook user may review your business would be to write a post on their own profile and tag your business Page. When your Page is tagged in a post, you’ll see an alert appear on the Notifications bell. Review these regularly so you don’t miss any reviews.

Many people may share a photo on their own feed and write something without tagging your business. Unfortunately, these can be nearly impossible to find. You may be able to come across them with some searches, but it may not be worth the time and effort.

Finding reviews on Instagram

Unlike Facebook, Instagram doesn’t have a formal review or ratings system for local businesses. That means you’re most likely to find customer feedback in the form of comments on your posts, tags in Stories or Reels, via direct message, or as comments made during live streams.

Instagram users also have the option of posting images, videos or captions to their own page and then tagging your business. When your profile is tagged, you’ll receive a notification via the alert icon.

Instagram content discovery is heavily dependent on hashtags. Some users may not @tag your profile when sharing their experiences of your local business but will use your brand name as a hashtag. You can manually search for brand-related hashtags using the search bar within the Instagram app. 

In some instances, if users have uploaded a Story or post about your business, they may tag the location instead of the Instagram account. These physical locations won’t be connected to your account and you won’t receive a notification.

You can, however, still view all the posts from a location tag by searching your business name in the search bar and clicking on the pin. You’ll then be able to select a particular location from the list and view all the media uploaded that tagged that location.

Finding reviews on TikTok

Similar to Instagram, the process of finding reviews made on TikTok requires some research.

With no formalized review or ratings system (though the testing of one has been rumored), you’re left to find customer feedback in the form of comments on your posts (including any livestreams you may do), videos tagged with your location, and mentions/tags of your business account in video captions. You should be notified of any tags of your business, so keep an eye on your notifications. 

Like Instagram, TikTok has a certain reliance on hashtags. It’s worthwhile to take the time to check the hashtags related to your brand. You will have to search this manually in the app as there’s no way to follow hashtags. 

However, you can add a hashtag to your favorites, which can then be accessed by going to the saved icon on your profile and scrolling to the far right to hashtags, creating a shortcut to all the hashtags you may want to keep an eye on. 

Finding reviews on Twitter

Posting reviews on social media isn’t always straightforward for consumers, who’ll often find there is no formal mechanism for sharing their feedback with local businesses. Twitter is one of those platforms.

With no structured public rating and review system in place, you’ll instead need to monitor the platform for Tweets that mention or tag your business. Typing your business name into the search box enables you to see posts, photos, or images which talk about your business, even when the original poster hasn’t tagged your profile. 

Finding reviews on Pinterest

Pinterest is a top destination for local consumers in search of products and services. That means it’s an important one to consider when searching for reviews on social media.

You’ll need to manually search for comments and imagery about your business on Pinterest as there’s no means of tagging other profiles or pages. Once you’ve entered your business name as the search term, you’ll need to click on each image to view any associated comments. From here, you can also click through to any linked third-party content such as blog posts or magazine articles for additional context.

General tips for finding reviews on social media

Don’t forget that users can send direct messages via social media. These can be a treasure trove of review content, especially if your clients prefer social channels for customer service.

Get into the habit of checking your notifications and alerts regularly for each of your social profiles. This will ensure you don’t miss new comments, DMs, posts to your pages, or tags.

If you find monitoring your social media profiles manually is too overwhelming or time-consuming, a social media marketing tool such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social can be used to automate the task. Our top social media tools resource is a great starting point. 

Tips for Responding to Reviews on Social Media

Because social media is a popular source of product discovery and business information, reviews on social media can be particularly helpful for local consumers. Research suggests that recommendations and product reviews are incredibly impactful and can turn browsers into buyers.

Your own responses to those reviews can add additional value and help to turn a negative review into a more positive customer experience.

With 98% of consumers in total reading online reviews for local businesses, feedback shared via social networks is something you can’t afford to ignore.

Knowing how to respond to online reviews is a core skill for any local business owner. Luckily, many of the tips you’re already familiar with as a result of your existing review management strategy are transferable to social media.

1. Respond as promptly as you can

Speed matters when responding to reviews. A fast response clearly demonstrates that consumer feedback is important to your business and something that you value.

Responses that take days or weeks to materialize signal to the original reviewer (and anyone reading the review later) that the customer experience isn’t a priority for your business. To speed up your response timeframe, try one of our handy review response templates.

2. Personalize your response

A personalized response shows that you have taken the feedback on board and appreciate the effort made by that local consumer.

Use the poster’s name or social media handle where possible and try to reference some aspect of their review in your reply. This shows both the original reviewer and other readers that you’ve taken time to digest the feedback and value your clients. 

3. Be authentic

Your review responses should read as if they came from a person, are genuine, and are authentic. If necessary, edit your review response template so the content is more in line with your own brand identity and tone of voice.

4. Recognize that engagement is key to social media success

Engagement and interaction matter to social media users. More and more, today’s consumers expect to receive a response when reaching out to brands via their social channels. 18% of US consumers say they expect a brand to respond to a comment within an hour while 76% expect engagement from that business within 24 hours. Taking the time to like, share and respond to comments, both good and bad, can help your business to meet consumer expectations and forge stronger connections with prospects.  

5. Have a plan to deal with negative reviews

There’s no getting away from the fact that sooner or later, you’ll have to respond to negative reviews.

Having a plan in place to deal with those reviews can make the experience less stressful and anxiety-inducing while also ensuring that you remain professional, polite, and offer a productive response.

When dealing with negative reviews, it’s even more important that you acknowledge the review quickly. Begin by thanking the customer for their feedback, apologize for their experience, and where possible, outline a suggested course of action to resolve the issue.

Those leaving a negative review may be tempted to continue the conversation in the public domain. Don’t be afraid to take the conversation offline after your initial response by inviting the reviewer to get in touch via phone, email, or direct message. Be sure to share the appropriate customer service telephone number or contact information to demonstrate your willingness to speak further in a more private setting.

Generating Reviews on Social Media

If you know how to ask for reviews on social media, you can gather valuable comments and opinions about your business from a range of new sources. What’s more, generating reviews socially means your Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms can begin to play a direct role in conversions.

Develop platform-specific posts

An easy way to begin requesting reviews on social media is to develop a few platform-specific posts inviting your customers to share their experiences in the comments.

Image requirements, caption lengths, and the use of hashtags can vary considerably from platform to platform. It’s always advisable to tailor your review request post to suit each network’s recommended dimensions and format to get the best possible response.  

With your chosen platform’s guidelines in hand, you’ll need to select an eye-catching image and create a clear caption inviting previous customers to share their feedback. Don’t forget to add relevant hashtags where appropriate. To make life easier, you could also request that your audience uses a specific hashtag in their review – this will help you find those comments later if your page isn’t tagged.

On Facebook, provide instructions for locating the Reviews tab at the top of the page. For other social media networks, you’ll need to ask for replies to be left in the comments or for users to tag you in their feedback posts.

If you’re a Twitter for Business user, you can request feedback from consumers directly after they interact with you via a Customer Feedback prompt. 

Experiment with formats 

The nice thing about asking for reviews on social media is that you have plenty of scope to be creative. In addition to standard in-feed posts, consider what other post formats your chosen network offers. 

On Instagram, try sharing your review requests as a Story or creating a Reel. On Facebook, you could create an image carousel of previous reviews and invite your Page fans to share their own experiences. For LinkedIn, you may want to keep things more professional and share a link to a feedback form or invite your followers to share their thoughts in the comments below.

Send an email or SMS

Most consumers are happy to leave a review when asked to do so. The issue is that not all businesses know how to ask for reviews. This prevents them from following up with their clients after a store visit or purchase to request feedback.

53% of local consumers say that they would be ‘highly’ or ‘very likely’ to leave a review for a local business if they received an email or SMS request.  Try these tips for using email to request reviews and this advice for sending review requests via SMS.  

Don’t offer incentives for reviews

Don’t be tempted to offer incentives for reviews, such as discount codes, free samples, or competition entries. Incentivized reviews can be looked on unfavorably by local consumers, who may suspect whether a review is genuine or has been created for financial benefit.

Read more: Review Gating and Risky Review Schemes to Avoid

How to Showcase Your Reviews on Social Media

79% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations, recommendations made by influencers, and articles written by topic experts. It makes sense then, to showcase your best reviews as much as possible across your social media channels. You can showcase all your reviews on social media, not just those originating on Facebook, Instagram, and similar.

Share to your Stories

You can share a stream of your best new reviews in real-time via Stories (available on both Instagram and Facebook). You can either take screenshots of the review, clip the review box, or use a tool such as Canva to create a custom graphic. Sharing via Stories means that your post will only be visible for a temporary period, so you’ll need to combine this method with other options. The benefit of sharing to Stories is that this content format has higher levels of engagement and interaction.

Create a Highlight

Create a Highlight spot on your Instagram feed dedicated to reviews. Each time you’ve shared a new review to Stories, just click to add it to your Highlight. Over time, you’ll build up a store of reviews, easily accessible in one location directly from your profile.

Upload a carousel post

Many social media platforms allow you to upload multiple images and videos as a single post. Viewers can then cycle through your slides, without having to scroll through multiple different posts. With research showing that these carousel-style posts tend to generate more engagement and reach than a single image, this can be an effective way to draw attention to your most glowing reviews.

Repost and reshare

Research has found that 85% of people consider user-generated content to be more influential than content created by brands directly. That makes positive images, posts, and experiences shared by consumers inherently valuable on social media.

When you come across images, videos, comments, and posts from consumers, you can repost and reshare that UGC to your own feed. This is easy to do on most platforms and allows you to fill up your content calendar without having to create new posts yourself. 

Pin to the top of your feed

When posting customer reviews on social media, you may find they quickly slip down the feed as new content is shared. You can ensure that your most valuable reviews remain at the top and highly visible by pinning them. Several platforms offer this feature, including Instagram and Twitter. Once pinned, that post will stay at the very top of the feed until unpinned.