YELP TO COMBAT & CRACK DOWN FAKE BUSINESS REVIEWS

Yelp To Combat & Crack Down Fake Business Reviews
As reviews have become important SEO factor, multiple companies are keeping an eye on the reviews of the customers.

Of course, Yelp is one of a range of search sites and web directories which feature consumer reviews. Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Amazon and many others also encourage and shares customer reviews. Nevertheless, Yelp has the most influential policies against what it calls “inspection solicitation” — asking for reviews in any form.

Historically Yelp has taken a major action to protect the client’s assurance and the reliability of its content. If people doubt on the honesty or legitimacy of consumers reviews on Yelp, the company’s value could go down.

Many websites have a range of policies against incentivizing or paying for reviews. For example, Google’s policy says the following:

Reviews are very valuable when they are impartial and trustworthy. If you are working in a firm, please do not give review to your own company. Do not even accept money or offer others to write a review for a company or to write a negative review for your competitor. If you are a business owner, do not set up a review station.

Google’s Local Guides program “incentivizes” its associates to provide reviews and other articles with prizes and points. Yelp requests users to write reviews.

Yelp’s more expansive “don’t ask for reviews” policy says:

Don’t ask customers, mailing list Subscribers, friends, loved ones, or anyone else to review your business.
Do not ask your employees to compete to accumulate reviews.
Do not run polls that request reviews from Clients reporting positive opinion.
Do not ever offer coupons, discounts, or Payment in exchange for reviews — it will turn off savvy consumers, and can also be illegal.
Yelp “don’t ask” phrase advises Companies owners not to work with third-party review station. The question is how broadly the business is defining this phrase.

Yelp has also sought to stop partners and people using its API from soliciting reviews on sites other than Yelp. The company clarified in an email recently that if a “partner or API consumer” is soliciting reviews “on Yelp or alternative platforms,” the firm will attempt to convince the partner to stop, but if unsuccessful, will potentially stop API accessibility or the relationship.