Thinking of buying Google reviews? Read this first

What counts as a fake review?

It’s broader than most people think. All of these give future customers a misleading picture of your business:

• Paid reviews posted by a company, a freelancer or an overseas “review service”.
• Reviews written by you, your staff, friends or family posing as ordinary customers.
• Review swaps with other businesses: “I’ll review you if you review me.”
• Rewarded reviews, where customers get a discount, freebie or prize entry for leaving one. Google doesn’t allow incentivised reviews at all.
• Review gating: only asking the customers you expect to be happy, or quietly stopping unhappy ones from being asked.

Notice that the last one doesn’t involve writing a single false word. What matters is the overall impression your reviews give.

What Australian law says

Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses must not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct, or make false or misleading representations, including false testimonials. Fake or manipulated reviews can do both, because they tell future customers something untrue about what you’re like. The ACCC has published guidance on online reviews and has taken businesses to court over them.

Penalties have risen sharply since then. Since November 2022, the maximum penalty for a false or misleading representation is the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit gained, or 30% of turnover during the breach period for a company, and $2.5 million for an individual. Small businesses are usually penalised far less than the maximum, but the legal costs and the damage to your name can be just as hard to recover from.

What Google does about fake reviews

Google’s policies ban fake engagement, including paid and incentivised reviews, reviews from people with a conflict of interest, and selectively asking only happy customers. When it finds them, Google can:

• remove the reviews;
• block your profile from receiving new reviews for a period;
• hide your existing reviews and star rating for a period;
• show a public warning on your profile telling customers that fake reviews were removed.

That last one is the exact opposite of what you were paying for. Google uses automated systems to look for warning signs such as sudden bursts of reviews, brand-new accounts and reviewers on the other side of the world.

Why bought reviews rarely work anyway

• They get removed. You pay for a rating that can disappear overnight, sometimes taking real reviews with it.
• Customers can tell. Vague praise, no detail and reviewers with a single review are easy to spot.
• They don’t answer real questions. Genuine reviews mention parking, wait times, a favourite staff member or a particular treatment, which is what new customers read reviews for.
• They don’t keep coming. Customers and Google both look for a steady flow of recent reviews, not a one-off spike.

How to get more real reviews

Most happy customers will leave a review. They just need to be asked at the right time, in a way that takes seconds.

1. Ask every customer, not only the ones you think loved it. It’s fair, and it’s what the law and Google expect.
2. Ask at the right moment, straight after the visit or the finished job, while the experience is fresh.
3. Make it one tap. Send a link by SMS or email, or put a QR code on the counter, table or receipt.
4. Send one friendly reminder. Plenty of people mean to leave a review and simply forget.
5. Reply to every review, good and bad. It shows new customers that you’re listening.
6. Give unhappy customers a direct line to you so you can fix the problem, without stopping them from reviewing you publicly.

Common questions