Working With Review Solicitation Companies Can Hurt Your Business
In the never-ending race for good reviews that boost your business, many business owners start hiring companies that manage their online reviews. As Yelp mentioned in one of their posts, this may backfire badly: several online reputation companies are now being targeted by Yelp, businesses are losing their rankings due to questionable practices.
Yelp states:
Businesses should not ask for or solicit reviews on Yelp, as it leads to deceptively biased content. This includes asking friends, family, or customers to write reviews; offering incentives or freebies in exchange for reviews; or working with companies that send review solicitation emails.
If we find indicators of systematic review solicitation, we will apply a search ranking penalty to affected Yelp business pages. Businesses can avoid this review solicitation penalty by complying with Yelp’s policies.
Extreme attempts to manipulate a business’s reputation and inflate search ranking by soliciting or purchasing reviews on Yelp may lead to a Consumer Alert on the business’s Yelp page.