More than 108 million unique visitors a month go and visit Yelp to see business reviews and to share their own experiences. About 85 percent of reviews on the site are from real people giving their own thoughts and experiences. Unfortunately, the remaining 15 percent are potential fakes.
Companies want to present a positive face to their potential customers. They also want to counter any criticism against them. They use a number of tactics to get positive reviews out there:
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Buying professional writers to create and post fake reviews.
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Offering rewards and discounts to people for positive reviews.
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Sending out multiple reviews about one business from the same IP address.
Yelp wants to offer a place for consumers to give honest reviews of the businesses they share on the site. They want consumers to trust that the reviews posted on the website are authentic.
Without that trust, why would the website exist in the first place? These less-than-honest tactics are clearly against Yahoo’s policies and the company is taking measures to combat these fake reviews.
As of August 2013, Yelp started using a set of consumer alerts that display on Yelp business profiles where they suspect a business is buying or posting fake ads. These alerts are not posted unless Yelp has done a thorough analysis and are confident that the information is accurate. The alerts will stay on the page for up to 90 days, providing a link to their analysis information.
How is Yelp finding these fake reviews?
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Tracking which reviews come from which IP addresses. When a high number of reviews come from the same IP, it is one sign of someone posting reviews for pay or to help one business.
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Using automated filtering software on all reviews. Yelp is not disclosing what the filter does because they do not want others to learn how to get around it. However, they do say that every review goes through the filter.
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Tips from consumers. Some of the best information on fake reviews comes to Yelp from suspicious consumers. They see a review that appears completely out of place and flag it for the Yelp staff to review.
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Working with law enforcement. Yelp has stated they are working with law enforcement to bring possible action against offenders.
How Does This Affect Your Business?
If you have not been posting or paying for fake reviews, you should have nothing to worry about. However, if you suspect someone is posting fake reviews about your business, report it to Yelp immediately.
