{"id":4946,"date":"2023-08-24T15:29:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmudev.whitespark.ca\/review-spam-wipe-your-cheating-competitors-off-the-map-with-this-strategy\/"},"modified":"2024-10-28T16:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T22:03:01","slug":"review-spam-wipe-your-cheating-competitors-off-the-map-with-this-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/blog\/review-spam-wipe-your-cheating-competitors-off-the-map-with-this-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Review Spam: Wipe Your Cheating Competitors Off The Map With This Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve all seen it \u2013 that sneaky competitor with hundreds or thousands of perfect five-star reviews. They seem to just keep rolling in endlessly day after day. You just know something is fishy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, you\u2019re probably right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately review spam is rampant on Google. Last year, Google even released a spam update to fight this growing problem. Unfortunately, many businesses have noticed an unintended side effect: filtered reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Google\u2019s own words:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cGoogle uses automated spam detection measures to remove reviews that are probably spam. These measures help improve people&#8217;s experiences on Google and ensure the reviews they see are authentic, relevant, and useful. <\/span><b><i>Some legitimate reviews may be inadvertently removed.<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, as a regular contributor and Gold Product Expert on Google Business Profile Help Community, I can attest to the fact that this is actually \u201cmany legitimate reviews.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For whatever reason, Google can\u2019t seem to figure it out. Egregious review spam is getting through the cracks, while genuine customer reviews are getting wiped.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Head over to GBP Help Community on any given day and you\u2019ll be sure to see a post just like this:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.08.17.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, you\u2019ll be just as likely to find a Google Business Profile just like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fake review spam is a huge problem on Google, and it&#8217;s getting worse with AI-generated reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Check out this egregious example.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think Google needs to do to solve this problem? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pWCIvWshav\">pic.twitter.com\/pWCIvWshav<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Darren Shaw (@DarrenShaw_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DarrenShaw_\/status\/1655633981919080448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 8, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This might be due to Mike Blumenthal\u2019s theory at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nearmedia.co\/a-guide-to-googles-review-filter\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Near Media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: that Google\u2019s Spam detection AI was trained on a limited set of confirmed spam. If reviewers or Business Profiles have patterns similar to those in this limited data set, their reviews are automatically filtered.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This could explain why evolving spam methods, such as AI reviews, can\u2019t be caught, while real reviews and genuine businesses take the brunt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leaving aside the \u201cWhy\u201d \u2013 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what can you do about it?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h1><b>How to Find And Take Down Review Spam<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may feel powerless against that cheating competitor (or competitors). Maybe you\u2019ve even flagged their profile or reached out to GBP support to no avail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good news: You can fight back. You might just need to get your hands dirty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google won\u2019t do the work for you, so you\u2019ll need to build a case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I know it can be frustrating or seem unfair, but it&#8217;s Google\u2019s sandbox after all. In this strategy, we\u2019ll break down exactly how to find a cheater and the types of proof you\u2019ll need to show Google for them to finally take action.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Step 1: Finding Review Spam<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before you dive down this rabbit hole and go full spam ninja, you\u2019ll want to prioritize.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As my personal strategy, rather than reporting every bit of spam I can find, I want to find the ones that will have the biggest impact for my clients.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The golden nugget will be a spam listing ranking third in the Map Pack for a query with my client ranking 4th. In this scenario, knocking a spammy cheater down by even just one position (or even altogether) can more than triple my client\u2019s clicks in that locale. (It\u2019s estimated Map Pack accounts for 44-61% of total clicks for a given query)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tip: Distance is one of the top ranking factors for Google Map Pack, especially for \u201cnear me\u201d terms. The Map Pack may completely change within a few miles or even a few blocks in a city. To be efficient with spam fighting, be sure you are also tracking hyper-local rankings \u2013 not just cities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are a few ways to get started.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>A: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/local-rank-tracker\/\"><b>Whitespark\u2019s Local Rank Tracker<\/b><\/a><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In your Whitespark campaign, be sure you are tracking from multiple zip codes, not from just the city centroid. Start with the zip code of your business, then add some surrounding zip codes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As mentioned, an ideal scenario will be when my client is 4th in a zip code. I know I could potentially get a quick win. Most of my clients are less concerned with their ranking reports \u2013 they just know if their phone is ringing. By prioritizing my spam effort in this manner I can ensure the quickest real-world business impact for my clients.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once tracking relevant keywords and zip codes, head over to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/local-rank-tracker\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Local Rank Tracker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Filter by \u201cGoogle Maps\u201d view and scroll down to the list of tracked keywords.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look for columns where you are ranking 4th:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.14.21.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bingo! High volume terms where my client ranks 4th. This is where I start.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Click the eyeball icon next to a keyword and you\u2019ll then see a full list of all of the competitors and Maps rankings for that query in that zip code. It looks like this:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.18.41.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ll want to examine all these competitors for every Map Pack for every zip code you track. Prioritize them in order by keyword volume and how close your business or client is to the Map Pack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you have your targets, now is when you put them under the microscope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[jump to step 2]<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>B: Grid Trackers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An alternative to the above method I like to use is grid trackers. Many SEO tools offer grid trackers now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grid trackers can show me hyper local rankings in an easy to digest visual.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this example, I\u2019ll use Local Falcon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Local Falcon, you can set a keyword and Business Profile you want to track. Then you set a grid over your city and specify how many miles and pinpoints you want in your grid, such as 5&#215;5, 10&#215;10, 15&#215;15, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It looks like this:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.23.28.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019re tracking and have your grid, you can quickly identify pinpoints of focus. Again, if I see a pinpoint with a \u201c4\u201d \u2013 this is where I start, and I move down from there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similar to Whitespark, if I click on a pinpoint, I\u2019ll quickly see who is in the Map Pack in that neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now I just gather my list of competitors I will investigate for each keyword.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Step 2: Identifying the Cheaters<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you\u2019ll want to dial in a shortlist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I typically just start with the eyeball test. Competitors with not many reviews or poor reviews probably don\u2019t have review spam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, I still examine their profile for other violations. Is their business name accurate? Is their public address at a commercial building with signage? Is it a virtual office? If you locate violations, you can file a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/business\/contact\/business_redressal_form?authuser=6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">redressal complaint<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If I see a competitor with a lot of very good reviews, then I\u2019ll start to look a little closer. For this, I recommend the Chrome extension <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/chrome.google.com\/webstore\/detail\/gmb-everywhere-gbp-audit\/oibcaeeplepnjfjhokfcabnaafodppik\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GMB Everywhere<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s free but with limited scans per day, though you can purchase an unlimited plan for less than $100\/year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With GMB Everywhere, you can do a quick review audit. GMB Everywhere will scan all of the reviews and show you the timeframe in which they were gathered and their average rating over time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look out for suspicious patterns. Their helpful review audit graph can give you an idea if it\u2019s worth your time to build a case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s an example graph of a normal Google Business Profile:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.26.40.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this example, over 7 years, reviews increase at a relatively consistent velocity. They have 173 reviews over that span. I\u2019d consider this to look pretty normal and not suspicious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, some red flags might include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extremely high review velocity<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sudden changes in review velocity<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some examples to look out for:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.27.47.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This business has been open for over 6 years, however, most of their reviews (over 900) were gathered over the span of a few months \ud83d\udea9\ud83d\udea9\ud83d\udea9\ud83d\udea9<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s another potential cheater:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.29.21.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Look out for sudden jumps on the graph. If their review velocity looked pretty consistent, then suddenly picked up the pace in a very short time frame, this is worth investigating further.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, keep in mind this example may not be cheating. Perhaps they just got better at asking customers for reviews. It\u2019s certainly worth adding to your shortlist though.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Step 3: Review Spam Patterns &amp; Building Your Case<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you have your shortlist of potential review spam, the next step is to build a case that you will eventually show to Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To increase your chances of success, you\u2019ll want to gather as much specific evidence as possible to put Google in a position where they feel forced to take action.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specifically, Google likes to see <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">patterns. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are a variety of patterns to look for. These can range from the reviewer&#8217;s location, patterns on each reviewer&#8217;s profile, patterns in language, patterns in review time, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than telling Google to inspect all of the reviews on a given profile, you\u2019ll want to specifically show them the reviews in question. This will give you a greater chance of action.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This can take some time, but the results will be worth it. So put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and get ready to build an epic case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are things to look out for:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Checking Each Reviewer\u2019s History<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you click on a reviewer&#8217;s name, you can see their history of contributions to Google Maps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ll see something like this:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.31.17.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Real people usually have their review history contained to specific localities ( where they live).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spam accounts like to leave reviews all over the world. Keep an eye out for many reviewers who leave reviews all over the world, or maybe if many accounts seem to be outside the city of the business. Or maybe many reviews come from the same city. These are all suspicious patterns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another thing to look out for in review history is what businesses the accounts left reviews for. Spam accounts often leave reviews for the same businesses. Notate how many reviewers reviewed the same business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notate the pattern and the name of each reviewer in that pattern. Save this in a document or spreadsheet. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1n_cN41IRd7BTDRMMWPgfUyTBgkYu2VlGaYu9CnECCLo\/edit#gid=0\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is an example template<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you can use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For this same reason, some spammers have gotten privy to this obvious spam pattern, so they turn their review history off. If that\u2019s the case, you\u2019ll see something like this:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.34.04.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a feature that isn\u2019t super obvious or easy to find in your Google account. Many contributors don\u2019t even know it exists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For that reason, this can equally be a pattern of spam in and of itself. Google knows not many accounts activate this feature. If all or most of the reviews on a given Google Business Profile have this feature activated, that is a very big \ud83d\udea9<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notate this all in your evidence doc and the percentage of reviewers that have this feature activated.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Review Count<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does every single reviewer only have a history of 2 reviews? Or maybe 1 review? If they all have the same review count, this can also be a pattern of abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notate in your evidence document the percentage of reviewers with the exact same number of reviews in their review history.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Language<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Review spammers also like to use similar language. This may be due to AI bots or laziness, but certain grammatical patterns or vocabulary can be sure signs of spam. You may even see completely duplicated reviews that were copy and pasted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For this, GMB Everywhere can be useful again. In their review audit, they show common terms in reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s an example:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.36.24.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On this Google listing, I noticed some very odd patterns. 107 reviews say they would \u201clargely recommend\u201d the business (???).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They also, for some reason, like the word \u201cveritably\u201d \u2013 veritably knowledgeable, veritably friendly, veritably professional. Again, this isn\u2019t normal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also use the eyeball test. You may notice a pattern of reviews giving a very specific example of customer service or a particular product. Or you may notice reviews use very similar keywords to manipulate rankings. If you notice a pattern, you can find them all by scraping their reviews (more on that later).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve examined and read all of the reviews, notate all those patterns! A rule of thumb is to imagine you are explaining it to a 5th grader. Google processes many complaints and reports, so you want to make it <\/span><b>easy to understand<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>hard to ignore<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An example for your notes could be:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">107 reviews say \u201clargely recommend\u201d \u2013 this is not common vernacular, so the pattern is especially suspicious<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">180 reviews say \u201cveritably\u201d \u2013 this is interesting word choice, and the context sounds strange<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">42 reviews say \u201cveritably professional\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">31 reviews say \u201cveritably knowledgeable\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Review Time Stamps &amp; Velocity<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GMB Everywhere can give you a pulse on review velocity and patterns, but when building your case, you\u2019ll want to get more specific.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For this, you\u2019ll want to scrape all of the reviews from the profile. There are various tools for this. I use <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/outscraper.com\/\"><b>Outscraper<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a free tier but it limits how many reviews you can scrape. However, it\u2019s a fairly cheap service if you decide to buy credits. On my most recent scrape, I scraped a profile with over 900 reviews. It cost less than a dollar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once I run my scan, Outscraper spits out an excel sheet with all of the reviews, the review text, dates, time stamps, review IDs, and more. It looks like this:<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-14.38.18.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretty nifty!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From here, I can locate how many reviews were left in a single day or a single hour. I can also see if the reviews always come in at the same time of day. If I haven\u2019t beaten the dead horse enough: patterns!! Find them and notate.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Step 4: Finalizing Your List<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you have notated all of your patterns and evidence, you want to make a list of all of the reviews that appear to be fake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Go back to your spreadsheet with your scraped reviews. Find all of the reviews that fit within the patterns you have identified and copy the review ID column. The review ID is an alpha-numeric string, eg. ChdDSUhNMG9nS0VJQ0FnSUN4MEo2M3N3RRAB<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transfer each review ID to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1n_cN41IRd7BTDRMMWPgfUyTBgkYu2VlGaYu9CnECCLo\/edit#gid=0\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your spreadsheet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with your other evidence of patterns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lastly, explain the impact this review spam has on other local businesses. Google is more keen to take action when the cheaters are harming other businesses with their practices (aka, actually ranking well)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the business is ranking in the Map Pack and appears to be performing well, it\u2019s worth including a list of other genuine businesses that are impacted by the cheater. Feel free to include screenshots of their Map Pack rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Congrats! You now have a complete list with the necessary evidence to show Google.\u00a0<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/very-nice-gif.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Step 5: Post To The Google Help Community<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Head over to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/business\/thread\/new?hl=en&amp;sjid=1255099574400249231-NA\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google Business Profile Help Community<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to create a post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In your post, you can mention how you have located a business that appears to be getting fake positive reviews, and that you already have the evidence. Drop the share link to your Google Sheet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try to refrain from posting Personal Identifiable Information (PII) for yourself or the business in the post body, because Google Help Community threads are indexed. Instead, keep all of this information in your Google Sheet, which helps prevent indexation of PII.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try to also refrain from pleading or writing a novel and stick to the facts. The community is moderated by volunteers who are not Google staff. We already understand your pain. It helps us when we can quickly see the problem so that we can take action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An example could be:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSubject: Business With Many Fake Reviews (Evidence Included)\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hello PEs<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I noticed a concerning pattern and suspect fake reviews on a business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have included all of the evidence in this Google Drive <\/span><b>[provide the share link to a Google Drive or Google Sheet with your evidence and business in question]<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was hoping one of you could take a look and please escalate this profile if warranted. I\u2019m very concerned this business is manipulating Google rankings and customers with fake reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thank you\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Product Expert will chime in to review your evidence and escalate your case.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the business has other violations, such as a spammy business name, I would also recommend <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/business\/contact\/business_redressal_form?authuser=6\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">filling out a redressal complaint<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Be sure to also mention the fake reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Save the case ID. If you don\u2019t hear from Google in a few weeks, you can come back to the community and ask for an update or an escalation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From here, you\u2019ll just need to wait for an update from the Product Expert.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Keep an Eye Out For New Reviews<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While you wait, if you notice new fake reviews keep flowing in, you can go back to your Help Community thread and update the Product Expert. Google can lock profiles from getting new reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Will The Business Get Suspended?<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maybe. I\u2019ve seen some profiles get suspended, while others just have reviews removed or their profile locked. I speculate there is a threshold of violations before Google suspends a profile for purchasing fake reviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be sure to update the Product Expert of any additional violations and case ID\u2019s you have for redressal complaints.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully, Google gets a hold on this problem soon. We all know genuine businesses who follow the rules take the brunt. Until then, I hope this guide gives you the tools to fight back and save your Google rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve all seen it \u2013 that sneaky competitor with hundreds or thousands of perfect five-star reviews. They seem to just keep rolling in endlessly day after day. You just know something is fishy. Well, you\u2019re probably right.\u00a0 Unfortunately review spam is rampant on Google. Last year, Google even released a spam update to fight this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"%%title%% %%page%%","_seopress_titles_desc":"Learn how to identify cheating competitors that are buying fake reviews, report them to Google, and even the playing field.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"classification":[],"class_list":["post-4946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4946"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5067,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4946\/revisions\/5067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4946"},{"taxonomy":"classification","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classification?post=4946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}