expertSEM

Let’s face it, sometimes people have bad intentions. This is especially evident in the ultra competitive space of Google Maps. With the recent announcement that Google will start displaying local results on non geo terms, it’s no surprise that every business owner is willing to do whatever it takes to grab that valuable real estate.

This was recently noticed: http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid=107024418074984427321&hl=en&gl=us3&mid=1240339424 when monitoring searches in the sign industry as a single person managed to provide a bad review to over 28 locations of the 2 largest sign brands in the Florida area. This is either a frustrated competitor or a man with clear intentions of taking on the entire sign industry one bad review at a time.

In most cases review spam isn’t as obvious as the noted example, but you should be monitoring what the public is saying about your business. In this addition of ‘tip of the week’ I will be explaining how to remove a suspected maliciously placed review.

Once you have identified the review, the first step to removing it in Google is by selecting ‘No’ in response to the “Was this review helpful” question. This simply allows more weight to be placed behind a review, whether it’s positive or negative. By selecting no it will indicate people who have agreed yes or no thus decreasing the validity of the review. The second step is to select the [Flag as inappropriate] marker. Google gives you the chance to select the reason for removal between Spam, contains illegal content, advocates hate or violence and other. After selecting the removal reason add your email address as they may follow up with additional questions. If Google finds the review to be in violation of their guidelines the review will be removed.

If a consumer gives their honest opinion about their experience with your business it will be hard to have that flagged. After all, reviews are essential to attracting visitors to business profiles so Google will remain reluctant unless the reason is reputable. Most other engines offer this wiki type removal function and they operate the same.