Should You Buy Google Reviews?

Managing your digital reputation is one of the biggest challenges that business owners face today. It used to be a relatively simple process before the digital age, but now the world is your judge rather than your local community. If you buy Google reviews, you might as well walk yourself up to the chopping block.

It would help if you were very careful about what business practices you partake in and what you say. The way you conduct yourself is going to define your reputation in a global market, not just a local one.

The issue with balancing this is that your reputation is everything for running a successful business in a digital age. There has never been more competition than there is now, no matter what industry you’re in.

That’s why getting online reviews is so important. Not only is it an indicator of the quality of your product or service, but it lets people know that you’re trustworthy and popular.

There are plenty of different review site services out there, but Google reviews by far can result in the most leads and sales for your business! When you search for a business on Google, you can immediately see the customer reviews that the business has. This leads people to want to buy Google reviews, but this is a disastrous idea.

The number of reviews you have is actively going to make the search engine bump up your rating, helping you appear higher than your competition on the search results.

All of this together makes having an effective Google review strategy and using it correctly necessary. However, some business owners are tempted to buy customer reviews rather than coming up with a plan to generate real reviews.

While this might seem like a quick and easy method to someone unversed in reputation management on the internet, the reality is that buying Google reviews is the single easiest way to doom your business before you’ve even given it a chance.

Even if your customers aren’t reading the reviews, the fact that you buy Google reviews is enough to do the damage.

How it Works When You Buy Google Reviews

Buying fake customer reviews isn’t a new way of thinking, whether you’re looking to buy Google reviews or Yelp reviews. It’s a service that’s been around practically since the dawn of e-commerce. As soon as the internet brought about a new way to run a business, reputation management immediately became something of great importance. Search results quickly became the golden goose of digital marketing and avoiding negative reviews while getting more positive online review ratings was vital. Review sites quickly became a measure of how good a Google business was. It was the epicenter of an online reputation.

The more competition you have, the more positive your reputation needs to be. There has never been a more competitive time to be a business owner than there is now.

Culminating a collection of five-star reviews became the equivalent to getting a stamp of approval. Even if your customer doesn’t read any reviews, the rating and number of reviews alone are enough to have a massive positive impact on your business.

That’s what lead so many businesses towards buying fake reviews rather than generating real ones.

There are plenty of different online businesses that specialize in fake reviews. These businesses operate by using what are called bots. These bots are what do the work when you buy Google reviews.

The bots are automated to post five-star reviews to your business through computer programming. It’s quick and automatic. You can even customize the time that these bots post at and when the first one goes up. It might sound good, but it’s the single best way to destroy your credibility.

You buy Google reviews, the price of which is dictated by the number of fake reviews you want. However, these reviews come with no guarantee, which is important because it’s actually against Google’s terms of service.

In other words, if Google or Yelp catches onto the fake reviews and deletes them, you can’t get your money back. When you buy Google Reviews, it’s like setting your money on fire and roughing it onto a puddle of gasoline.

It’s not just Google that you need to worry about, either. No matter what rating company you’re operating with, it’s important that your reputation and reviews strategy is up to scratch. One misstep can give you a bad name online, resulting in one-star reviews on Yelp, Trip Advisor, Google, and even social media sites like Facebook.

Buying fake reviews might seem like a good way to easily generate good reviews, but it’s only going to help you doom your company.

Online, there is a distinct general level of hatred and distrust towards fake reviews and followers. If a company buys followers for its Instagram or Twitter account, it’s ridiculed and actively loses business thanks to a damaged reputation. This isn’t the exact same as when you buy Google reviews, though.

When you buy Google reviews, this is seen as a much more egregious offense than simply buying followers.

When people see that you’re buying fake reviews, it’s interpreted as misleading business tactics, which it is. Customers aren’t going to first think “that’s embarrassing,” they’re going to think “that’s shady.”

You’re using false information and lying when you buy Google reviews in an attempt to generate some easy business. You’re never going to pull the wool over the eyes of the internet, so being caught in something like buying reviews is the best way to destroy your reputation beyond repair. It’s an easy but vicious mistake for new digital business owners to make.

The best Google listing in the world isn’t worth anything if your customers aren’t happy and refuse to buy.

Scandals that happen when you buy Google reviews not only destroy your credibility but can actually result in an influx of negative reviews to your site. These Google reviews, despite coming from people that have never used your product or service, are coming from real accounts rather than bots.

This may make it much more difficult for Google’s detection bots to find it, so it’s going to take much longer for these bad reviews to be removed.

The risk involved with buying positive reviews is rarely worth it. All it takes is a bit of bad luck, and your business is gone. Instead, try to focus on developing a strategy to generate more positive reviews naturally instead. It may take more time, require more work, and may not be as easy, but it’s going to be the best method you can use to make a good impact on the reputation of your business.

Fake Reviews Destroy Your Business

You’re going to find that if you use fake reviews, Google’s going to be removing more and more reviews from your company’s listing page.

In other words, when you buy Google reviews, it may do four things:

• It’s going to lose you money when the Google reviews start getting removed.
• This can destroy your reputation when people realize what you’ve done.
• Sometimes it results in an influx of negative reviews from angry customers and online personas.
• It’s going to result in some genuine legitimate reviews getting deleted, wasting your time.

As tempting as it might seem, don’t ever start using fake reviews. At Turnkey, we’ve seen countless small businesses not take our advice only to have the various Google listing pages removed or spammed with negative feedback.

No matter how bad you might think Google’s listing system and disciplinary action are, remember that the general internet at large is so much worse. Your rating may be destroyed overnight without the proper help. We’ve seen it before, and you probably have, too. There are plenty of stories out there that you can get and read about real businesses losing everything because of a poor online reputation.

The most prominent example of this new phenomenon is a business called “Amy’s Bakery.” You might have heard of it; it was a restaurant that Gorden Ramsay visited on his show. The owners of this business took the tips that their employees made and kept it for themselves. They were also completely remorseless about it.

If you’re partaking in practices similar to this, then your new business is doomed to fail from the beginning regardless of your reviews. However, Amy’s Bakery was featured on a TV show. When the internet caught word, you couldn’t read Twitter without people talking about how bad it was. The bakery went bankrupt shortly after.

Amy’s Bakery is a masterful study of why your reputation is so important and how negative attention may destroy it. Buying Google reviews is just one way to generate this negative attention, but navigating the digital era for a company is comparable to walking through a minefield.

Think of Turnkey like your minesweeper. We know in what place the issues lie, how to avoid them, and how to optimize your business strategies to take advantage of the results you’re getting on Google listing pages without having to buy Google reviews.

Buying Google Reviews Doesn’t Improve Your Business

Think about it for a second. Buying an online review isn’t going to improve your business. You’re still going to have the same issues that you had in the first place. It’s like trying to paint a new house that has only just had the foundations set.

If you want to improve your new Google business, then you need real customers leaving Google reviews on review sites. Remember that Google is only one aspect of a much wider picture, and you can’t buy Google reviews for every site without spending hundreds if not thousands.

Developing an effective online reputation and reviews strategy is a much more effective way to help build your new business up on Google. Not only is it going to increase your rating on review sites, but it’s going to scale and grow with your company, allowing you to monitor and manage it as you see fit. You can even use it to collect an email list, which may help you get more customer support.

If your potential customers see you buying Google reviews, they’re going to think that you’re doing so because you have to. If you have to buy Google review bots, they’re going to think that there is something wrong with your Google business, so they’re not going to give you the time of day.

Using a service that lets you buy reviews is going to help generate a negative image of your company and brand. It’s not a good look, and it’s easy for you to get caught. It’s not a matter of if; it’s just a matter of time. All it takes is a quick Google search to see if your company is buying reviews. Once your customers start to realize that you’re using these services, you can say goodbye to any chance you had of pulling them into your sales funnel.

Reputation Management is Everything

We keep stressing it, but managing your online reputation really is vital. Reputation management software discussed in this article is available to make the process easy. It may actually be the most important part of managing your business in the digital space.

At a fundamental level, your reputation dictates everything. It’s going to influence your customer count, your pricing, the attention that your business page gets, and even how effective your marketing is.

The better your reputation, the better your reach and legitimacy. If you’ve bought fake reviews, then it may make your business look suspicious.

Think of it from a customer’s point of view. You’re trying to decide between two different businesses. One of them has 50 positive Google reviews that are verified and are clearly from legitimate accounts. It only has a four-star overall rating, though.

The other business has 500 positive reviews, all of which are five stars. However, you realize that these reviews aren’t verified, so you start to click into some of the accounts. You quickly realize that the accounts are bot accounts and that the reviews aren’t real.

Which are you going to buy from? The business with 50 positive reviews and a four-star rating, or the business that has bought 500 reviews?

It should be the one with 50 reviews. It’s clearly a legitimate business that has a loyal customer base. The other business has had to buy reviews for a reason, so either the quality of the product or service is bad, or it’s an out and out scam.

Your heart may be in the right place when you’re buying reviews, but all you’re doing is shooting yourself in the foot.

Doing Google Business the Right Way

This should be enough to convince you not to buy fake online reviews. If it isn’t, though, we beg that you give us a call or send us an email. Even if you plan on managing your online reputation yourself, we don’t want to see your business fail. Let us convince you why it’s such a bad idea on a one to one basis if you’re still sold on the idea.

If you have been dissuaded from Buying Google reviews, then the question of how to generate positive reviews from real customers remains.

Google business is a valuable tool if you can use it right, so sit down and think the process out. Your goal is to get more positive reviews, so put that at the top of the page and start brainstorming. If you have a management team that you can work with, even better.

It would be best if you were breaking that goal up into two sections: quality and quantity.

You’re trying to generate more reviews and generate positive reviews.

Depending on your business, the methods you have for going about this are going to vary. For a small startup business, getting your friends and family to leave a review is a great way to get started. Even if you’re operating as a freelancer, having your friends and family sample your products and services in exchange for posting a review is a win-win for you both.

If you take advantage of this review method, make sure that the reviews are legitimate, though. Actually, supply the product and service and ask them to be honest in their review.

If you’ve moved past that local startup stage and already have a customer base and reviews to your name, then you have a lot more options.

You can always include a call to action in your online or physical copy. If you’re supplying an online service, asking your customer to leave a Google review on your business page at the end of a positive correspondence is a simple yet extremely effective way to generate more high-quality Google reviews. You can even automate this process if you want.

If you’re operating in physical services, the same thing applies. Simply asking is often enough to start generating more. You could even take the extra step and have physical copy like fliers printed out to be given to your clients after the job is done. A local, personalized thank you card is not only a great way to get Google reviews but also to build a loyal and recurring customer.

If you make sure that the card is personalized to the individual, this is a surprisingly effective and cerebral strategy. Handwrite it and make it feel special. If the client sees that you’ve put in that effort, they’re going to put in the effort for you.

Generating Online Google Reviews Through Products

Generating positive online Google reviews when you’re providing a service it mainly comes down to making sure you have happy customers. You’re mainly going to be appealing to the human side of the transaction.

When you’re dealing in products, you have other strategies that you can take advantage of.

You can obviously still go with the personalized approach. This is perfect if you’re a business that operates in places similar to Etsy. This lets you go global with a local feel and comes with a built-in reviews system.

For something that doesn’t do as much business online or is a part of a bigger franchise or brand, though, then this approach isn’t going to be effective.

Instead, you’re going to have to appeal to the quality of the product. Rather than playing on the local human aspect, ask them to leave a review if they enjoyed the product. You could even consider going the extra mile by offering 15% off their next order for leaving a said review.

It’s important that you don’t specify that they need to leave a positive review. This needs to be a singular incentive regardless of their opinion.

Personalization is the Key to Happy Customers

The best way to get positive reviews on Google for your business is to make sure your customers are happy. When your customers are happy, your online reputation management takes care of itself.

It generates repeat business and positive Google reviews naturally. The quality of the product and service is obviously vital to this, but any manager can tell you that making the customer feel special is critical to success.

This is such a strong principle or business that giants such as McDonald’s actively teaches “make it special” to its employees.

McDonald’s doesn’t have the same luxury that small businesses have with regards to this, though. You’re able to write a handwritten thank-you note with every order, so take advantage of that.

Even if you run something local such as a restaurant, have a bunch of thank you fliers printed up to include in delivery bags. On the fliers, thank the customer and ask them to leave a review. If you want to be extra cerebral with this strategy, include a separate discount voucher in the bag. This is a great way to improve your local credibility and doesn’t involve buying Google reviews or online reviews.

It gets harder to personalize your business as it scales and grows. Eventually, you’re going to have to automate the process. There’s no shame in that, though. Just make sure you’re doing it right, and each review is going to be great.

TurnKey Reputation is Here to Help

Online reputation management isn’t easy, and you’re not the first person to search for a way to improve it. Many business owners have felt the negative effects of using review bots, both on a local and global level.

If you’re reading this now, it means that you’ve managed to avoid making that massive misstep. That’s only the first step when it comes to building up your reputation, though.

If you’re unsure of what to do or even where to start, don’t worry. If anything, this is a good thing. Recognizing where there are holes in your expertise is critical when it comes to building a successful business. It’s something that you need to do.

That’s where TurnKey Reputation comes in. We’re the best online reputation management firm available. We’ve got years of expertise in reputation management that we’ve gained from our outstanding time in the space. We’re local to customer reputation management and have been for years.

Every member of our team is a veteran and expert at what they do, meaning they’re there if you need some help.  If you’re looking to get more Google Reviews, we discuss how in this post.

Our services range from strategies to increase your online presence, local reputation, online reviews management systems, automation that personalize the transaction, Google review optimization, customer email listing creation, and more.

Not only can we help your business page rank higher in the search engines, but we can help you get real customers that continue to buy at a rate that nothing else can, through the use of online review systems and other strategies.

We’ve helped businesses around the globe get customer support and loyalty, and we can do the same for you. Drop us an email, and we can get back to you with a plan on how to move forward.

Whether you need help with a high-quality business page, need more reviews, need to get more customer feedback, don’t know whether or not to buy customer reviews to get more real customers, or anything in between, TurnKey is here to help.