A recent survey by Yelp was conducted by Material and asked 2,000 Americans to rate the reliability of reviews. Respondents said that they have read five reviews of a company to help them make spending decisions. 77% also stated they are reading more reviews online than ever before.
These are the key findings. Yelp’s survey revealed the following:
- Respondents stated that they use online reviews to find out more about restaurants (67%), household repairs/work (57%), cars repair/services (55%), and medical needs (51%). (42%).
- Respondents who believe they have spotted fake reviews online will either read more reviews (49%), disregard the fake (34%), locate another company (27%), or report it (24%).
- Respondents are only 28% interested in looking for incentives to review businesses, while 71% said they wouldn’t visit any business if they found out that the company has compensated or fake reviews online.
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Respondents trust written reviews more than star ratings by 85%.
- Yelp demands that reviews be included with ratings.
- 88% said it was important to understand the process by which online review sites determine whether reviews are trustworthy and not.
- 79% would like to see all reviews about a product or business, even those it believes are untrustworthy or fake.
Fake reviews can be stopped Respondents who believe they have seen a fake review will still read reviews about other businesses to get additional information. The potential fake review was ignored by 34%, while 27% found another business and 24% reported it to the respective platforms.
85 percent of respondents trust written reviews over star ratings.
The controversy surrounding exortion. The blog article mentions a Google Reviews scam that affected many restaurants in large cities. The scammers attempted to get the restaurant owners to pay $75 Google Play gift certificates to erase their false reviews. These restaurants saw an increase in one-star Google reviews. Because of our strict review text policy, this did not happen on Yelp.
Yelp had to deal with similar years back, and inconsistencies regarding its rules.
Dig deeper. The full Yelp study can be found on the blog.
We care. Yelp local businesses should ask for reviews using ethical and legal methods. Businesses can also use paid advertising to appear higher in search results. They will respond to negative reviews and maintain their listings to maximize their visibility.
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