Feel Sceptical about Fake Reviews on Google Maps? Here's how you can eliminate & hunt the best!

[dk_1098]

As the reviews are free to give on Google Maps, there is a high chance they are fake or scripted.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when checking the reviews on Google Maps:-

1. Check the latest reviews. Mostly new reviews are raw & it also gives an idea about new changes & the activity at the place you’re looking for.

Also, check the interval of those reviews. Mostly fake reviews are done in bulk or at close intervals.

2. Check the Local Guide reviews, if available, or at least check reviews of people who reviewed 5-10 places in the past.

3. Check the ‘Popular Times’ and check how many people check-in at different hours of the place, This is the social proofing technique that helps you analyze the crowd attraction of the place. A popular place usually gets a high mark and indicates the place is good enough to attract a big crowd.

Look, only 1-5% of people do reviews on Google Maps, so the sample size of reviews is very low but the crowd mark or ‘Popular Time’ mark will help you know the approximate crowd attraction of the place, this will help you know whether this place is really attractive enough for social proofing.

4. Check the most used words in the reviews using the review filter.

This will help you know the best food of the place or the best thing to do at that place. For example:- There must be something special about ‘Pan Petha’ at Panchhi Petha which most people write about. Checking that will help you out in finding the most selling & seeking things in the place.

5. Check the name and photo of the reviewers, usually bulk reviews & fake reviews are done from those accounts which are inactive, with no display picture or weird names.

Check the Profile of Reviewers. Most fake reviewers either copy-paste or follow the same pattern in reviewing different places. They also give either 5-star ratings or 1-star to all. I mean how could all the places around the reviewers be so welcoming or disappointing? There must be something lie, lying behind. (chor ke daadhi me tinka)

6. Check who has posted the photos in photos section of the place in Google Maps. If there are multiple people posting photos then it’s most likely a good place but if only the owner or only 1-2 people posting different photos, then it is a high chance they are fake reviewers and that’s a creepy place.

7. Still confused? Ask the community about the place. If you get the answer then it is a genuine reply because only those people get the notification about your question who went that place. Fake reviewers won’t get the notification and if they get then also they don’t make efforts to reply because they are mostly inactive accounts or work only when paid.

8. Don’t like the place?

Just below the reviews, you’ll find “People also search for”. It will help you hunt for the next better place just near the place you’re looking in.

Thanks for reading this till here.

I hope this will help. If Yes, Hit ‌ ‌. Comment your ideas, how you filter the clutter the scripted reviews on Google Maps. If you share this, it will help more people know how to get the best out of Google Maps reviews! Thanks to @TravellerG to encourage me to write this post on Local Guide Connect

[MortenCopenhagen]

Nice post, @dk_1098

I think it is important to also note that the individual indicators are not fool proff. Genuine reviews might trigger some of the indicators without being spam, so it is relevant to always evaluate more than one indicator before flagging a review or profile as spam.

All the best

Morten

[MortenCopenhagen]

@dk_1098

I’m a bit unsure about 3: Check popular times.

Your text sounds like you can interpret the height or number of the bars as documentation for the popularity of a place. I think the height is only relative to other times and not to the absolute number of visitors. Please help me understand how we can use the timing bars to learn how popular or genuine a place is.

Cheers

Morten

[dk_1098]

Frankly speaking, I’m also not sure whether it is the relative comparison within the place performance in different hours or relatives comparisons to an average of all the place around. However, in both the comparison, you’ll find there is something (average crowd attaction of the place or average of crowd work near the locality) to which it is being compared with. In both the case it will help us know the insights. Hence, popular times section gives you the bare rough idea of the places attraction. If you know more or anyone who knows more on this. Please tag him/her. I also want to be sure on this. Thanks for asking the very interesting questions though.

[TravellerG]

Hello dear friend @dk_1098

Very informative post, as mentioned by our @MortenCopenhagen - thanks to Morten.

Appreciate your efforts for this presentation - valuable to every LG - worth deliberating.

Best wishes

[SauravBhagat]

Wow! Truly a helpful post @dk_1098 Thanks for your efforts to point out these methods.

[RituShah]

This is such a good post. Very well written and shown. Thank you @dk_1098

[TravellerG]

Once again, I appreciate your efforts and I’m tagging our fellow LGs @Anil6969 @RosyKohli and @Shrut19 to get their comments.

Best wishes dear @dk_1098

Warm regards

[Shrut19]

नमस्कार,

** @dk_1098 मै आप के पोस्ट का समर्थन करती हु,**

** @TravellerG **

जानकारी पुर्ण पोस्ट हे ।

[TravellerG]

Hello dear @Shrut19

Here, I was trying to bring capable LGs like our @dk_1098 to LG Connect to openly discus.

Thanks for your kind support.