Incentivizing Reviews?

I recently saw a new take on incentivizing reviews I wanted to discuss.
 
I received an email from a company telling people to leave a review for them and they’ll plant a tree for every review left. 🤔
 
They are thinking that they aren’t trading money or services for the review, so it’s OK. It’s not a path I would recommend any of my clients take when trying to get more reviews.
 
The company is giving an incentive (planting a tree) for a review.  Each individual’s value of that incentive may be different, but it’s still an incentive.

This might be considered a grey area and one that some may argue it’s OK to do. 

I’m going to caution you against using any review strategy that is a grey area.  Google updates their guidelines throughout the year and it’s often to clarify a position that they see certain businesses taking advantage of.

You don’t want your business getting caught doing something that Google doesn’t like.

Remember, Google OWNS the platform.

Your profile on Google My Business is OWNED by Google NOT you.

Google makes the rules and if they decide to remove some or all of your reviews, they can. It’s been done before! 

In 2018, a business had 464 reviews and Google decided they had gone against their rules and took away all but 78!

Reviews are valuable and using a scheme to get lots of reviews quick is not worth the risk of losing any or all of your reviews.

Do you need help with your business’s review strategy? Contact us.