Online reviews have become an important part of commerce because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing people to get some kind of an idea of how a particular product might be for them before they actually purchase it. While this has been beneficial for consumers as whole, it should be noted that there have been some examples where online reviews have hurt local and small businesses, especially in situations where review bombing starts to occur.
The main problem with review bombing is that it usually happens in bad faith. Multiple users might give a business one star reviews not because they don’t like the products but rather because they have a personal problem with the owner, or they might have other issues that they are taking out through such means. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Google has a strategy that has been put in place to try to prevent review bombing from having too much of an impact on businesses that wouldn’t be able to survive if such things continue to occur.
It turns out that machine learning plays a pretty huge role in preventing review bombing. Things like trends in the user’s review history are taken note of, as well as the location proximity of the users that are leaving these reviews. Sudden spikes in one star reviews or even five star reviews will raise red flags, and whenever a review is flagged the content will be inspected to see if it looks legitimate.
It is essential for Google to try to safeguard businesses due to the reason that while reviews might consumers they can also do a lot of damage to businesses if the users are in any way malicious. Misuse of the review feature is something that has been a problem for quite some time now, so it’s good to know that Google is going to continue to try to keep its features and platforms fair for all. That’s important since many users will be misguided if they see a review bombed place of business.
Read next: Study Shows 60% of Google Page Titles Get Rewritten
The main problem with review bombing is that it usually happens in bad faith. Multiple users might give a business one star reviews not because they don’t like the products but rather because they have a personal problem with the owner, or they might have other issues that they are taking out through such means. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Google has a strategy that has been put in place to try to prevent review bombing from having too much of an impact on businesses that wouldn’t be able to survive if such things continue to occur.
It turns out that machine learning plays a pretty huge role in preventing review bombing. Things like trends in the user’s review history are taken note of, as well as the location proximity of the users that are leaving these reviews. Sudden spikes in one star reviews or even five star reviews will raise red flags, and whenever a review is flagged the content will be inspected to see if it looks legitimate.
It is essential for Google to try to safeguard businesses due to the reason that while reviews might consumers they can also do a lot of damage to businesses if the users are in any way malicious. Misuse of the review feature is something that has been a problem for quite some time now, so it’s good to know that Google is going to continue to try to keep its features and platforms fair for all. That’s important since many users will be misguided if they see a review bombed place of business.
Read next: Study Shows 60% of Google Page Titles Get Rewritten