Can You Really Trust Online Reviews? Spotting Genuine Feedback vs Paid Hype
User reviews and star ratings are everywhere, and they are the way many people make their purchase decisions. But there’s one primary drawback to online reviews: trust.
We’ve all heard horror stories about how companies pay people to write five-star reviews to boost their rankings. In this article, we’re going to delve into why we rely on the feedback of others, then look at the red flags to watch out for when reading reviews. By the end of this article, you’ll have a better idea of how to trust online reviews.
Why We Rely So Heavily on Online Feedback
The Influence on Everyday Choices
We have so many choices today, from which hotel to stay at, to what headphones work best in our environment, to what slot sites have the best bonus offers. However, finding out this information often means scrolling through dozens of articles or blog posts, which quickly leads to decision fatigue. Instead, many people shortcut the process by scanning peer reviews. Why not lean on those who have already done the hard yards and have given their valued opinions of the product or service you’re after?
Sites like Skyscanner for flights or ComparetheMarket for insurance show how people have been trained to trust ratings. While others have been accused of favouring one company’s services over another, they’re generally reliable. If you look up the product or service you want on a reputable comparison site and see mostly four- and five-star ratings, you’d most likely consider that one. Why, though, are user reviews from your peers at times more reliable than those from experts?
When Reviews Replace Expertise
User reviews are gaining ground over expert reviews in terms of popularity, and here’s why. Fancy, professional beta-testing of a product before it goes to market is standard. A gamer with 500 hours logged on a console can often flag controller faults faster than a tech journalist who tested it for a week. Real-life experiences have a lot of clout when comparing goods and services, and the word of mouth of consistent users speaks volumes.
Red Flags to Watch for in Fake or Sponsored Reviews
With over 175 trillion gigabytes of data being processed every year, it can be daunting to know what online reviews to trust. To make things worse, there are companies out there that are prepared to pay for positive reviews, use AI tools to create them or encourage friends and family members to rate them highly. It’s not easy spotting fake reviews, but knowing these red flags may help at least skip over the more obvious ones.
Language and Tone Clues
Praise is one thing, but if it’s consistently over the top, it may be ‘too good to be true’. If you’re reading a review that claims, ‘This is the best cleaning product on the market. It’s changed my life. I barely have to lift a finger and my bathroom shines like a diamond’, you’d find that hard to believe. It feels overly exaggerated and makes a claim that sounds unlikely.
Volume and Timing Patterns
One of the many paid review warning signs is a whole lot of them landing at once. For example, if a restaurant suddenly has 100 five-star reviews in a period of a few days, but that restaurant only seats 20 people, something is clearly not right. This could be friends of the restaurant owner, all dumping false reviews at the same time. However, if over a full year, that same restaurant gets 100 five-star reviews—one every three or four days—it might indicate that this establishment is the real deal.
Lack of Specifics
Watch out for generic reviews. A statement like ‘this is the best product in its range’ without mentioning the product’s name, features or benefits could be an indicator that this review is fake. Look for clues that the product has actually been used. Does the review contain anything specific to this item? If not, you’d be correct to pass on that review.
How to Evaluate Reviews Like a Pro
Companies like Amazon are partnering with the Better Business Bureau to fight fake reviews, but they’re still out there. Until more stringent legislation is in place, it’s up to you to be extra vigilant. Now that you know what red flags to spot, these next suggestions can help you navigate through all those reviews and find the online reviews you can trust.
Look for Verified Purchases or Platform-Moderated Content
Just about anyone can write a review, but how do you know if they’ve actually used the product? Amazon, for example, makes that very clear on its platform. Under the star rating, in red, is a ‘verified purchase’ tag. This adds additional authority to the review, as the reviewer has personal knowledge of the item.
Moderated platforms can also be more relied on than unmoderated ones. These platforms can take up to 72 hours to publish a review because each one is first put through a range of tests. These tests aren’t foolproof, but they do manage to reject a lot of spam, AI-generated and fake content.
Cross-Check Across Multiple Platforms
You wouldn’t get all your medical advice from a plastic surgeon. You’d see a specialist doctor for each medical condition. The same should apply to everything else: when checking reviews, spread your sources. Google, Trustpilot, Reddit and niche forums all have different users and collectively provide a broader range of reviews.
Don’t Ignore Negative Reviews
If five-star reviews often overly praise and one-star reviews can be too harsh, where’s the middle ground? Don’t discount the three-star reviews. They’re right in the middle, may be slightly more balanced and offer up the good with the bad. If a product or service has mostly three-star reviews, this could suggest it’s in the middle of the range of its competitors. However, if almost all the reviews are one-star and meet all the criteria above, run away.
Niche Review Sites and Why They Matter
We touched on comparison sites earlier, and these are even more useful when they’re niche-related.
Niche review sites dive into more specifics. Because they’re focused, they often involve better and deeper levels of research. The detail found on a niche review site is much higher than, say, those on Trustpilot. It’s an excellent site, but very broad, as it covers all retail and consumer services. Users feel confident that they can trust online reviews from niche platforms.
Niche review sites cover a broad range, from travel for people with pets, to food for people with specific allergies, to online gambling where it’s allowed. Here’s an example of how a specialist review platform, such as a casino comparison site, works. Readers can find a detailed review on CasinoHawks that breaks down the Mega Riches slot, including gameplay mechanics, bonus features and pros/cons. What this shows is that time has been spent researching, using and testing various casino sites, so that a potential user gets the feedback that they need to make an informed decision. This level of review is especially useful in regulated sectors like online gambling, where casino review reliability needs to be at its highest.
Final Thoughts: Stay Curious, Not Cynical
Avoid decision fatigue by getting your answers from other users’ reviews. Don’t take them all on face value, though; check for bulk, over-enthusiastic and vague content. Take both the five- and one-star reviews with a grain of salt and look for the middle ground.
Check across multiple platforms to ensure a cross-section of the community. Even better, seek out niche review platforms where the advice is more detailed.
The key to getting the most out of reviews is to remain smart but open-minded. Most reviews exist to help, but there are the ones to watch out for. With a little closer inspection, you can enjoy the benefits of crowd-sourced wisdom while avoiding the fake ones.
