Yelp has a unique review system that we have said will be the future of legitimizing reviews and reputation. Today we saw potential drawback or proof it works.
Yelp accuses restaurant of posting its own positive reviews
Adam Murphy and his team did the piece and I responded via email;
Hi Adam
When people visit yelp ….yelp collects their IP address, the type of operating system (XP, Vista, 7, 8, Mac) and what internet browser they used.
They also get unique identifier information so they know if the yelper is real. So the same IP, same operating system, same browser and identifier information then yes.
However they may not be using that information and just punishing the owner for having people review his business. So many in one day at the wifi spot tells yelp that they must be up to something….yet having no real proof.
Yelp policy is that you can’t bribe or ask for reviews in an unethical way. So there is more to it than the initial story.
Great job on what you and your team produced.
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This is why we warn clients to NOT attempt to help clients with reviewing on yelp. Just like Google and their SEO guidelines YELP wants the behavior of the online reviewer to behave a certain way and not to come across suspect.
You should have reviews on YELP but there is a system that will get more of them showing and not get your business blacklisted. Contact us for free help on this.
This is a big deal these days. People expect to get ahead the easier way by either paying for it, or doing it themselves. It’s ideal to get legitimate reviews. Especially in this day and age, it’s quite easy to tell what is real and what isn’t. I’ve seen Yelp pages where reviewers say nearly identical things. “Oh this shop is great” “Yes, this shop is great” etc. I’m sure you get what I’m saying.
With that being said, as long as they get reviews from other sources and not the same source all the time, things should be perfectly fine.