Reviews act as social proof for both consumers and businesses, preventing fraud and unwanted purchases. Fake reviews not only harm consumer safety but also impact a brand’s value and dignity in the market.
Therefore, the FTC has come up with a newly launched review policy to help consumers and businesses engage in a safe and non-fraudulent practice. This update may directly harm Local SEO practices and put your reach down.
Let’s learn how FTC can affect Local SEO and help consumers. We should know about Local SEO first before diving deep into the topic.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is different from SEO because it is approached for businesses with a geographical or physical location to help them bring more customers to their store by improving local search results. The purpose of local SEO is to target a specific geographic area so you can bring in more customers to your physical locations.
Searches like ‘best hair salon near me’, ‘nearby pet shop’, and more like them to find physical locations to get your thing are generally boosted by strategies of Local SEO. Reviews play a considerable role to grow your audience and boost your reach.
Creating fake reviews may not harm your identity or value, but disturbs your visibility on local search results. Therefore, the FTC has introduced a newly advanced and multi-dimensional review policy to help businesses and consumers.
Businesses need to be more diligent regarding their reviews to avoid any penalty that can harm the credibility and trust of search engines and consumers.
Faking anything can harm your identity in the market at any point or any level. Be sure to provide quality be it by posting online, or publishing information, products, or services. Fake things can bring you fame and more sales, but only for a short period. The quality helps you withstand the market and the competition in the long run.
FTCs Updated Guidelines – the Summary
Read these points to understand why you need to be pure, informative, and qualitative when publishing or posting online, whether it’s reviews or posts.
- No fake reviews or endorsements anymore like insider, purchases, or AI-generated testimonials are worthless and may put your website down.
- Promoting truthful and unbiased reviews. The companies will have to allow negative reviews unless they violate content policies (like abusive or offensive).
- Only real experiences and testimonials will be entertained avoiding any manipulative language like overly edited or AI-generated testimonials.
- Influencers or intellectuals must disclose their relationship to a brand by writing ‘sponsored’ or ‘ad’ in their digital content.
Read More at: How FTC’s new review policy could impact your local SEO
Why Should Businesses Follow FTCs New Review Policy?
Here’s why you should follow the new guidelines be it offline or online market.
Improving Trust and Credibility in Local Search Results
Businesses that have genuine and truthful reviews are more likely to stand out in local search results because search engines only prefer trustworthy content.
More Business to Come in Future
You gain authority and trust in your consumer’s eyes once you have genuine and credible items or reviews posted. This generates more revenue and business in future.
Empower Your Business Online to Earn More
Trust and credibility matter nowadays in this Digital World. People shop online for products or services. Therefore, reviews should never lie, or you may lose your potential customers. You must work on posting reviews that are genuine and truthful, even if they are negative.
What can go wrong if you overlook the situation?
There is a thing named Google Business Profile. It is often used to know about the geographical locations and reviews. These reviews will help users judge the services or the products you deal in. Yes, it’s going to make an overwhelming impact, if you don’t follow the guidelines and reconcile your mistakes.
Penalties or Violations
The new policy also includes scrutiny and penalties for companies faking reviews to sell more and attract customers. The fine could go in thousands of dollars.
Might Open a Legal Session
Companies found in deceptive practices could face investigations that will destroy their goodwill or reputation in the market. Make sure your business doesn’t fall into that category or reconcile your mistakes before it’s too late.
Plan Your Strategy – Outsmart the Algorithms to Stay Ahead in the Competition
You can cut the crap and shit out of your brains just with one thing. Quality and purity are all you need to stay successful in the Digital World. Here are some tips.
Frame New Policies
You must update your terms and conditions to prevent your business or website from facing any penalty or scrutiny.
Create Customer Interaction Points
Ask the customers or consumers about their experience personally instead of posting purchased or AI-generated testimonials that may harm reputation and credibility.
Stay Alert for Upcoming Updates
Always monitor your reviews and posts to find out any plagiarism or fake posts that could bring FTC scrutiny.
The Final Words
FTCs new review policy is to empower users in the general interest to provide valuable information about their queries. Now, it’s businesses’ responsibility to be truthful and genuine to their consumers or your efforts in Local SEO or local search results will come to an end.
Here you can trust Tech Codence for an immaculate approach to Local SEO and other digital marketing services to help you build a business online and withstand competition in the Digital World.
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