How to Encourage Online Reviews Without Getting in Trouble – Texas REALTORS®-2021十大正规彩票app

Running afoul of websites’ policies could get reviews of your business hidden or worse.

February 18, 2018

Websites like Yelp and Google may hide or delete reviews they think violate their terms of service, which typically forbid incentivizing reviews with payment, gifts, or other benefits. Violating a website’s terms of service could also get your page deleted.

What you can do

Use signage and branding available from the website where you collect reviews
Provide links to profiles on review websites
In the course of a transaction, remind clients where you collect reviews or recommendations.

Recently, Yelp stated that asking your customers for reviews is a violation of its terms of service and could hurt your business’s rating. The software Yelp uses to recommend reviews, which determines if they’re visible or listed first, avoids reviews that appear to be solicited. Yelp’s guidelines warn against soliciting mailing lists for reviews, running surveys that ask for reviews, or having staff compete to collect reviews.

Not all websites are as strict as Yelp about reviews, but reviews are supposed to be honest and unbiased. Pushing clients, family, or friends to write excessively flattering reviews could bring your page the wrong kind of attention.

For most review websites, such as Google and Facebook, it’s acceptable at the end of a transaction to remind clients where they can review your services and provide a link. Websites also encourage businesses to engage with reviewers, showing that you monitor feedback and take it seriously. Using signage or branding provided by a website can help show off your positive reviews to potential clients as well as reminding past clients where to post their own feedback.

Do you use realtor.com?

If you’ve set up a free professional account at realtor.com, you can request ratings and reviews from verified clients directly through the website. You can also add recommendations written by friends, family, and colleagues to your profile. Find more information and instructions on how to edit your profile at support.realtor.com.

The main thing to keep in mind when encouraging reviews is to make your appeal in the normal course of a transaction and in a way that does not try to influence the content. Beyond terms of service and website policies, most potential clients can tell if something doesn’t ring true about your online reviews.

Legal Disclaimer

Texas REALTORS® provides content through various online platforms, including this blog. By interacting with any of our blog posts, you agree to comply with the following terms and conditions:

a. You will not post any defamatory, discriminatory, libelous, threatening, vulgar, sexually explicit, abusive, profane, rude, or obscene content (including comments);
b. You will not use our blog posts or posted content to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory; and
c. You will not post content or take any action on our blog posts that infringes someone else’s rights or otherwise violates the law.
d. You will not post any information intended to sell or advertise a business, product, or service.

Texas REALTORS®, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to remove any content you have uploaded, posted, or submitted onto any of our blog posts if we believe that it violates these terms or conditions.

The material provided here is for informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be considered as legal advice for your particular matter. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Applicability of the legal principles discussed in this material may differ substantially in individual situations.

While Texas REALTORS® has used reasonable efforts in collecting and preparing materials included here, due to the rapidly changing nature of the real estate marketplace and the law, and our reliance on information provided by outside sources, Texas REALTORS® makes no representation, warranty, or guarantee of the accuracy or reliability of any information provided here. Any legal or other information found on this page or at other sites to which we link, should be verified before it is relied upon.