In this lesson, we're going to go over all the reasons why you should never fake your product reviews or your social proof. Faking your product reviews and your social proof is going to, A, hurt your brand trust, but B, it can also ruin your entire business. Because Shopify and Google really hate fake product reviews. So let's just go through exactly why that is. So first of all, Google will penalize fake Shopify reviews.
Because having them on your website is a violation of their terms of service. Penalization by Google could spell disaster for your business. So not only will you lose out on organic search by being removed from search results, but you could be banned from Google entirely. We all know that getting ranked on Google is extremely important for Shopify stores. That's because the rich results you get from reviews are one of the top reasons businesses get high click through rates in search.
Now let's talk about why you shouldn't be posting fake reviews on Shopify. Not only does posting fake reviews on your Shopify store hurt your brand trust, it also hurts the entire Shopify ecosystem. When people lose faith in one Shopify store, other Shopify stores can become casualties as well. So here's what you shouldn't be doing do not post fake reviews. It's hard in the beginning to generate social proof from your store, but honesty is the best policy for building trust among your visitors.
Second, don't use fake review apps. Shopify store owners can make the ecosystem better by not supporting fake review apps. If you come across an app that allows you to create or fake your own data, don't trust it. It's not credible or trustworthy, and customers are definitely going to be able to see through it. The other thing is Shopify can close down your store for using shady tactics that go against their terms of service.
They understand that there can be damage to the reputation of other stores if other Shopify stores are found to be using fake reviews. Third, is you should use a third party, like Fera, to verify your data. Make sure that any review or social proof app that you use can verify the accuracy of your data. This means that they'll show your online customers that a purchase or product for your counter that you're displaying is authentic data.
So now, you know that you should always be honest, always be truthful because there are consequences, but also, you want to make sure that you're keeping your ethics and morals intact.
