Good points, Thomas. Also: this is very manipulable, right?

Interesting that you mention a ton of positive reviews; does Yelp also deal with a ton of negative reviews from the same IP?

I do see some problems with Yelps approach here. I am curious how long the penalty will stand. The last set of “Caught Red Handed” penalties only lasted 3 months.

I know they are trying to crack down on companies who spam the reviews, but it definitely could penalize those who just happen to have really happy customers. Those who would take the time to write a review on a computer set up there at the business.

Unfortunately like you mentioned though, you just can’t do it that way. You can pass out a card, asking them to review you when they get home. Maybe send them an email if they sign up for your “loyalty/coupon program”. But you can’t give them an easy way to do the review, especially if they are good reviews.

Oh the convoluted online marketing and review world we live in where companies feel like they have to game the system or do everything possible to make sure their customers give reviews on other websites, instead of through just good word of mouth referrals.

Thanks for sharing this again!

I don’t think Google will ever out people the way that Yelp has. It’s very dicey business for yelp to do so. I can see a lot of risk here. But Yelp is no courtroom rookie.

As for Google needing it, I’d say no. Google simply suppresses the listing or remove reviews. If G+ works, which is now required to leave a review, then Google’s system will be harder to game. Spam accounts leaving reviews will dwindle. Personalization of search results based on real users and their networks will be more powerful reasons to get real reviews.