Spotting Fake Reviews: Keeping Your Eyes Open

Review vs. Overview

Here are a few tips that highlight the differences between overview and review.

1.) Go for length. Overviews and false reviews are typically short, and occasionally, just blurbs.

Because reviews typically go into detail about one or more aspects of a product, they are often longer. Typically speaking, the longer a review, the more likely it is to be genuine.


2.) Go for original content. Bogus reviews and overviews usually won't offer anymore information than what can be found on a product's pitch page.

If all a supposed-review provides is restated information from the sales page, chances are it's not a real review.

Reviews, on the other hand, offer experience. More specifically, they provide original, personal content that isn't found on a product's pitch page.


3.) Negatives are a plus. This might sound strange, but it's a very good indicator for the quality of a review. The better a review is, the more critical it is.

A false product review either doesn't know about a product's drawbacks, or it doesn't want you to know about them. Fortunately for us, this is helpful in spotting fake reviews.

Either way, they won't be included. Of course, not all genuine reviews do an excellent job about giving a products cons. However, they are typically more critical in their evaluations

Your safest bet, give more credibility to the review that highlights the bad as well as the good.


4.) Notice the hype. Remember, if this is an affiliate review, accept the fact that there's likely to be some hype. Even genuine reviews have a little added sensationalism thrown in (they do want to make sales, after all).

Though, it might be best to avoid the “reviews” that are nothing but hype, especially if they exhibit the other false review characteristics listed above.

The Golden Question

Try thinking of it this way, if you were to write a review on product, what could you say about it if you had never used it? Without simply making up stuff off the top of your head, you would be limited to what you information you do have (sales page).

Now, imagine reviewing something you've used and are familiar with. Think of how much more detail you could go into. Chances are, you could also write much more about the product in general as well.

So, the next time you come to a review, as yourself, “If had never used the product myself, would my 'review' resemble this one?”

To put it another way, if after only reading the sales page, you can write a review that is just as informative as the one before you, KEEP LOOKING.

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