{"id":20736,"date":"2017-05-31T09:51:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T13:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=20736"},"modified":"2017-05-31T10:41:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T14:41:59","slug":"review-spam-which-categories-are-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/31\/review-spam-which-categories-are-worst\/","title":{"rendered":"Review Spam – Which Google Categories Are Worst?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWhich categories of businesses on Google are most likely to buy reviews? You will find many of the usual suspects and a few surprises as well.<\/p>\n

I have been exploring review spam networks<\/a>, review spammers (aka spewers) and the businesses that buy these fake reviews. \u00a0In April I wrote<\/a> about a particular review spam network that seemed very pervasive and reported it to Google.<\/p>\n

Google took down the spewers that I reported directly but left the network intact. \u00a0I have continued exploring it (although with better tools).<\/p>\n

I analyzed 634 active spewers that had left 3 or more reviews each. Together these review spammers\u00a0reviewed a total of 5048 businesses across 4 continents.<\/p>\n

Here are the 25 specific Google categories with the highest amount of review spam:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n

Primary Category<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Mover<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Dentist<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

HVAC Contractor<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Internet Marketing Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Pest Control Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Insurance Agency<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Taxi Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Carpet Cleaning Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Roofing Contractor<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Garage Door Supplier<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

11<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Moving and Storage Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

12<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Plumber<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Website Designer<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

14<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Used Car Dealer<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

15<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Dental Clinic<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Water Damage Restoration Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

17<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Limousine Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

18<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Window Supplier<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

19<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Locksmith<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

20<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Real Estate Agency<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

21<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Property Management Company<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

22<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Personal Injury Attorney<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

23<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

House Cleaning Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

24<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Chiropractor<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

25<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Lawn Care Service<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Movers, garage door openers & numerous home care services dominate the list. But there are a number of professionals including PI Lawyers, Insurance Agents, Real Estate and Dentists. I suppose it is no surprise to find Website Designers.<\/p>\n

If you go through the complete list (available here<\/a>) and aggregate dental and legal categories you will see that they are both in the top 5 although neither can hold a candle to the Moving industry.<\/p>\n

As David Mihm noted, when looking at these categories, they primarily occur in service related industries where review acquisition is not a “natural occurrence”. And that applies regardless of whether they are blue or white collar industries.<\/p>\n

You do find a few restaurants and used car dealers but those are the exceptions that prove the rule. Although I suspect in both cases, the reason for buying reviews has more to do with covering up an already bad reputation.<\/p>\n

The visibility of lawyers, dentists, chiropractors and insurance agencies, unreported as culprits in Google’s local spam study<\/a>, validates my previous claim that Google is in many ways currently looking the other way when it comes to abuses by these professions.<\/p>\n

What should you do if you are playing in these categories and want to play by the rules?<\/p>\n

Run a great business and don’t forget to ask for reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Which categories of businesses on Google are most likely to buy reviews? You will find many of the usual suspects and a few surprises as well. I have been exploring review spam networks, review spammers (aka spewers) and the businesses that buy these fake reviews. \u00a0In April I wrote about a particular review spam network …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-plus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20736"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20746,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20736\/revisions\/20746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}