2nd july 2009

Some people are lucky, and some people aren’t.  Here’s an unlucky person I ran across today.  He’s simply known as Robert, and his problems revolve around the keys and locks in his life.  As Google will tell you, he’s one hell of an unlucky person who finds himself in need of a good locksmith regularly.

On November 27, 2008, Robert started sharing his history of bad luck with keys, locks and the locksmiths he loves working with.  His soapbox: online reviews.  Let’s take a look.  His problems all took place in Arizona, all ten of them.  Here’s a few below:

If that wasn’t enough, just about a week later Robert had more problems with his keys and locks, and more locksmiths to provide feedback on.  All the reviews were good, just like the one’s in Arizona.  All of the reviews point to another string of bad luck in Seattle.  Twenty-eight reviews of locksmiths were all added on December 5th.  Here’s a few of the reviews:

Robert has had some really bad luck with keys and locks.  But, he’s had great luck with locksmiths apparently.  Every one he’s worked with he’s given a five-star rating.

Okay, everyone’s figured it out by now (I hope).  There’s obviously something wrong with this user profile.  And, in reality, there probably is no “Robert,” so who cares about his reviews on Google.

Well, the reviews actually play a part in a bigger scheme.  Who cares about these reviews?  Google’s Local algorithm, and the spammers know it.  These reviews, and many, many others point to scores of sites that appear to be (to Google at least) different, individual local businesses.

In reality, they are not.  They are lead aggregators or call centers that are reselling leads to the locksmiths that perform the actual work.

Here’s what the Google results looks like to a consumer doing a search on Google for “Phoenix emergency locksmith”.  Note the local listings specifically (the ten listings accompanied by the map).

They all look pretty similar, don’t they?  The only thing that is different is the phone number and web site addresses.  The local listings all point to one (or a handful) of companies that are aggregating leads and reselling them to locksmiths.

Leveraging fabricated user reviews are a part of how the lead aggregation companies can secure all, or most, of the local listings Google suggests.

The average search engine user likely never sees the reviews either. You don’t see them unless you click on the link that states the number of reviews.  If you do so, and then take a look at the reviewers themselves and see all the reviews that an individual made, the fake profiles and reviews are easy to spot.

If you look back at the reviews we’ve been talking about, the clearest indicator is that “Robert” is reusing the same reviews over and over again.  ...

Some people are lucky, and some people aren’t.  Here’s an unlucky person I ran across today.  He’s simply known as Robert, and his problems revolve around the keys and locks in his life.  As Google will tell you, he’s one hell of an unlucky person who finds himself in need of a good locksmith regularly.

On November 27, 2008, Robert started sharing his history of bad luck with keys, locks and the locksmiths he loves working with.  His soapbox: online reviews.  Let’s take a look.  His problems all took place in Arizona, all ten of them.  Here’s a few below:

If that wasn’t enough, just about a week later Robert had more problems with his keys and locks, and more locksmiths to provide feedback on.  All the reviews were good, just like the one’s in Arizona.  All of the reviews point to another string of bad luck in Seattle.  Twenty-eight reviews of locksmiths were all added on December 5th.  Here’s a few of the reviews:

Robert has had some really bad luck with keys and locks.  But, he’s had great luck with locksmiths apparently.  Every one he’s worked with he’s given a five-star rating.

Okay, everyone’s figured it out by now (I hope).  There’s obviously something wrong with this user profile.  And, in reality, there probably is no “Robert,” so who cares about his reviews on Google.

Well, the reviews actually play a part in a bigger scheme.  Who cares about these reviews?  Google’s Local algorithm, and the spammers know it.  These reviews, and many, many others point to scores of sites that appear to be (to Google at least) different, individual local businesses.

In reality, they are not.  They are lead aggregators or call centers that are reselling leads to the locksmiths that perform the actual work.

Here’s what the Google results looks like to a consumer doing a search on Google for “Phoenix emergency locksmith”.  Note the local listings specifically (the ten listings accompanied by the map).

They all look pretty similar, don’t they?  The only thing that is different is the phone number and web site addresses.  The local listings all point to one (or a handful) of companies that are aggregating leads and reselling them to locksmiths.

Leveraging fabricated user reviews are a part of how the lead aggregation companies can secure all, or most, of the local listings Google suggests.

The average search engine user likely never sees the reviews either. You don’t see them unless you click on the link that states the number of reviews.  If you do so, and then take a look at the reviewers themselves and see all the reviews that an individual made, the fake profiles and reviews are easy to spot.

If you look back at the reviews we’ve been talking about, the clearest indicator is that “Robert” is reusing the same reviews over and over again.  ...