Google Local Service Ads With Fake Reviews

Google’s Local Service Ads are supposed to be screened, guaranteed, and reviewed by someone contracted by Google. But supposedly, the reviews in many Local Service Ads are filled with fake reviews.

As we covered earlier today, Google is now showing three local services ads on mobile, instead of two. Part of that tweet from Len was that he said “all of these listings are spam & Google has refused to take action on my reports for 5+ months.” Len said to expect much more spam and fake reviews to hit the Local Service Ads.

Google has been testing 3 LSA results in mobile.
Have you seen this b4 @tomwaddington8?
cc @rustybrick

The bigger story is that all of these listings are spam & Google has refused to take action on my reports for 5+ months. Expect more on that soon! @adsliaison @keyserholiday pic.twitter.com/ZVVDaXtn6j

— Len 🌴 (@lenraleigh) July 22, 2022

Greg Sterling posted on Twitter asking “Fake reviews are making it into LSAs. Does the presence of the “Google Screened” label (in those instances) constitute “consumer deception” (under FTC) because it might imply the integrity of reviews in LSAs?”

That’s a good question. There are an enormous amount of fake reviews that LSA pulls in from GBP profiles. & ofc spammers now get fake reviews directly to the LSA ad. The inaction here is shocking. There are 6 huge problems w/ LSA – the fake reviews are indeed one of them also..

— Len 🌴 (@lenraleigh) July 22, 2022

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Curtis Boyd joked that buying fake Local Service Ads reviews are way more expensive than normal fake reviews:

I mean, verified LSA reviews cost more than Local Guides 😂 pic.twitter.com/y4dRwNLwvT

— Curtis Boyd (@DataBoyd) July 22, 2022

And Tom Waddington points out something way too obvious:

I searched for injury lawyers in Fresno and all 100 LSA results I got had a review rating of 5.0
Considering that, the biz names, multi listings for same biz and lack of verifying if the locations are real, I don’t see how anyone at Google could feel okay about these results pic.twitter.com/KGM90PuhOk

— Tom Waddington (@tomwaddington8) July 23, 2022

It’s terrible for Californians as there’s no way they’re getting good representation.

The monetary damage this is costing CA firms must be in the tens to hundreds of millions $$$. In some cases legitimate firms ads won’t even display. G is sending potential clients to spam.

— Len 🌴 (@lenraleigh) July 23, 2022

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Clearly, this is gaining the attention of the local SEO community and Google will have to act but by the time Google acts, will Local Service Ads be untrusted?

Forum discussion at Twitter.