A-05 Reviews and community discussion must be based on real user experience

Why it matters

Fake reviews and staged community talk mislead the people who rely on them to make decisions. Search engines and AI answer engines that pick up this material can repeat a false picture of the brand, and manipulation of this kind is a spam risk. Real experience is the only dependable basis for trust signals.

How to implement

1. Send review requests to genuine customers once a transaction is complete.
2. Follow platform rules and disclose any incentive that you offer.
3. Respond to negative feedback and fix the underlying problem, rather than removing it.
4. Stop any employee or fake persona from posting reviews or community comments.
5. Answer community questions helpfully without adding a link or brand mention to every reply.

Checklist

• Ask real customers for a review after the transaction.
• If an incentive is offered, follow the platform rules and disclosure requirements.
• Resolve negative feedback instead of deleting it.
• Do not write customer reviews using employee or fake personas.
• Help people in communities, and do not turn every message into a link or brand mention.

How to audit

• Sample reviewers to check they are authentic.
• Check review velocity and anomaly patterns.
• Check for overlap between reviewers and employees.

Related controls

• A-03 Independent third-party brand mentions must be earned through real value P1
• A-04 YouTube and video must be used as genuine expert assets P2
• A-06 Preferred Sources must be used only on eligible sites, as a user preference feature P2
• A-07 Social and video Search Console properties must be set up where supported P1
• A-02 Paid, UGC and untrusted outbound links must be qualified correctly P1

Myth guards that reference this control

• “Fake Reddit, YouTube or blog mentions lift GEO”

Sources

• [G3] Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search