How can lying or deception be a matter of opinion? It's either ethical or unethical.....I don't see a "Gray Area" in this. How can you be an "Honest Contractor" taking business from others through Fake Reviews? .........that's called an "SEO Strategy"?
Please understand Ty I would like more discussion on this subject, I'm in no way attacking your point of view.
Guy, I know you. I don't think you are attacking me. I understand this is a civilized conversation. I am not on any side here to be clear. But for the discussion sake I will play Devils Advocate. I am not trying to open up a can of worms either.
I can explain how it is SEO strategy in others perspectives though. For example: Google bases the ranking on Google Maps by reviews amongst other things. So because of this, if you have more reviews than your competitor you show up better on the maps. Also, Google crawls the verbiage used in the review. So for example: You may be able to get your client to post a review for you, yes. But will you get them to use Keywords in their reviews? Probably not. Is it wrong to make a post saying simply: "This is a great power washing company in North Carolina" ?
Was the review a lie? Are you not a great power washing company in North Carolina? The answer is you are, so you are not lying by posting that. What about a post like: I recommend this power washing company in North Carolina to everyone. Do you not recommend your company to everyone? These are just some examples. You are technically not lying.
As far as creating Google accounts, you do not have to swear by any oath that the account you are creating is you. You don't have to provide a social security number or give proof of identity. I can create a google account with first name Power last name Wash if I wanted to. So I don't trust any reviews period. I consider all reviews as much as a scam as the real ones because I realize they could all be fake. That is why I never base companies I hire off reviews. I think we will come to a point where the reviews will have to be proven reviews but until then they are all fake in my opinion, unless I left it! haha
Also, is it right that competitors get to leave bad reviews on your Maps on purpose? No. Of course not. But it happens. So let me ask you this question, would you leave fake reviews to bring your reputation back up after your competitor has left fake reviews to purposely bring you down? Even from a time perspective, you can get real reviews, but you need to protect your reputation right away since this jerk left a fake negative review. So you may resort to leaving positive fake reviews to make up for the fake negative reviews. Is it right that a customer can look up your company see a fake negative review and decide not to call you because of it? No that is not right. So if I had to leave a fake positive review to cancel out the fake negative review I will. That is how I view it as a grey area because of that.
Lastly, since I went to debate class in high school, haha
How far is business ethical taken? Are we allowed to say North Carolina's Premier Power Washing Company our first year in business before we cleaned anything? How can you be the premier company before you even landed a job. You are not. But does that make that business owner a liar or an unethical person? What about Your #1 Choice for Power Washing? Are you really the #1 Choice for Power Washing? Probably not. Who keeps track of that? That does not make the owner a bad person.
Truth is the review thing does not work properly yet. Once it becomes real without any chance of fake than it may work and I would agree its unethical to post fake ones. As of now, I am either way on reviews.