Online Reviews Are Bullsh*t (And Here's Why)

When was the last time you wrote a review?

When was the last time you wrote a review for a service business? Not a restaurant. Not a hotel. A service business — your dentist, your accountant, your marketing agency, your roofer. Without a gift card prompt, a discount, a follow-up email, or a text from the owner asking?

Yeah. Me neither.

The reason you didn't write one is the same reason most reviews you read are suspect. The online review economy runs on incentivized writing, fabricated profiles, and bulk-upload campaigns — and Google's algorithm can't tell the difference. Neither can Clutch. Neither can DesignRush. The metric is broken. And the agencies optimizing hardest for it are about to find out that serious buyers stopped trusting it years ago.

This post is about what's actually broken, what's replacing it, and how to position your business on the right side of the shift. Some of you will hate this. Most of you already know it.