Published on 08/09/2022

Differences between a review validator and a review aggregator

Knowing them can help you increase your sales and avoid penalties.
There is no doubt that reviews are becoming more and more relevant when it comes to providing confidence to users and improving the SEO positioning of businesses. There is a strong correlation between sales and aggregate ratings. However, it is difficult to distinguish between the different platforms to manage them and where they are present.

What is an aggregator? What is a validator? Below we will try to expose differences and utilities with examples, so you can identify them and choose between one or another option depending on the need of your business: if you simply want to add reviews on your website or other sites through Google, or if you are also interested in shielding yourself against fake reviews and ensure that the reviews of your business are from real people, avoiding unfair competition and getting covered against the sanctions of the new European Law, how NoFakes offers you.

What is a review aggregator?

Due to the influence that reviews have on sales decisions, as a result of the factors we have seen above, businesses need to make reviews of their offerings visible and to do this they turn to a review aggregator.

Aggregators are systems that collect reviews of products and services. These systems are used by businesses to store reviews and use them to give relevance to a website where users can see the reviews, sell information to third parties on consumer trends and create databases for businesses to know their actual and potential customers.

The system allows users to easily compare many different reviews of the same product or service. Many of these systems calculate an approximate average rating, generally based on assigning a numerical value to each review based on how positively it rates the product or service to be rated.

These aggregators usually offer various functionalities, some of which are included in the premium access:

  • Automatic collection of reviews
  • Direct review request
  • Property review widgets
  • Customization of widgets
  • Control panel
  • Rich Snippet (SEO)
  • Global reviews widget
  • Mass import of properties
  • Mass import of reviews from other channels
  • API connection (On demand)

The most relevant review aggregator platform is Google Shopping, which collects the evaluations that users make about the products when they make a purchase on the website. ‍

These ratings are collected through a brief survey with which the user rates the shopping experience they have had, which the user receives via email as long as they have previously accepted at the time of purchase.

These reviews appear in the shopping ads as a green rating of 1 to 5 stars and a count of the total number of reviews. This increases the quality of the ads, makes them more relevant, more attention-grabbing and can attract more qualified users, thus increasing ratios such as CRT, Conversion Rate, etc.

A Google Customer Reviews badge can also be enabled on the business website to show other users the shopping experience of other customers. This badge helps users identify the website with Google and can help build trust in the product, thus increasing the likelihood of a sale.

How is it integrated into the business website? In addition to enabling the Program in Google Merchant Center in the “Manage Programs” section by simply clicking on it, an implementation is required so that the website can collect these ratings and display them in ads.

Although Google has a validation system, it is not a validator per se. It is simply a control method to prevent reviews that do not comply with the proper format, because they are not processed correctly due to failures in the feed that has been uploaded, missing values or the recommended unique identifiers (responsible for them to appear in Google shopping), because they contain web links or phone numbers, do not have the minimum quality required (the algorithm detects them as spam and flags them), or because they contravene policies (racist, discriminatory comments, etc.). Google is therefore not validating the reviews, the only change made in view of the new European Law, has been to display a label of non-validated review.

As for fake reviews, it does allow that if the business identifies them as such, they can report them, it also allows them to remove them, but there is no algorithm that can actually check that indeed that review is fake because it is not a validator. ‍

As of March 2022, they improved the rating of reviews, looking for them to contain useful details (e.g. advantages, disadvantages of a product), be written by people who have actually used the products (showing how they are or how they work), and comparing them with reviews of similar products.
Social networks are also aggregators of reviews, where the pioneer was Facebook, or the leisure, hotel and restaurant industry platforms that integrate the collection of reviews within their functions (Tripadvisor, El Tenedor, Booking).

Finally, there are management platforms that integrate the collection of reviews in their value proposition (Amazon, Wordpress, shore, etc.).

Person with a phone

What is a review verifier/validator?

Online tools dedicated to detecting dubious comments published on different platforms, so that the buyer who visits them can determine whether they are true or false and not be deceived.

In addition, they aim B2B to protect the reputation of the business in question in the marketplace.

There are several Amazon Review Checkers available:

Validador de reseñas

An easy-to-use Amazon fake review checker. You can enter the reviewindex via the URL, or as a Chrome and Firefox extension. The reviewindex uses neural networks to rate product listings from 1 to 10. The review summary easily breaks down the results. You can check products by review rating, reliability and pricing.The app also performs a spam test on Amazon pages. It is designed to detect unusual behavior, such as too many reviews from new or not very active users.

Fakespot

Fakespot

It has a web extension and a mobile app. You can use it to check which product listings have inflated reviews on Amazon. Its proprietary algorithm selects the listings with the most authentic reviews. You only need to send the URL to Fakespot. From there, the app ranks the results by quality, price and competitiveness. It has a feature that compares sellers with their product reviews to rate a brand’s reputation.

ReviewMeta

Reviewmeta

ReviewMeta highlights fake ratings through a 12-step analysis of Amazon product listings. ‍

The final results provide a rating based solely on legitimate customer reviews. The app is available on the website, as a Chrome extension or as a mobile app. ReviewMeta filters out fake reviews from the results. ‍

These tools, as we have discussed, only analyze reviews from Amazon or, in some case like Fakespot, from two or three other sellers, through their algorithm.

NoFakes, the only global review validator

Unlike previous validators, NoFakes can validate reviews of any type and has a triple validation system, which checks the veracity of the review from its origin by means of:

  1. Proof of purchase analysis
  2. Your validation algorithm
  3. The audit of one of the world’s leading consulting firms

NoFakes futures

By entering your business in NoFakes, you get an exclusive seal that allows you to:

  1. Comply with the new European law against false reviews and avoid penalties.
  2. To hinder unfair competitors, who only seek to damage your reputation and sales.

These are the differential values that this validator brings you, just by searching and certifying your business in a simple search bar

NoFakes sello

In addition to validating and managing reviews, NoFakes offers legal coverage and 360º analytics so you can get the most out of your reviews with total security.
Boosting your sales has never been so safe and easy. Don’t miss out

Carlos Aguilar is a specialist in engagement and automations, with more than 10 years of experience in marketing and communication. University Technician in Commercial Management and Marketing from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, with a Master's Degree in Digital Marketing from IAB and EAE, Madrid. Currently, Engagement Manager at NoFakes.

Book your free demo and we will explain how NoFakes can help you grow your business and protect you against fake reviews.