Review Validity @ G2

G2 is the largest and most trusted software marketplace. More than 90 million people annually—including employees at all Fortune 500 companies—use G2 to make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews.

G2 works hard to earn your trust. Below are some of the principles we operate by to ensure G2 is the most valued and trusted source of information to find and select business software, services, and hardware.

 

• We require users to validate themselves before writing a review. Only users from an eligible gated source (Linkedin or Business Email) can submit a review. Reviews from users lacking this information will not be accepted. 

• We ask users specific questions about their experience to confirm their review is valid and their experience reflects the correct use-case. Responses that are lackadaisical, partial, a targeted defamation, is low-quality, is generated by AI, or is otherwise too poor in quality to approve, will not receive the approval for publication.

• We ask users to be honest with their experience to help the community. If a review is indicative of inauthenticity, the review will be rejected, or will be removed from the site. (Report a review using the … Report a Concern … button on the top-right corner of the review.) 

• We actively investigate all reports of suspicion, and all fraud signals. As part of our commitment to maintaining a safe and respectful environment, G2 implements a zero-tolerance policy regarding bad actors, and users not compliant with our Terms of Use.

 

What is Validity, and why does it Matter?

Review validity - a review being true, reliable, and accurate - is at the core of the G2 engine. Underscored by other important themes, such as user uniqueness and review timeliness, a review accepted for publication means that the review is a true, reliable, and trustworthy source of information that you can use to make your most important business decisions.

How does G2 prevent inauthentic reviews from being published?

G2 uses a “Review Safety Toolkit” to prevent fake reviewers from engaging with the platform. This toolkit is ever-evolving to stay concurrent with changing times. This kit currently includes:

Review Safety Toolkit

Strict Review Approval Guidelines

User Authentication Implementation Measures

Queue Based Moderation System w/ Customized Filtering

Review Content Analysis

Report a Concern button on every Review

Vendor Replies to Published Reviews

Review Audits & Reviewer Evaluations

Captcha, Bot Detection & Prevention

Anti-Spam Tools

Plagiarism Proofing

AI content detection Scanning

User Behavior Monitoring

A responsive and effective toolkit will ensure we are fighting fake reviews and keeping G2 genuine.

 

Challenging Review Validity

There are scenarios where you might have questions or doubts about a review being valid. These questions may stem from:

1. The review’s content (or lack thereof);
2. The review’s specificity or generalizability;
3. The reviewer’s profession, company, or name;
4. The reviewer’s use-case context;
5. Or, some other aspect of the review.

Some of your initial questions may be answered by looking at the tags above the review text. Those tags will look a little something like this:

These tags will help you identify some important information about this review, such as:

• If the reviewer is a current user or not
• Where the review was sourced from / how it was sourced to G2 
• Whether the review was incentivized or not 
• The confirmation that the review came from a compliant & gated source

Did You Know? You can also click on/tap on these tags to learn more about them. 

Want More Information?  If you would like to learn more about reviews at G2, head over to G2 University, signup with your email address, and take the free Review Rundown course.

Review Content

In order to remain the most trusted and authentic source of information and to stay compliant with legal regulations, it’s important to remember that: 

1. G2 will never require nor ask that only positive reviews be submitted to its site. 
2. If a review is incentivized, G2 will clearly label the review as incentivized. 
3. G2 will never suppress or otherwise mute/hide negative reviews. 
4. All reviews, written in all tones, of all quality levels - are treated equally.

Review Specificity & Generalizability

In our Community Guidelines, we ask users to be as specific as possible with their reviews. However, we cannot reject reviews simply for being generic - therefore, we limit rejections to the most severe of cases. In these scenarios, we consider the following (not inclusive):

• The reviewer’s writing skill & level of language proficiency
• The reviewer’s exposure time & level of exposure with a product or service
• The reviewer’s degree of user error while using the product or service
• The amount of time the reviewer spent writing their review 
• The amount of effort given by the reviewer to compose their review 
• The amount of indicative product or business knowledge the reviewer has 
• Other factors

Because a lot of different things play into review quality, the dialogue for disputing a review for being vague remains open. However, the most important factor to consider with review vagueness is that review vagueness is not always an automatic, clear, and obvious indication that the review is inauthentic. Given the other factors we look for, disputing a vague review is more likely to be successful if it is supported with a second reason. 

Reviewer Information & Attribution

What is Reviewer Information?
Reviewer information is the authorship information of a review. Things like the reviewer’s name, role, company, and profile image are all considered to be reviewer information. 

Who has the ability to change Review Information? 
The reviewer themself are the only individuals who have the ability to change this information. 

What is Review Attribution?
Review attribution is the association of the reviewer with the review they have written. Users can choose to turn it on (public), or turn it off (anonymized). Either way, the G2 moderation team can see all reviewer information, and will not accept/reject reviews based on the attribution status. 

Who has the ability to modify Review Attribution?
The reviewer themself are the only individuals who have the ability to change this information.

Why do G2 reviews have an attribution option? 
Simply put, because users have the right to exercise their unique data concerns. In conjunction with our Privacy Policy, we believe this feature empowers our users to provide unfiltered feedback, while still protecting their privacy and online identity. The feature also provides some protections against negative consequences, such as potential and unforeseeable retaliations, while still encouraging honest opinions. 

While users have the right to utilize review anonymity, G2 is informed of the identity and professional background of every single reviewer and user on the G2 site. Reviews with review anonymity activated are not excluded from any of G2’s review approval requirements.

Does attribution affect how a review is processed by G2, for publication to the site?
No. G2 treats all reviews equally, and no review is exempt from our requirements. Consider reviewing the Federal Trade Commission’s review fairness standard for more information.

What should I do if a review with no attribution feels inauthentic to me? 
Report the review by filling out a quick form. Jump to the How to Report a Concern for the steps.

Other Data

There may be other circumstances or data that may contribute to an invalid review that wasn’t covered in this article. In those cases, G2 is open to investigating these as they arise, and will evaluate these concerns on a case-by-case basis. Report it by following the instructions on How to Report a Concern. Alternatively, you can email your concern details to concerns@g2.com.

Who Can Leave a review on G2?

• Legitimate business users of the software/service. This includes, but is not limited to, the following professional roles: business users, administrators, internal consultants, executive sponsors, agencies, tech writers, industry analysts, guest users.
• Reviewers with an up-to-date & legitimate LinkedIn profile; Reviewers with an active & valid business email address.
• If your customer base are business users who, for the most part, do not have a concurrent Linkedin profile, nor a business email address, please get in touch with your G2 Account Team to determine if an alternative review collection lever is a good fit for you.

 

Customers vs. Guest Users

 

How to Report a Concern on a Review 

If you see a review and you suspect it’s invalid, our team is always willing to take a second look. Reporting a concern on a review is easy:

 

 

Steps
1	Click/Tap on the three dots in the top-right corner of the review to open the review menu.
2	Click/Tap on the “Report a Concern” option, and share the reasons you believe this review to be invalid. Be as detailed and thorough as possible.
3	Once you’ve shared your reasoning, Click/Tap on “Submit Concern.”

 

TIPS WHEN REPORTING CONCERNS

Remember to be specific, and to lean away from the subjective aspects of a review. Review Concerns regarding things like, minor misspellings and minor grammatical errors, are generally negligible and contesting them might not be successful.  If you have documents or screenshots or other proof you’d like to share, send it as an attachment by replying to the receiving confirmation email.

 

Review Concern example

✅	❌
“This review is intentionally negatively portraying our product.”	“This review is negative and low-quality. Please take it down.”

 

What Happens Next? From there, our moderation support team will reconsider the validity of the review based on the context and depth of your concern. The support team will follow-up with you via email if additional documentation is required, or when an update or resolution is available. 

 

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