Judy's Book Review Guide

Who uses Judy's Book

Local businesses across many categories (home services, health, legal, food, retail and more), SEO and marketing firms that manage listings for clients, and consumers, especially parents, who read and write local reviews. Reviewers can post as registered members or as guests.

Claim your profile

1. Judy's Book offers two ways to get listed: add a business with basic details for a one-time $9.99 fee, or claim the listing by subscribing to a plan.
2. To claim, go to the Claim your business page (or the business page) and sign up for the Basic or Pro plan. The plans page we checked lists Basic at $29.99 a month or $239 a year, and Pro at $99.99 a month or $959 a year.
3. Claiming gives access to the Owner Dashboard, where updates to details, photos, videos, offers, service areas, keywords and the owner message take effect right away; ads are removed from the listing.
4. Pro adds up to five locations under the same business name, more photos and service areas, a profile video and tagline, and more search keywords.
5. If you only need to fix and freeze your name, address, phone and categories, you can lock the listing instead through Submit a Correction, for a fee per update.
6. For setup help, reply to the welcome email to reach an account manager.

Official guidelines: judysbook.com

Replying to reviews

Responding to reviews is listed among the reputation management features of a claimed listing. Judy's Book emails the owner each time a user writes a review on the business so the owner can view it and reply.

• The pages we checked do not describe a public reply option for unclaimed listings.
• Judy's Book's learning center suggests responding to both positive and negative reviews, asking what went wrong, offering to correct it, and asking the reviewer to update the review once the issue is resolved.

Official guidelines: judysbook.com

Review rules

In our own words. The official page is the rule that applies.

• Judy's Book says it does not review or edit posts except in cases of abuse; posts flagged by users and found to break its Terms of Use are removed, and repeat offenders may be banned.
• It removes posts that are libelous or factually inaccurate, encourage illegal activity, use inappropriate language, contain adult content, are off-topic or in the wrong category, or promote the writer's own business (spam).
• Reviews may not include telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses, or false or misleading information.
• Businesses may not write reviews about themselves, on customers' behalf, or through a hired third party. The claim pages do say upgraded listings may post testimonials the business received offline (by email or paper form, for example).
• A fraud filter screens reviews; fake reviews are filtered out, and Judy's Book says the business's TrustScore then drops and it may be flagged for review fraud with partners and search engines.
• Guests can post without an account but cannot edit their review later. Judy's Book says that when an owner disputes an anonymous review, its moderators tend to favor the owner.

Official guidelines: judysbook.com

Reporting a review

Judy's Book's own process, step by step.

1. Click the Report abuse link at the bottom of the review and follow the instructions provided.
2. If the post is found to violate the Terms of Use, Judy's Book removes it permanently.
3. A reviewer involved in a legal dispute who needs to remove their own review uses the same Report link.
4. The help pages we checked do not state a response time for review reports. General questions go to info@judysbook.com.

Official guidelines: judysbook.com

Tips

• Ask customers to post their own reviews; Judy's Book filters reviews it believes are fake.
• Reply to both good and bad reviews in a professional tone.
• Keep your name, address, phone and categories accurate across listings.
• Encourage reviewers to post as registered members, whose reviews Judy's Book trusts more.