Dealing with consumer bias

Businesses that rely on a search engine optimisation (SEO) marketing strategy to improve their web rankings may be aware that consumer biases can have an effect on their reviews, ratings and therefore sales.

Patrick Oak of e-consultancy notes that an article on the seven deadly consumer biases was recently posted on the E-Commerce Times by Scott Brave.

These included personal bias, when a small sample is used to predict the actions of a whole population and squeaky wheel bias, where negative reviews are posted on a product more frequently than positive ones.

In addition, reviews can be biased by the context they are written in or the emotional state of the reviewer.

Finally, Mr Brave suggested gaming - where a company member can review their own product - time delay and multiplier - when feedback is influenced by existing reviews - as being biases.

Both Mr Brave and Mr Oak agree that data should be collected from the "silent majority" who do not leave feedback to offer a more rounded result.

Meanwhile, e-consultancy reports that Google is planning to offer a free click service for stories appearing in newspapers, removing the need for subscription.

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