Flag Responsibly: You may flag reviews that violate our guidelines (e.g. fake, offensive, or contain personal info), but misuse of this feature is not allowed.
No Fake Reviews: Submitting or encouraging fake reviews is strictly banned.
Claim Your Profile: You can manage your business profile, add company info, and reply to reviews.
Invite Fairly: You’re welcome to ask customers for reviews—but requests must be neutral, fair, and incentive-free.
Review Ownership: Reviews belong to the reviewers, who can edit or remove them at any time.
Respond Professionally: Always reply to reviews in a respectful and constructive way.
Follow the Rules: Misuse of the platform may result in warnings, suspension, or other actions.
CertMeUp uses both people and technology to filter out guideline-violating content, but we also rely on the community—including businesses and consumers—to report anything that slips through.
You can flag a review through your account or by contacting us.
Valid reasons must be declared—simply disliking or disagreeing with a review isn’t enough.
Once flagged, our team reviews the case. Reviews remain visible during this process.
If needed, we’ll ask the reviewer to update or verify their review within 3 days.
You’ll be notified of the final outcome once our investigation is complete.
Important:
Use the flagging tool fairly. For example, if you flag a 1-star review for violating a rule, be consistent and flag a 5-star review for the same issue. Misusing the flagging function—such as flagging too often or for the wrong reasons—may lead to action against your account.
CertMeUp applies its guidelines fairly to all users. You can flag a review if it violates the rules—regardless of who it’s about or whether the business pays for CertMeUp services.
Here are valid reasons for flagging:
Flag reviews that include:
Hate speech or discrimination
Terrorism support or hate group content
Threats, violence, or abuse
Obscene or explicit material
Defamation (false claims causing reputational and financial damage)
Note: Reviews flagged under this reason may become blurred during investigation.
Flag if a review includes someone else’s private info like names, phone numbers, email addresses, or photos of others.
We won’t remove reviews just for including public business info or the reviewer’s own details.
You can flag reviews that:
Promote unrelated businesses or include ads, links, or promo codes
Push political, religious, or ethical agendas
Contain scams, spam, clickbait, or AI-generated misinformation
Mentioning competitors is allowed as long as it’s relevant.
Flag if you believe the reviewer didn’t have a real experience with your business.
Reviews may still be genuine even if the reviewer wasn’t invited, used a nickname, or didn’t make a purchase.
We use software to check for suspicious patterns before asking reviewers for proof.
If you disagree with the decision, provide evidence (e.g. wrong product or location mentioned), and our Content Integrity team will manually review.
Flag if the review clearly refers to another company or one of your other domains.
We won’t remove vague reviews that don’t mention your business name.
If you think we made a mistake regarding your account or a review, reply to the email you received and explain why. Our Content Integrity team will review it again.
Still disagree? Use the dispute link found in the footer of our final decision email. If you can’t find the link or have technical issues, contact us for help.
Consumers choose which businesses to review. If someone writes a review about your business, we create a public profile page to display it—even if you haven’t claimed it. We only remove business pages or reviews when required to by law or policy.
You can claim your profile if your business is reviewed on CertMeUp. This gives you:
A business account
Access to free tools
The ability to reply to reviews and flag them more easily
Once claimed, your profile will display a “Claimed” label. You can also:
Add your business description, hours, locations, and contact info
Ensure the business name matches your store, site, or products
Need advanced features like AI insights or custom widgets? You can upgrade to a paid plan.
If you have multiple profiles (e.g. due to a merger or rebrand), you may be able to merge them for better visibility and easier management.
Anyone over 18 with a recent, genuine experience with your business can write a review. This doesn’t have to be a purchase—it can include interactions like:
Phone calls
Emails
Online chats
Visiting your website
Even non-buyers offer useful feedback, helping you understand why a sale didn’t happen.
Reviewers can:
Edit their review if their opinion changes—but they’re not required to.
Post multiple reviews if based on separate experiences (only the latest affects your Score).
Who can't review:
People with a close or biased connection to your business, such as:
You or your staff
Immediate family
Competitors
Reviewers can use any username that follows our guidelines—it doesn’t have to be their real name. Not recognizing them doesn’t mean their review isn’t valid.
If needed, you can request more details (like name, order number, or contact info). Reviewers have 3 days to respond, and it's their choice whether to do so.
If you still believe the review is not genuine, you can flag it under “Not based on a genuine experience.”
Inviting customers to leave reviews helps build trust and improve your business. But invitations must be fair, neutral, and follow CertMeUp's rules.
Invite only people who’ve had a genuine experience with your business (one invite per experience).
Invite everyone equally—don’t filter by positive or negative experiences.
Let customers fully experience your product/service before requesting a review.
Use neutral language that doesn’t influence the review content.
Selectively invite only happy customers.
Include misleading content or phishing links.
Suggest or request only 5-star reviews.
Offer incentives (e.g. discounts, refunds, freebies) for writing or editing reviews.
Invite people with a conflict of interest (e.g. employees, family, shareholders).
Pressure or threaten reviewers to change or delete their reviews.
Request or submit fake reviews.
All reviews belong to the reviewers who wrote them. They can edit or delete them anytime.
You may showcase reviews and your CertScore—depending on your Business plan—by following our Guidelines.
Fake reviews misrepresent genuine experiences and are strictly prohibited. CertMeUp uses advanced tech, custom systems, and human oversight to detect and remove them.
If detected, fake reviews are removed and action is taken under our policies.
Yes — replying to reviews helps you build trust, answer questions, and resolve issues.
Always keep responses professional and polite. Avoid including personal information, threats, or aggressive language — such replies will be removed.
CertMeUp remains neutral in disputes and won’t intervene unless legally required.
If a review doesn’t break the rules but you disagree with it, we suggest posting a reply to share your perspective. This shows you value feedback and are open to dialogue.
Yes. We remove businesses that are considered “bad-fits” — those that may cause harm or go against our values.
Other misuse may also lead to action under our policies.
Most businesses use CertMeUp correctly, but we take action against misuse, including:
Posting or encouraging fake reviews
Misusing the review flagging tool
Collecting reviews in a biased or unfair way
Scraping or exploiting CertMeUp’s data or content without permission
Consequences may include:
Account restrictions or termination
Consumer Warnings on your profile
Hiding your CertScore
Legal action, if necessary
More details are available in our policies.
These are guiding principles. CertMeUp has the final authority on how they're interpreted and enforced. We may update them at any time—visit our Help Center for the latest info.