Every industry develops its own vocabulary, and the review industry has developed a particularly polished one. Here is the dictionary, with the marketing copy taken out.
A website that collates reviews from multiple sources into a single rating. Useful for breadth, weak on context.
The arithmetic mean of all visible reviews. Influenced by which reviews are visible, which are filtered, and how the platform weights recent reviews.
A widget displayed on a business's website indicating a relationship with a review or accreditation platform. Almost always a paid product. See also: trust signal. Example: Trustpilot.
A review collected via a unique invitation link sent to a verified customer after a transaction. Higher confidence the reviewer is real; narrower sample because only invited customers participate. Example: Feefo.
The mechanism by which a business or another user can ask the platform to review a review. Outcomes range from removal, to demotion, to no action. Standards vary.
The shape of a business's reviews — how many one-stars, two-stars and so on. Often more informative than the average.
An automated system that decides which reviews are shown, hidden or recommended. Usually proprietary. Often invisible to the consumer. See Yelp.
A review left in exchange for a discount, freebie, prize entry or any other benefit. Lawful in the UK only when the incentive is clearly disclosed in the review itself.
A platform-generated request asking a customer to leave a review, usually triggered by the business after a transaction.
A platform where tradespeople pay per lead, per bid, or per membership to access customer enquiries. The "review" component is part of the marketplace, not a stand-alone product. Example: Rated People.
The platform's process for deciding which reviews stay live. Includes automated filters, human moderators and dispute handling.
A subscription level at which a business unlocks additional features such as invitations, widgets, dispute escalation, analytics and ad placements.
Marketing language for a paid-tier subscriber. The badge is sometimes designed to look like accreditation.
The professional service of monitoring, encouraging and responding to reviews. Includes both legitimate tooling (dashboards, alerts, response automation) and grey-area practices (gating, mass-flagging).
The whole commercial ecosystem of platforms, agencies, widgets, badges, training and consultancy that has grown up around the simple act of saying "the food was nice".
The practice of asking customers privately whether their experience was positive before publicly inviting them to review. Now restricted by several platforms and by UK consumer protection guidance.
The speed at which a business gathers new reviews. Some platforms factor it into ranking. A sudden spike can trigger automated review.
The structured data that lets a star rating appear in Google search results. The platform a business uses, and how the schema is implemented, can affect what shows up in search.
A summary of whether reviews skew positive or negative, often produced by automated text analysis.
The most familiar visual: between one and five stars. The number is precise. What it represents is not always.
The physical badge displayed on a vehicle, shop window or van. A common feature of UK trades directories. Indicates membership of the directory; does not, by itself, indicate independent vetting. Example: Checkatrade.
See: badge.
Industry term for any visual cue that increases consumer confidence — stars, badges, "verified" ticks, customer counts. Often a paid product.
Active checking of a business — qualifications, insurance, references, complaints history — usually by an accreditation body rather than a review platform. Distinct from verification. Example: Which? Trusted Traders.
A reviewer the platform has confirmed using its own definition of "verified". Definitions differ. Always read them. Example: Amazon Reviews.
The on-site embed (carousel, pop-up, badge, banner) that displays reviews on a business's own website. Almost always part of a paid tier.
Because each platform defines it against its own data. A platform that runs the transaction can verify a real purchase. A platform that doesn't can only verify a real account or email. Same word, different evidence.
Selectively soliciting only positive reviews can fall under the UK's prohibition on misleading commercial practices, depending on how it is done. Several platforms have also banned the practice in their terms of service.
Generally no. Most trust badges represent a paid relationship with a review platform. A small number of UK schemes (Which? Trusted Traders being the clearest example) involve genuine vetting on top of the badge.