Business Guidelines 🏢

Verify business access

Business management uses secure email verification. A representative who verifies an email on the business’s website domain may receive Domain verified status. Enhanced verified is a stronger level that may be assigned after additional information is reviewed. Verification confirms the level of access or evidence checked by ORP; it is not an endorsement of the business.

Reply professionally

Verified representatives may respond publicly to reviews. Responses should address the experience, avoid harassment or retaliation, and must not expose private customer information.

Dispute questionable reviews

Businesses may report reviews they reasonably believe violate policy, including suspected fake experiences, conflicts of interest, spam, harassment, privacy violations, duplicates or materially disputed information. A report should explain the concern and may include private evidence. Reporting does not automatically remove a review.

Evidence and integrity findings

When a disputed review depends on factual claims, ORP may ask the reviewer for supporting information. If human moderation concludes that the material claims were not sufficiently substantiated, ORP may keep the review visible for transparency while excluding its star value from the aggregate rating and showing a public integrity finding. Serious integrity violations may also restrict future reviewer participation.

Invite customers fairly

Businesses may invite genuine customers to leave honest reviews, but should not condition invitations on customer happiness, offer rewards for positive ratings, threaten customers over reviews, or manipulate votes and verification systems.

Use webmaster and intelligence tools responsibly

Traffic Analytics, Visitor Explorer, uptime/SSL monitoring, Site Speed, SEO Audit, Monitoring & Alerts and Reputation Intelligence are intended to help the verified business manage its own website and reputation. Do not use these tools to stalk individuals, circumvent security controls or probe systems the business does not control.

Publish Business Articles responsibly

Domain Verified and Enhanced Verified businesses may publish original articles through Business Center. Articles must provide legitimate business or educational value and must not have been previously published elsewhere. Links and externally loaded images are limited to the verified business domain/subdomains; affiliate/referral marketing and third-party promotional links are prohibited. Every new article and every edit is reviewed before the new version can become public.

Each brand-new article consumes one monthly submission slot. Rejection, deletion or automatic cleanup does not restore that slot; editing/resubmitting the same existing article does not consume another new-article slot but still uses applicable checking limits. Repeated rejected, duplicate, abusive or manipulative submissions can suspend Article publishing access. ORP Admin can reject, hide or permanently delete an article even after automated approval. Read the full Business Article Guidelines →

No pay-to-win treatment

Business replies, reports and the current core reputation/webmaster tools are available without buying favorable treatment. Paying Open Review Platform cannot improve a rating, remove legitimate criticism or influence moderation.

ORP-hosted Business Sites 🌐

Businesses may create a separate website at yourbusiness.openreviewplatform.com. Hosted sites may promote lawful products, services and disclosed affiliate links, but may not be used for phishing, malware, impersonation, Ponzi/pyramid schemes, rug-pulls, deceptive get-rich-quick claims, fraudulent investment promotion or similarly harmful/deceptive activity. Content must be original enough to pass ORP's publishing controls; likely copied/plagiarized material can be blocked or sent to human review. ORP may suspend or permanently remove hosted sites that create serious safety, fraud, legal or platform-integrity risks.

Logo and background uploads must meet ORP file-type, size and dimension limits. Owners control design and branding, while ORP controls the secure rendering environment and native reputation components.