The audit isn’t about how many reviews you have or how high the stars are. It’s about whether the things customers read about you are true, whether you can show it, and whether your review system reports what customers think or what you’d like them to think.
Open your top product pages, last five campaign emails, post-purchase flow and review app settings. Score each check 0 to 2: 0 if it failed or nobody can answer it, 1 if partly true, 2 if clean.
If nobody can find the proof in a day, you don’t have proof. You have a memory.
The twelve checks
- Every claim is listed · 5 minLook at: Your top three product pages, home page and last five campaign emails.
Good: Every factual claim in them appears in one list, with where it runs.
Cost if wrong: Claims multiply by copy-paste, and nobody knows which pages to fix when one turns out wrong.
Read next: The Proof File
- Each claim has dated evidence and an owner · 4 minLook at: Pick three claims at random and ask for the evidence.
Good: A document for each, dated within the last year, with a named person who checks it.
Cost if wrong: The FTC expects a reasonable basis before a claim runs, not after someone asks.
Read next: The Proof File
- The hardest claims have the right kind of proof · 4 minLook at: Your health, environmental and origin claims.
Good: Health claims rest on studies, green claims on certifications or data, origin claims on a bill of materials.
Cost if wrong: These are the claims customers can least check and regulators most often do.
Read next: Claims Nobody Can Check
- Reviews sit near the buy button, with count and spread · 3 minLook at: Your top product page on a phone.
Good: Star average, review count and the distribution by star are visible without hunting, and shoppers can sort to the lowest.
Cost if wrong: Reviews are the proof shoppers look for first. Hidden ones do no work.
Read next: Reviews Move Sales
- New products reach five reviews fast · 4 minLook at: Products launched in the last six months, and days from launch to the fifth review.
Good: Under 30 days for your main products, with a plan for the rest.
Cost if wrong: The first five reviews carry most of the conversion effect, and the first one steers the rest.
Read next: The First Review
- Small counts aren’t dressed up as big wins · 3 minLook at: Your “top rated” collection or sort order.
Good: It ranks by a score that accounts for count, not the raw average.
Cost if wrong: A 5.0 with three reviews outranks a 4.7 with 900, then falls apart in public.
Read next: The First Review
- Rating is tracked by month and by product age · 3 minLook at: Whether anyone reports average rating of new reviews by month.
Good: A monthly line for each top product, read against its age and review count.
Cost if wrong: You mistake the normal downward drift for a quality problem, or miss a real one.
Read next: Why Ratings Drift Down
- The ask is timed to use, not to shipping · 4 minLook at: The trigger and delay on your review request flow.
Good: It fires from delivery plus the time it takes to use the product, and differs by category where use differs.
Cost if wrong: Early asks produce reviews about the box and the courier instead of the product.
Read next: The Ask
- No gating, no sentiment-linked rewards · 4 minLook at: Your review app’s settings and any incentive copy.
Good: Everyone gets the same ask. Any reward is the same whatever the rating, and disclosed on the review.
Cost if wrong: Buying reviews conditioned on sentiment is banned outright under the FTC’s 2024 rule, and gating is flagged in its guidance.
Read next: The Ask
- Every genuine review is published and answered · 4 minLook at: Held, hidden or rejected reviews in the last 90 days, and replies to 1- and 2-star reviews.
Good: Only reviews that break a published policy are held, each with a logged reason, and negatives get a reply within two business days.
Cost if wrong: Holding back low ratings cost Fashion Nova $4.2 million.
Read next: Show the Bad Ones
- Origin, handmade and process claims are documented · 4 minLook at: Every “made in,” “handmade,” “small batch” and “family” claim.
Good: Each maps to a bill of materials or a production record you’d show a stranger.
Cost if wrong: Unqualified Made in USA labels are covered by an FTC rule with civil penalties.
Read next: Origin, Handmade and Effort
- Someone owns the rules · 3 minLook at: Who last checked your review and claim practices against current law.
Good: A named person, a date this year, and a note on the FTC review rule, the EU green claims rules applying from September 27, 2026, and the UK rules if you sell there.
Cost if wrong: The rules changed three times in two years, and ignorance isn’t a defense.
Read next: The Rules, Dated
Score as you go; your band appears when all twelve are in.
Read your score
| Score | What it means | Read next |
|---|
| 20–24 | Customers have reason to believe you, and you could show why. Your job now is speed: more reviews sooner on new products, and a quarterly check of the file. | The Ask, then The Proof Scorecard |
| 14–19 | Most of what you say is probably true, but you couldn’t prove all of it on a deadline. Fix the zeros first. | The chapter linked from your lowest check, then The Proof File |
| 8–13 | Your claims run on memory and your reviews on defaults. Build the file before the next campaign goes out. | Part one, starting at Claims Nobody Can Check |
| 0–7 | Stop adding claims this month. List what you say, pull what you can’t support, and turn off any review filter. | The Rules, Dated, then The First Thirty Days |
Checks 2, 3, 9, 10 and 11 carry legal exposure, not just lost sales. If any of those five scored 0, treat it as this week’s work whatever your band says.