How CompareMyAgents Reviews Work
Every review published on CompareMyAgents has been verified. Here is exactly what that means, how it works, and why it matters.
The problem with most online reviews
Most review platforms — including Google, Facebook, and many industry directories — publish reviews without verifying who wrote them. Anyone can leave a review for a business they have never used. Competitors can leave negative reviews. Business owners can create fake accounts and leave five-star reviews for themselves. There is no email check, no account requirement, and no mechanism to identify or remove fraudulent reviews.
For high-stakes decisions — choosing a migration agent to handle your visa, or an education consultant to guide your child's university application — this matters enormously. You deserve to know whether the person who left a review actually used the service.
CompareMyAgents was built to solve this. Every review we publish has passed a verification step that most platforms skip entirely.
How our verification process works
Every review on CompareMyAgents goes through the following steps before it appears on a business profile.
The reviewer completes our 4-field form: an overall star rating, which service they used, whether they would recommend the business, and a written account of their experience (50–300 characters). They also provide their name and email address. The email is not shown publicly.
The review is saved to our database with status 'pending verification'. It does not appear on the business profile yet. The reviewer's email address is stored temporarily in our verification system only.
We immediately send an email to the address provided. The email contains a unique, one-time verification link that expires after 24 hours. This confirms the reviewer has access to the email address they provided.
When the reviewer clicks the link, our system records the verification timestamp and marks the review as 'email verified'. The plain-text email address is then deleted from our systems — only a cryptographic hash is retained to prevent duplicate reviews.
The verified review appears publicly on the business profile. It displays an 'Email Verified' badge so visitors can see immediately that this review passed our verification process.
What if the reviewer doesn't click the link?
The review remains unpublished. After 24 hours, the verification link expires. The reviewer can submit again if they wish. This means every review you see on CompareMyAgents has been actively confirmed by the person who submitted it.
CompareMyAgents reviews vs Google Reviews
Google Reviews is the most widely used review platform in the world, and for many businesses it contains hundreds of reviews. We do not dismiss it. But we believe our verification model produces more reliable information, especially for regulated professional services.
| Feature | CompareMyAgents | Google Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Email verification required | Yes — required before publication | No — anyone can review anonymously |
| Service context captured | Yes — reviewer selects which service they used | No — freeform text only |
| Explicit recommendation signal | Yes — "Would you recommend?" Yes/No | No — inferred from star rating only |
| Reviewer identity | Name verified against email | Google account required (easily created) |
| Paid promotion influence | None — no paid listings | Ads can appear alongside reviews |
| Review volume | Lower — verification reduces volume | Higher — no barrier to submission |
| Platform independence | Yes — not tied to Google ecosystem | Google controls the platform |
We believe 30 verified reviews tell you more than 300 unverified ones. Verification does not guarantee a review is accurate, but it confirms a real person with a real email address chose to submit it and actively confirmed their submission.
Verification trust levels
We have designed our system to support multiple levels of verification over time. Currently, Email Verified is the level we award to every published review. We are building toward higher tiers that will provide even stronger assurance.
Reviewer confirmed access to the email address provided. The review was submitted and actively verified before publication.
Reviewer's email matches records from the business, confirming they were an actual client. Businesses can opt in to share anonymised client data.
Reviewer's engagement is matched against a service invoice or engagement letter. The highest level of review verification.
Every trust level is backwards-compatible. Reviews submitted today that are Email Verified will be automatically upgradeable to higher tiers if the reviewer later qualifies — without requiring them to submit a new review.
Our limitations — what we cannot verify
We believe in being transparent about what our verification does and does not cover.
What we cannot currently verify
- Whether the reviewer actually used the business (email verification confirms identity, not engagement)
- Whether the written review is accurate — we rely on the reviewer's honest account
- Whether the star rating reflects the reviewer's genuine experience vs. a tactical rating
- Identity beyond email — we do not require ID verification
How we handle this honestly
We label every review with the verification tier it has achieved. If a review says "Email Verified," that is exactly what it means — nothing more, nothing less. We do not overstate what our verification covers. We make it easy to report suspected fake reviews via our Review Policy.
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