The verified buyer badge

Some reviews on your page carry a small verified buyer mark. It means one specific thing, and it is worth knowing exactly what, because it is easy to read more into it than it says.

A verified buyer badge means Kudo could match the review to a real order. That is all it means, and it is on every plan including Free.

What sets it

Kudo sets the badge itself, from an order it can see — never from anything the reviewer types. There is no box a customer ticks to say they really bought something, because a box like that verifies nothing.

It is decided once, when the review is published, and it travels with the review everywhere afterwards: your page, the widget on your own site, and any feed Kudo produces. Whichever screen you approved the review on, the answer is the same — the badge describes the review, not the route it took through the dashboard.

What it does not mean

It does not mean the review is honest. A real customer with a real order can still write something unfair, or something they will regret, or something about the wrong thing entirely. The badge is about the purchase, not the opinion.

It does not mean an unbadged review is suspicious. Most reviews on most pages have no badge and never will, because the customer paid at a counter, or booked by phone, or the business has no connected store at all. Treating unbadged as doubtful would throw away the majority of honest reviews on the site.

It cannot be added by hand. You cannot mark a review as verified, and neither can the reviewer. A badge anyone can set is a badge that means nothing.

Reviews that can never carry it

Reviews imported from somebody else's marketplace listing are refused the badge outright — the database will not accept the combination. Those reviews were written about a purchase Kudo cannot see, from a seller relationship it is not part of, so calling them verified would be a claim nobody can stand behind.

Reviews imported from Google keep whatever they were: they are shown with their source, and Google's own review record is what stands behind them.

Should you show only verified reviews?

No, and the product does not offer it as a filter for your own page. A wall showing only badged reviews is a wall that has quietly hidden every customer who walked in, which is a strange thing to advertise and a worse thing to sell.

What the badge is genuinely useful for is the opposite: on a page where most reviews are unbadged, the ones that carry it are extra evidence, and they cost you nothing to have.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly does verified buyer mean?
That Kudo matched the review to a real order it can see. It is a fact about the purchase, not a judgement about the review.

Why do most of my reviews not have it?
Because most reviews are left by people whose purchase Kudo has no record of — someone who paid at your counter, booked by phone, or reviewed you on Google. That is normal and it is not a problem to fix.

Can I add the badge to a review myself?
No. Neither you nor the reviewer can set it, which is the only reason it is worth anything.

Do reviews imported from another marketplace get it?
No. Those are refused the badge outright, because the purchase behind them is one Kudo was never part of.

Is it a paid feature?
No. It works the same on every plan, including Free.

Still stuck? Write to support@getkudo.co with a link to the review you are asking about.