Increase in complaints over Google reviews removals raises concerns
Increase in complaints over Google reviews removals raises concerns
Business owners are voicing growing frustrations as reports of disappearing or removed Google reviews continue to rise. While a similar issue occurred last October and was resolved by December, new complaints suggest that the problem has resurfaced, affecting an increasing number of businesses.
Surge in Complaints Across Forums and Social Media
Discussions across platforms, including the Google forums and the Local Search Forums, reveal widespread dissatisfaction. Many threads detail instances of reviews being removed, often in large quantities. Joy Hawkins recently highlighted the issue, noting, "Anyone lose a bunch of Google reviews over the weekend? Chime in here." Although not all businesses are impacted, the number of affected accounts appears unusually high.
One business owner, Rob Brooks, shared on Twitter: "Lost 20+ reviews a couple weeks ago... were at 994 or so, now at 974 with 0 reviews added after the beginning of Feb. I have customers that told us they gave us a great review... nothing shows. We ran 200+ jobs in the past 15 days and ask for reviews on all of them... Yet 0 are showing."
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Concerns Over Policy Changes
Hiroko Imai believes that recent changes to Google Business Profile policies may be contributing to the wave of missing reviews. On LinkedIn, he wrote, "The Google Business Profile policy has been updated. Here's why you may have seen a sudden drop in reviews recently." Among the updates noted are stricter guidelines targeting suspicious review activity, including "Content exhibiting unusual volumes or patterns of review contributions that are indicative of efforts to manipulate a place’s rating."
The policy also prohibits businesses from offering incentives for reviews, selectively soliciting positive feedback, or pressuring customers to write reviews on-site. Imai commented, "This means we should also remove reviews if there's any doubt about the authenticity of the writing process. While they don't explicitly use the term 'gating,' I appreciate that they mentioned 'selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers.'"
Businesses Report Severe Impacts
Businesses have reported significant losses in legitimate reviews, with some describing severe reputational damage. One comment highlighted by Local Search Forums stated: "I have seen another day of reviews being deleted/hidden... instead of being single reviews, many are multiple reviews, with the highest being 76 deleted reviews for a restaurant location... all over the last 4 years, and a mix of mostly 5-star but also 1, 2, 3 and 4-star reviews."
Another user expressed frustration: "This week, the three 5-star reviews were removed, leaving just the spam 1-star and a 2-star review. This is a huge reputational hit to my business." A new business owner noted how debilitating this can be, sharing, "I'm just starting out and do 1 or 2 weddings a year and maybe a dozen family sessions."
Others reported similar patterns: "We received 260 reviews last week, yet 100 of them were removed today. Apparently, they have been flagged as spam or not being organic? Our rating has dropped .2 and will continue to do so. Why are we being penalized for bringing in legitimate reviews?"
Community Seeks Resolution
The ongoing issue has sparked further discussion in several threads, such as A new deleted/hidden reviews record and Around 250 reviews got missing from my Google Business Profile. While some review removals are reportedly reversed manually, many appear to remain deleted.
As concerns mount, business owners impacted by the removals are actively seeking answers and urging Google to address the situation. The exact cause of the issue remains unclear, though policy changes and algorithmic updates are thought to play a role. For now, affected businesses can only wait and monitor forums for potential solutions or updates from Google.