If you’ve ever logged into your Google Business Profile to discover you’ve lost reviews, you’re not alone. We hear from clients all the time, “Why did this review just disappear?”
It’s a sinking feeling. And it’s often hard not to suspect foul play.
Losing Google reviews can feel like losing a part of your business's identity—the feedback from happy customers that validates your hard work. But, there’s often a logical explanation behind those disappearing acts.
To help make sense of Google review loss, we’ve put together a list of common reasons why it occurs and tips for what to do if it happens to your local business.
The most simple explanation for sudden review removal is that it contains prohibited and restricted content. In recent years, Google has cracked down on spam and inappropriate content in an effort to keep reviews relevant and helpful.
Customer review software such as responses generated by AI or other fully automated solutions, may also cause your responses to get flagged or discounted due to the appearance of templatization or excessive duplication.
Reviews are automatically scanned for policy violations prior to being publicly visible but if they make it through the initial analysis and get published, it is possible for anybody to flag a review to ask Google to re-evaluate it.
Off topic: Review is not relevant or it’s written for the wrong business.
Spam and fake content: Review doesn’t reflect a real customer experience or it was posted simply to increase or decrease a business’s rating.
Conflict of interest: Review was posted by a competing business, ex-employee, or someone affiliated with the business.
Profanity: Review contains profane language or details of violence.
Bullying or harassment: Review personally targets a specific person.
Discrimination or hate speech: Review contains harmful language about a person or a group based on identity.
Personal information: Review includes an address or a phone number.
Not helpful: Review doesn’t help others decide on whether or not to choose a business.
The good news is that Google typically sends an email notification to alert you that a review has been removed for violating policy, so if you are the GBP admin, you should not be left guessing where your reviews went in these cases.
TIP: If a review is published on your page that you believe has violated one of these guidelines, click the flag icon next to the review to report it. And share it around your company to have a bunch more people flag it (we do this for clients). The more attention you can draw to the review, the better. Also, be patient. It will likely take a few days for the review to be removed, but generally, we’ve found Google to be good about removing problematic reviews. Google review software can also assist in managing and monitoring reviews effectively.
ANOTHER TIP: Don’t respond to reviews you flag. Responding works against you in this scenario.
*For more insight on review policy guidelines and reporting, check out How to Report a Google Review.
Imagine your business receives a 1-star review. Before you have the chance to respond, you receive 10 (or 100) more 1-star reviews, all making reference to the first. This “spam attack” scenario, while unfortunately very common for businesses, can be extremely stressful and panic-inducing for business owners.
Luckily, Google’s spam detection algorithm, which works to ensure all reviews represent a genuine customer experience, will quickly recognize a large influx of reviews as spam and remove them. In fact, in most cases, they are removed as soon as 48 hours after the first post. In 2020, this algorithm detected “40 billion spammy pages every day.”
While review removal can save a GBP from any lasting effects of a spam attack, it’s important to note that Google does not differentiate between positive and negative reviews here. If you receive an uncharacteristic spike in five-star reviews and responses over a short span of time, it will likely raise some red flags. This in turn will evidenty lead to an investigation of the potential misuse of automated google business review software. The content will likely be the deciding factor here. A stream of 5-star, no comment reviews that have language indicating the customer didn’t patronize the business will trip spam filters. This is where paying for a collection of fake reviews can backfire.
Review gating, or not allowing those who’ve had a negative experience to review your business, is a major cause for review removal. While gating may seem like a great way to showcase the voices of your happy customers, we can confirm the victory will be short-lived. Google review software can help you identify and avoid these gating practices to make sure that none of your business’s reviews get removed.
Review Gating Examples:
There is no clear direction on if/how/when your business will be penalized for suppressing negative reviews. Life will be grand until your reviews suddenly disappear, gone forever.
We’ve heard of businesses’ reviews being wiped out by the thousands, completely up to Google’s discretion. We don’t have hard facts here, but we do strongly recommend your business avoid review gating as a vulnerable long-term strategy. Here at Widewail, we explicitly do not support any gating practices.
We also advise against relying solely on third-party online review software, such as AI, to generate your responses.
Recently, in addition to review site terms of service, the FTC has begun cracking down on deceptive review practices. E-commerce fashion brand, Fashion Nova, was fined $4.2 million in early 2022 for deliberately not displaying negative reviews it received on its own website.
When investigating a case of lost reviews, it’s important to remember that there are countless things going on behind the scenes of your GBP, and sometimes it takes a moment for Google to catch up.
If you make changes to your GBP, let’s say you switch addresses, you may lose some reviews in the process.
Similarly, reinstating a suspended account may result in the temporary loss of reviews. While you may get reviews back by giving it some time for Google’s back end to sort everything out or by contacting Google’s customer support team to investigate, it is important to keep your GBP active and representative of your business to avoid suspension or becoming unverified. Local review software, such as Widewail, can help your business manage changes to its GBP and stay on top of reviews.
People delete their accounts for numerous reasons. Maybe they ran out of storage, or maybe they just want a new email address. No matter the reason, when someone deletes their account, their contributions (i.e. photos, reviews, questions) are deleted as well. If you’ve had the same GBP since before the rebrand from Google My Business (or longer) you’re likely to see a small handful of reviews disappear simply because they’re no longer associated with an active Google profile.
Although uncommon, bugs happen – and they may be the reason your GBP is missing reviews.
Frankly, software bugs can seem random and unpredictable to the end user, and it’s impossible to list all of the possibilities. One example we’ve seen is Google temporarily displaying invalidated reviews by accident, and eventually removing them. Another instance is the review update function breaking and creating new, additional reviews when users attempt to update an existing one. This complication is typically set right by combining the two reviews days later. Regardless of the source of the bug, issues are usually resolved shortly after these patterns are identified. Local Google review software can be helpful in identifying and reporting these bugs, ensuring a smoother experience for your GBP and mitigating the impact they might have on reviews.
Duplicate reviews, whether a result of user error or intentional, can cause review loss. Google’s algorithm detects and removes reviews that are identical in content, whether posted by the same account or two different ones. This maintains the integrity and usefulness of Google’s review platform.
While Google reviews never expire, an influx of new review activity may make it seem like you have lost older reviews. Google prioritizes new reviews over old ones to provide users with the most relevant and up-to-date information about a business. While old reviews still contribute to a business's overall rating and reputation, they’re sometimes buried to make room for newer feedback.
While there’s no quick fix to review loss, there are many things you can do to counter its effects. The best solution for the sudden disappearance of reviews is to get more of them. If you generate reviews frequently and consistently, you’re less likely to be affected by the sudden disappearance of a few. Customer review software like Widewail can help a business streamline the process in which they receive reviews. We help generate and increase the flow of steady user-generated content and feedback.
Mitigate the risk of losing reviews by encouraging genuine feedback from your customers. Avoid practices that could lead to repetitive or templated content, such as review gating or incentivization, as these tactics violate Google’s policies. Actively monitoring and managing your reviews can help identify and address inauthentic review activity that could put your business at risk.
While it’s not likely that you will be able to get your lost reviews back, it never hurts to try. Google has stated that it will not reinstate reviews removed for policy violations. However, if you’re particularly broken up about a lost review, and you can make a case for its validity, you always have the option to contact their support team.
If you work with a reputation management company, hopefully, you can easily get in touch with them to discuss your concerns. At Widewail, we understand the hard work that goes into getting each and every review and pride ourselves on excellent customer service. If you are ever at a loss for how to handle or manage your GBP, we’re here to help you find a solution through our online review software and management tools.
For more information, see our list of 7 types of Google Review Fraud.
*This post was updated on 4/12/24 and originally published on 8/10/23.