Recent content by Ben Seidel

@GMBapi.com thanks for verifying - I appreciate it!

@GMBapi.com to clarify, are you saying that Google is aware of an issue with the APIs pulling inaccurate review counts? Or are you saying Google is aware of an issue where reviews are disappearing in the last week? I just want to make sure I'm understanding your update, especially given how much...

We are also seeing an increase in removal of legitimate reviews in the last 5 days across multiple verticals. Anecdotally, I wonder if Google is notably tweaking their ever-changing review/spam filter again.

@Alphart are you still having this issue? If so, try signing into the account that manages the GBP using a Guest profile within Chrome (no extensions running), and see if you still have the issue.

Did the video actually upload successfully, then was rejected? Or did the video just fail to upload? Depending on which happened, that will lead you down a different route of solutions. That said, yes, a 5-minute video is too long. Google strongly prefers and states 1-2 minutes. However, we've...

Just a reminder, don't forget to check the social links actually present on your website both physically displayed with the design (e.g. on home page, in footer, etc.) as well as within an organization or LocalBusiness schema via the SameAs property. GBP looks at social links you add directly in...

Thanks for sharing your article. Regarding the above quote, are you referencing my article on who should/should not write Google reviews or a different source? Family members are definitely a grey area in my opinion as they certainly carry a bias but also constitute a tangible experience if...

No problem! Thank you for the research and analysis! And no worries regarding the follow up data question.

@GMBapi.com Here are the two resources we updated based on your data. If you want us to change the attribution or have additional insights, let me know. How Google Business Profile Reviews Are Filtered for Spam - Spam review filtering system updates section Who Can Write a Google Review on a...

@GMBapi.com thanks for letting us know, and an even bigger thank you for putting together this awesome study! We'll definitely share this as well, and I'll add a couple references (with links) to your data from some of our relevant blogs. On a related note, I know you pointed out that employees'...

@Tim Colling @JoyHawkins when reporting the reviews, it says "someone affiliated with the business" under "conflict of interest." This goes back to our earlier discussion from what we noticed about keywords within reviews that could indicate an employee relationship being the reviews that are...

@twatson It's definitely possible to rank in the local pack 10+ miles away. But the further away your physical location is away from the searcher, the more you're fighting against the inherent proximity bias. That said, the actual distance you can rank within the local pack heavily also depends...

Yep, we already did earlier today! It's just fascinating to see which employment oriented words Google's filter is now triggered by in this suspected Google review filter update.

It certainly appears to be their spam filter adjusted for what they "think" is employee reviews like others have said on this thread. I'm sure it'll successfully remove employee reviews, but it's also filtering out some customer reviews too that use select language. For example, we saw two...

Agreed, it's definitely hit or miss. I'm curious though if the success rate for removing employee reviews will increase soon if Google is tweaking their systems for employee reviews based on what @Tim Colling and @TheSearchSherpa are noticing.