A new deleted/hidden reviews record

[Brian - TGL]

I have seen another day of reviews being deleted/hidden as reported by Local Viking all within about the last 30 minutes, but 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.

 

[dale-jepto]

We are also seeing this across multiple customers, industries, and review types (i.e., short/lengthy text and with owner replies).

Just to clarify with the API issue, there are two ways to get reviews: through a list or individual reviews. As there is no pagination available through the reviews API, I assume other SaaS vendors are taking the same approach as us, that if the review is not available through the API anymore, then it has been deleted by Google. We have seen instances where a review is temporarily not returned but that is quite rare, it's more likely to be a 5xx error on Googles side, i.e. API instability rather than not available at all and how you determine their error codes to what is going on in the real world.

 

[Brian - TGL]

It seems that there are several issues at play here.
I keep hearing about the 5-day review bug issue. It appears that Google is removing reviews five days after they have been posted. The last link you posted stated they recieved 260 reviews last week and Google removed 100 of them. Here is one Reddit thread about it:


The third example states that they lost reviews after being suspended and then reinstated.

These cases and examples are all over the board. Here is a Reddit post claiming it's an API issue:


Sadly, there isn't enough concrete information for me to determine the issue. Is it one issue, or multiple issues? I keep asking clarifying questions, but I am not getting the answers I need to ascetain what the issue is.

Ask anything you need, I don't mind sending the details one to one.

 

[Brian - TGL]

I just had 20 "new" reviews show up for the original restaurant location dated 2015 through 2025 as well as 2 "new" images dated 2024 . . . that at least gives a little hope that something is being adjusted and things may settle down a bit.

 

[d2minc]

I've asked LV support about this before - this was their response - https://static.md/2e21fdead2d80f7106be9981939b3d2e.png

We've started getting these every day for different clients recently. Every time we check the GBP - the reviews are still there.

 

[Brian - TGL]

I've asked LV support about this before - this was their response - https://static.md/2e21fdead2d80f7106be9981939b3d2e.png

We've started getting these every day for different clients recently. Every time we check the GBP - the reviews are still there.

I specifically checked my locations with lower reviews (under 50) and the reviews are definitely removed from public view.

Also, logging directly into the GBP admin, the number of reviews in the summary shows the total including the removed reviews, but doesn't actually show any of the removed reviews or replies.

 

[Syed Amir]

At our agency, we also use Local Viking. Recently, I’ve been receiving email notifications stating that we are losing dozens of reviews. However, many of those reviews are not being fetched through the API, even though they are still visible and live on the actual Google Business Profiles.

I agree with the comment above, Local Viking does not provide a direct link to the reviewer’s profile. To verify, I copied the reviewer’s name and used Gmail’s advanced search to locate the original notification email. When I checked the profile manually, the review was still publicly visible on the GBP. And yes there are some reviews which are actually disappearing but not as many as Local Viking send the notification.

In our case, we manage nearly 80 GBPs under a single Local Viking account. Each profile has between 450 and 1,500 reviews, and all of the businesses operate in the home services industry.