Google reviews from brand new Google accounts are being hidden

[Tim Colling]

We have been seeing the problem that many others have been seeing: Google reviews are sometimes visible to the reviewer after posting but are not visible to others when they view the Google Business Profiles.

I did some testing today and I have reproducible cases in which the deciding factor appears to be whether or not the Google account of the person posting the review is brand new. If the reviewer's account IS brand new, the reviews are not displayed to anyone other than the reviewer.

 

[JS Girard]

Isn't this the same thing as the "user's first review" filter that noticed earlier this summer?

 

[Tim Colling]

Isn't this the same thing as the "user's first review" filter that noticed earlier this summer?

I don't know. I don't recall seeing that exact phrase here. I just searched for it and didn't find it.

Note that I'm not saying that the problem arises with a google account's first review. I am saying that the problem arises with one or more reviews from a brand new google account. That's a different situation.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Interesting find Tim! I think this makes sense if Google is trying to prevent spam and fake reviews.

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

I know that the problem is more and more frequent and not only on new accounts. Google has even created a special, official form where you can ask a special team to check your account. I did not know that this form was previously posted on this forum - Account investigation for contributions not visible on Google Maps

@JoyHawkins Maybe it would be somehow pinned?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Has anyone actually had success with that form?

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

I don't know, because everyone reports their account individually, not the GMB profile. But support checked accounts that had such shadowbans proudly, so they created a form to report it.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'm just hesitant to suggest people start using it without knowing if it works. Lots of things Google comes out with are just black holes

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

I agree All I know is that the form works and accounts are checked if google is notoriously hiding someone else's opinions. But what percentage it is and what the reasons are, we will probably never know