Mental Health Facility Missing Reviews

[garrisonagency]

Hi community. I have a client who owns a highly reputable mental health facility. They have been working hard to improve their ranking (on Map, Search, AI, etc...) with more reviews. In their state, responding to reviews isn't permitted by the state licensing board for privacy reasons. So, in order to remain compliant and ethical, they don't reply, despite this being encouraged by Google.

That said, one of their competitors seems to always watch when they go on a review push and they do the same. They get lots of reviews from new accounts with only 1 review. It always looks shady. They also ignore the "no reply" rule from the state. With the most recent push, the competitor has seemingly surpassed them in reviews, but only because Google continues to remove reviews from my clients and not the competitor. One day my client will have 210 fully legitimate reviews, the next, they'll have 190, then 184, then 176...all while their competitor's numbers continue to increase with what appear to be reviews from mostly fake accounts.

I'm not as concerned about whether their competitor is getting fake reviews or even about the fact that they're violating state compliance by replying to the reviews. Those details are just small pieces of the puzzle. My main concern is that my client's reviews continue to disappear. We're not sure if this is because they're not responding to the reviews and Google doesn't like that or because the competitor has reported them...or some other reason.

I have submitted tickets to Google for this. They replied once and re-instated 5 reviews. They have ignored me since then. I tried submitting another ticket and they closed it stating that I'd recently contacted them for the same issue. Now I can't get them to respond at all.

If anyone can provide any direction, it would be helpful. My clients are just trying to follow the rules from both Google and their state licensing board and it seems to only be affecting them negatively. Thank you!

 

[ElizabethRule]

When they replied and republished five of the reviews, did you provide proof of those reviews, like screenshots or user names, or did you just tell them five reviews were missing without any proof?

If you did not already provide proof, I would try to contact Google again and provide proof (if you have any) of the exact missing reviews. Screenshots of the email Google sent when the review was first posted, user names, review text, anything you have. Contact them from a different email that has access to the profile - if you can.

If that does not work, or you already tried that, your next and only step is the GBP forum. https://support.google.com/business/thread/new

I have seen a few businesses on the GBP forums talking about missing reviews, so it is not just your client dealing with this. It seems like Google turned up the dial on their review filter (again...).

 

[garrisonagency]

When they replied and republished five of the reviews, did you provide proof of those reviews, like screenshots or user names, or did you just tell them five reviews were missing without any proof?

If you did not already provide proof, I would try to contact Google again and provide proof (if you have any) of the exact missing reviews. Screenshots of the email Google sent when the review was first posted, user names, review text, anything you have. Contact them from a different email that has access to the profile - if you can.

If that does not work, or you already tried that, your next and only step is the GBP forum. https://support.google.com/business/thread/new

I have seen a few businesses on the GBP forums talking about missing reviews, so it is not just your client dealing with this. It seems like Google turned up the dial on their review filter (again...).

I did. All of that. I had screenshots of the emails, from the customers who left the reviews, usernames, everything... I provided every piece of proof that the reviews were legit.

The only thing I haven't tried is contacting them from another email address. I will do that. Thank you!

I've also already posted in the GBP forum. The only thing I got there was a diamond product expert telling me that sometimes reviews get removed when they violate policy and that I should try and contact support...even though I said in my original post that I was there posting because support wasn't responding.

I know it's not just my client and I keep trying to tell them that, including sending them screenshots and articles of other businesses complaining about the same thing. But the most frustrating part of all of this is that their competitor who is clearly doing shady stuff to get their reviews, isn't getting any of theirs removed. Their numbers just keep going up while my client who is just trying to follow the rules, keeps getting theirs removed. It's the randomness of it all that's so frustrating. They're convinced that Google has their account flagged and has singled them out.

 

[ElizabethRule]

It is so frustrating. Sometimes Google does scrutinize certain profiles more than others, especially if that profile has a history of suspicious review patterns. I am not saying that your client is in that bucket, but it happens.

If you DM me your GBP community forum link, I can pop over there and take a look.

 

[garrisonagency]

The only thing I can think that's making them look at my client's more is that they don't reply to reviews. They did just get a ton of them, like 50+ and didn't reply to any of them. But that's because they're not allowed to. So, they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

DM'ing you now. Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this, even if it is just to commiserate.

 

[ElizabethRule]

Sometimes all we can do is commiserate when it comes to Google! Happy to have a look though

 

[Stefan Somborac]

Hi @garrisonagency - That might have been me who replied to you on the community forum. If it was, sorry if it felt dismissive. The sad reality (based on my experience) is that Google just doesn't restore reviews very often. I believe they have a very high level of confidence in their review spam algorithm. They trust that the algo removes what it should. Support requests don't usually do anything, nor does escalating in the forum.

Another thing to consider: Google can evaluate some other factors that we can't see, such as the IP address used when posting the review, a history of writing fake reviews from the account, etc. So, while the text in a review might look OK, Google is evaluating more than just the text.

On that note, Google is also looking at things that fall outside of ordinary patterns. For example, a big batch of 50+ reviews might look suspicious! If that happens because your client goes on a push to collect reviews, I recommend they make review requests systematic and push for them consistently instead. Avoid pushes that create unusual review rates. Stay within "normal" patterns! (It's a tricky balance. Review spikes have been shown to boost rankings. They can also lead to suspension! )

 

[garrisonagency]

Hi @garrisonagency - That might have been me who replied to you on the community forum. If it was, sorry if it felt dismissive. The sad reality (based on my experience) is that Google just doesn't restore reviews very often. I believe they have a very high level of confidence in their review spam algorithm. They trust that the algo removes what it should. Support requests don't usually do anything, nor does escalating in the forum.

Another thing to consider: Google can evaluate some other factors that we can't see, such as the IP address used when posting the review, a history of writing fake reviews from the account, etc. So, while the text in a review might look OK, Google is evaluating more than just the text.

On that note, Google is also looking at things that fall outside of ordinary patterns. For example, a big batch of 50+ reviews might look suspicious! If that happens because your client goes on a push to collect reviews, I recommend they make review requests systematic and push for them consistently instead. Avoid pushes that create unusual review rates. Stay within "normal" patterns! (It's a tricky balance. Review spikes have been shown to boost rankings. They can also lead to suspension! )

Thank you for taking the time to respond here, Stefan. It wasn't you haha. Either way, I appreciate you taking the time to respond here.

I've explained everything you mentioned, IP addresses, account review history, batching reviews, etc...to my client. He gets all that, too, except for the batching part. He can't understand why his competitor's numbers go up, and his go down. I've tried explaining that the number of reviews isn't always as important for ranking as the quality, relevance, recency, etc... but he just sees Google favoring his competitor over him.

The struggle and the balance is REAL! Thank you again for taking the time to respond.