Missing Reviews/ Reviews Disappearing

[obcted]

So I've been following this topic for a while now, here and elsewhere. I understand that google is working on it but this has been going on for a client of mine for about 6 months and we now have some good documentation.

I've read the post here:

Why Are My Google Reviews Not Publishing? - Sterling Sky Inc

If you are a business that is frustrated by Google not publishing your reviews, you are not alone. We are seeing more and more reports of businesses that are

www.sterlingsky.ca

I've submitted a ticket here: Sign in - Google Accounts
and opened a post here: Sign in - Google Accounts
Here's the post: https://support.google.com/business/thread/166543588?hl=en

In short my client tells me 10+ have gone missing Since February 2022. After a while he started having his clients send screenshots because they would tell them they left reviews but they wouldn't show. I have proof of 3 but client is insisting it's many many more.

If I could get at least some of these restored it would go a long way.

Client has 2 offices (Boston MA and Salem MA)

Here are the respective profiles:

Paul R. Moraski - Google Search

&

Paul R. Moraski boston - Google Search

Name	Location	Review Date	Screenshot?
Bryan Dawley	Boston	4/28/22	Yes
Andrew Rich	Salem	2/28/22	Yes
Madeline Delgado	Boston	2/12/22	Yes

@JoyHawkins any tips or tricks aside from what I've done so far? These are all clients of my lawyer clients and they are not posting from his office or anything to trigger an IP issue. I'm at a loss for what to do and client is getting frustrated. Any advice you or anyone in the community has would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Ted

 

[JoyHawkins]

Not sure which thread you're talking about but I'll respond on the Google community, not here, when I get responses for those threads.

 

[obcted]

Hi @JoyHawkins thank you so very much. Sorry for being vague. It was in reference to the link in the original post - Client Reviews Disappearing - Google Business Profile Community

It looks like post was closed for some reason. Someone else tried hijacking my thread (in the link above ... UGH!)

Should I open another thread here? Please let me know - thank you for all your help.

Ted

 

[JoyHawkins]

Ted,

I unlocked the thread. They get locked if there is a month of inactivity but these cases are taking longer and longer due to the volume we're getting of them. I have not heard back on yours yet which is why I haven't come back and posted an update.

 

[obcted]

Hi @JoyHawkins I understand - thank you very much. I knew it could take a while - I just got nervous when I saw the post closed. Thank you for explaining it to me. Cheers!

 

[talkoutloud]

@JoyHawkins Google has done this to my reviews again!

Reviewer:
Lyle Stratton said he left a review on Sept. 26
Tangee Summerhill-Bishop said she left a review on Sept. 22

Both of these are real clients. Why are the reviews not being put through on my profile? I'm confused about what is getting flagged and why some people can leave reviews and others can't.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yes, their filters are definitely still filtering out legit reviews. The action steps are still what's listed here: Why Are My Google Reviews Not Publishing? - Sterling Sky Inc

 

[pilatesqueen]

Hi guys,
I am having the same issues with the reviews not showing on my Google Profile. I had 4 customers leave reviews for our business in 2022 and neither one of them was published (publicly at least.)

One of the customers sent me a screenshot of the review that he can see on his end, I have review dates and review text from the others (but no actual screenshot.) It's so frustrating. I've spent hours talking to Google My Business support with absolutely no result.

 

[keyserholiday]

Hi guys,
I am having the same issues with the reviews not showing on my Google Profile. I had 4 customers leave reviews for our business in 2022 and neither one of them was published (publicly at least.)

One of the customers sent me a screenshot of the review that he can see on his end, I have review dates and review text from the others (but no actual screenshot.) It's so frustrating. I've spent hours talking to Google My Business support with absolutely no result.

@JoyHawkins I used your suggestion from the article to post in the Google Product Form. Is it possible for you to escalate the issue to Google Support to take a look?
Here is the link: New customer reviews are not showing up - Google Business Profile Community

There has been an update to the forum rules and this forum is not meant for people needing help from the GHF. Please either remove your link or your post to comply with the new rules.

 

[pilatesqueen]

@keyserholiday I removed the link. Local search forum is the only place online where I can find some time of help for Google Business listings and recommendations of what to do next. Unfortunately, Google Support or their forums are absolutely worthless in providing any type of help or assistance.

 

[keyserholiday]

@keyserholiday I removed the link. Local search forum is the only place online where I can find some time of help for Google Business listings and recommendations of what to do next. Unfortunately, Google Support or their forums are absolutely worthless in providing any type of help or assistance.

That forum is staffed by volunteers. It is people answering questions. Sadly the number of threads drastically outnumbers the number of volunteers. I took a quick search of threads about missing reviews and 38 out of 118 threads are about missing reviews. There are 77 unanswered threads. That's 65% unanswered threads.

Google is cracking down on online reviews. Google has tightened the review filters. I am seeing cases where Google has released the reviews that were filtered. Amy had 6 reviews published on her profile. There could be a time when Google publishes your reviews.

 

[IMP]

Not only has the filter got stricter, but they also have been doing waves of takedowns lately so I'm hearing tons of reports of businesses losing reviews in the last week that were published before but then got removed recently.

One thing to try is instead of sending customers a link to review you with, tell them to search for you on Google and leave a review. That *might* help - it's worth testing.

I'll go escalate your thread on the Google forum now.

I have a divorce lawyer with 4 locations and all of them have in the last couple of days lost many reviews from legitimate clients. In total probably over a dozen removed. We didn't keep copies of all the reviews but we know the total counts.

 

[keyserholiday]

I have a divorce lawyer with 4 locations and all of them have in the last couple of days lost many reviews from legitimate clients. In total probably over a dozen removed. We didn't keep copies of all the reviews but we know the total counts.

Google is targeting lawyers on the new review AI removal. I'd love to take a look at their profiles to see I can see what is causing the reviews to be removed. Here is one Personal Injury firm's review count. I got the numbers on Tuesday am. You will see the Wednesday morning count and the count in the afternoon.

 

[keyserholiday]

Today's sweep just hit. Business A. lost 32 reviews, business B. lost 14, and business C. lost 17. Here is the law firm I am also tracking.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

I have a divorce lawyer with 4 locations and all of them have in the last couple of days lost many reviews from legitimate clients. In total probably over a dozen removed. We didn't keep copies of all the reviews but we know the total counts.

This is happening accross a lot of businesses. Not just legal ones. It has been happening since the end of last month. Not sure exactly what the pattern here is, will try to do a longer study.
Some of the random business we track as part of GMBAlert.com, these are the data between

Today's sweep just hit. Business A. lost 32 reviews, business B. lost 14, and business C. lost 17. Here is the law firm I am also tracking.

Did these losses translate to a change in ratings? Was the losses significant enough?

 

[keyserholiday]

This is happening accross a lot of businesses. Not just legal ones. It has been happening since the end of last month. Not sure exactly what the pattern here is, will try to do a longer study.
Some of the random business we track as part of GMBAlert.com, these are the data between


Did these losses translate to a change in ratings? Was the losses significant enough?

I am not monitoring the rankings for these locations. I am only monitoring the review counts. I have never seen businesses lose rankings when Google removes reviews. Let me know if I can help out with your study. I know Curtis Boyd would be happy to help too.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I tracked a listing that lost the majority of its reviews and there was no impact to its ranking. I wrote about it here: What Happens When Google Removes 98% of Your Reviews | A Case Study | Sterling Sky Blog

 

[BenFisher]

Hi All,
Google is asking for examples of profiles affected by this. Please DM me a list of affected profiles and how many reviews have been removed and I can open a case about this.

 

[keyserholiday]

Hi All,
Google is asking for examples of profiles affected by this. Please DM me a list of affected profiles and how many reviews have been removed and I can open a case about this.

Post that in this thread too. All of the examples of businesses losing reviews were either bought or acquired by a shady review vendor.

 

[WilliamGMBE]

@keyserholiday @BenFisher @JoyHawkins

This is interesting.

So, I just did some analysis of data in the GMBAlert.com database. Here are some interesting data:

Below is based on the data we tracked between October 18th and October 20th afternoon EST.

- Around 13 business we track lost reviews in these 2 day period. We only track around 100 business now.
- This seem to be happening in different sectors, not restricted to specific one. Some of which we seen includes tourism, restaurants, public places, locaksmiths and so on.
- This is not just a changes in number of review, this is also affecting the rating for some of the business. This means that when the review number changes, the rating also changes. Check specific example of business 1, business 2 and business 3 below.
- We did notice these happening for unmanaged businesses too. These means businesses that have a very low probablity of fake reviews. A good example of this is Googleplex (Google Headquarters), which lost around 400 review end of last month.


Some cases where review number decreased and the rating decreased:
- Business 1:
For this Crate and Barrel lost a one star review and the rating increased. This business did not get any new review in the last week, so we can count that scenario out. This is purely from the changes in review numbers.
You can see the full history of this business here:
See history of this business here: GMB Alerts
GMBAlert.com Screenshot below:

Business 2:
For this locksmith lost 44 five star review in this period and the rating decreased.

See history of this business here: GMB Alerts
GMBAlert.com Screenshot below:

Business 3:
For this Restaurant POS system it lost 1 review and rating went down.
Screenshot:
See history of this business here: https://link.gbpalert.com/demo?placeid= ChIJn1nf4ZqRwokRXUGUTl3_zYY
Screenshot below:

Just FYI. GMBAlert.com is completely open now. So feel free to track businesses there. It is in beta, and free (we havent yet got around restricting users).

@keyserholiday
As mentioned would love to do an experiement. Will reach out.

@BenFisher
The above are some public data. These are good example of business loosing reviews.
Ironically, the most drastic example of business lossing review is their headquarters itself. Googleplex (Google Headquarters) had around 10400 review towards end of last month, now it has 10040. You can see google's data here: GMB Alerts


@JoyHawkins
I see the articles is from Feb. Our data is more recent. These trend is something we notice recently. Not sure if these are due to the same reason.

 

[keyserholiday]

@keyserholiday @BenFisher @JoyHawkins

This is interesting.

So, I just did some analysis of data in the GMBAlert.com database. Here are some interesting data:

Below is based on the data we tracked between September 18th and September 20th afternoon EST.

- Around 13 business we track lost reviews in these 2 day period. We only track around 100 business now.
- This seem to be happening in different sectors, not restricted to specific one. Some of which we seen includes tourism, restaurants, public places, locaksmiths and so on.
- This is not just a changes in number of review, this is also affecting the rating for some of the business. This means that when the review number changes, the rating also changes. Check specific example of business 1, business 2 and business 3 below.
- We did notice these happening for unmanaged businesses too. These means businesses that have a very low probablity of fake reviews. A good example of this is Googleplex (Google Headquarters), which lost around 400 review end of last month.


Some cases where review number decreased and the rating decreased:
- Business 1:
For this Crate and Barrel lost a one star review and the rating increased. This business did not get any new review in the last week, so we can count that scenario out. This is purely from the changes in review numbers.
You can see the full history of this business here:
See history of this business here: GMB Alerts
GMBAlert.com Screenshot below:

Business 2:
For this locksmith lost 44 five star review in this period and the rating decreased.

See history of this business here: GMB Alerts
GMBAlert.com Screenshot below:

Business 3:
For this Restaurant POS system it lost 1 review and rating went down.
Screenshot:
See history of this business here: https://link.gbpalert.com/demo?placeid= ChIJn1nf4ZqRwokRXUGUTl3_zYY
Screenshot below:

Just FYI. GMBAlert.com is completely open now. So feel free to track businesses there. It is in beta, and free (we havent yet got around restricting users).

@keyserholiday
As mentioned would love to do an experiement. Will reach out.

@BenFisher
The above are some public data. These are good example of business loosing reviews.
Ironically, the most drastic example of business lossing review is their headquarters itself. Googleplex (Google Headquarters) had around 10400 review towards end of last month, now it has 10040. You can see google's data here: GMB Alerts


@JoyHawkins
I see the articles is from Feb. Our data is more recent. These trend is something we notice recently. Not sure if these are due to the same reason.

One of the businesses I am monitoring had 1221 reviews. Google wiped out almost 600 of them. They then bought 350 more reviews. Today they sit at 615 reviews. They finally lost a point and are at 4.8. Today's review removal sweep just started rolling out now.