New surge of Google review removals

[Tim Colling]

In the past week, we have seen a higher than normal number of legitimate favorable reviews removed from many of our clients' Google Business Profiles. There is no apparent connection between the clients nor the nature of the reviews, except as noted below. Before this, there were only occasional review removals, a small number each week.

The clients are all based in the USA. They are all involved in some aspect of providing care to the elderly or other services to them or their families.

Has anyone else noticed a new, distinctive surge like this recently?

 

[BrandonSchmidt]

I'm seeing a significant number of employee reviews removed from GBPs in the home service industry. Reviews from as far back as 2017-2018. All of them have one thing in common: they mention their job, boss, coworkers, or that they love working there.

 

[Ben Seidel]

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 reviews on our own agency's Google Business Profile that are legit reviews from customers. However, both removed reviews had phrases within the review body that could be misconstrued by an automated detection system that they are an employee, and they both got removed even though they've been on our profile since 2016 and 2018.
The following is example wording within the reviews that we think may have triggered this updated filter for employee reviews:
"I work in..."
"I've served as the most tech-savvy staff member for the past few years at..."
Both of which were talking about their roles at their own company in context of engaging our firm.

Fascinating! I think some unique trigger word studies on the review filter may come out of this latest update.

 

[JoyHawkins]

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 reviews on our own agency's Google Business Profile that are legit reviews from customers. However, both removed reviews had phrases within the review body that could be misconstrued by an automated detection system that they are an employee, and they both got removed even though they've been on our profile since 2016 and 2018.
The following is example wording within the reviews that we think may have triggered this updated filter for employee reviews:
"I work in..."
"I've served as the most tech-savvy staff member for the past few years at..."
Both of which were talking about their roles at their own company in context of engaging our firm.

Fascinating! I think some unique trigger word studies on the review filter may come out of this latest update.

I would contact Google support with those ones and you should get them back.

 

[Ben Seidel]

I would contact Google support with those ones and you should get them back.

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.

 

[sixthcitysarah]

Seeing this too recently, some only one or two removed but others upwards of 6

 

[Tim Colling]

This is certainly hit or miss. I have a meeting later today with a client who is frustrated because Google removed or suppressed a number of reviews by his employees from his Google Business Profile, but not from his local competitors' Google Business Profiles.

 

[Ben Seidel]

It use to be a publicly stated policy with Google too! Reviews from employees actually used to be listed in Google's prohibited content policies for reviews. I wish I took a screenshot back in the day as they eventually removed it. Even after the removal, we've been able to get Google to remove reviews that are left by employees simply citing them as a "conflict of interest." I wouldn't be surprised if employee reviews gets added back into prohibited content either directly stated, or at least indirectly via a conflict of interest.
But we are with you on that one; we encourage our clients to never have employees leave reviews on GBP. Glassdoor, Indeed, etc. are a better place for employee reviews.

@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 more strictly being filtered as of their update in September 2024 (also this is inline with the fake engagement policy update at the same time). We haven't done an empirical study on this, so it's truly anecdotal from just what we are seeing in the wild.

 

[GMBapi.com]

Hi @JoyHawkins, @Tim Colling, @Ben Seidel - we finally published our research on Google Deleted Review practices. There are some interesting finding in there - a lot in line with what you would expect. It is too much to write out here.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I saw that and just shared it - really awesome stuff!

 

[keyserholiday]

It's very rare when I learn something new about online reviews, but this study blew my mind!!! I did a recap on it yesterday on my website. I share it in various places, too. I posted it here as well.

 

[Ben Seidel]

@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' reviews are getting removed significantly, which we totally agree with. Is there any way you can (without adding a bunch of work on your plate) do a comparative look at specifically "Employee perspectives" review deletion rate when comparing two periods. For example data to August 31st, 2024 vs. September 1st 2024 to current. We believe the review spam filter got specifically updated for employee review detection (which is also causing false positives based on certain keywords/sentiments) around the same time they updated their "fake engagement policies."

@keyserholiday can you drop a link to your take on this data? I would love to read your insights given the sheer number of fraudulent reviews you detect and report. I didn't see it on your main website, but maybe I was looking in the wrong place.

 

[Ben Seidel]

@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 Google Business Profile - Employee section

 

[GMBapi.com]

@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' reviews are getting removed significantly, which we totally agree with. Is there any way you can (without adding a bunch of work on your plate) do a comparative look at specifically "Employee perspectives" review deletion rate when comparing two periods. For example data to August 31st, 2024 vs. September 1st 2024 to current. We believe the review spam filter got specifically updated for employee review detection (which is also causing false positives based on certain keywords/sentiments) around the same time they updated their "fake engagement policies."

@keyserholiday can you drop a link to your take on this data? I would love to read your insights given the sheer number of fraudulent reviews you detect and report. I didn't see it on your main website, but maybe I was looking in the wrong place.

We have only started recording the date when a review was deleted in the last few months, so our data only goes back a few months. So this is impossible.

 

[GMBapi.com]

@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 Google Business Profile - Employee section

Super - thanks for linking back. That is appreciated!

 

[Ben Seidel]

Super - thanks for linking back. That is appreciated!

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

 

[keyserholiday]

@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' reviews are getting removed significantly, which we totally agree with. Is there any way you can (without adding a bunch of work on your plate) do a comparative look at specifically "Employee perspectives" review deletion rate when comparing two periods. For example data to August 31st, 2024 vs. September 1st 2024 to current. We believe the review spam filter got specifically updated for employee review detection (which is also causing false positives based on certain keywords/sentiments) around the same time they updated their "fake engagement policies."

@keyserholiday can you drop a link to your take on this data? I would love to read your insights given the sheer number of fraudulent reviews you detect and report. I didn't see it on your main website, but maybe I was looking in the wrong place.

Here is my take.

 

[keyserholiday]

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

Family members are just like employee reviews. They are biased and have more information about the business than the average consumer. It's easy for me to report and remove reviews from friends and family.

 

[Ben Seidel]

Family members are just like employee reviews. They are biased and have more information about the business than the average consumer. It's easy for me to report and remove reviews from friends and family.

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 they paid for the service/product and used it. We have a more extensive criteria on our stance, but didn't put it all the factors into the article.
The friends perspective is interesting too. Can you expound on that more (e.g. where do you draw the line of qualifying who are "friends", does it change if they are a paying customer)? Are we talking friends/family of the business owner(s) or of employees, etc. We haven't added that one to our list yet one way or the other.
I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to start a new thread as it'd be interesting to hear your opinion on each of the categories of potential reviewers we identified and where you would agree vs. disagree.

 

[keyserholiday]

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 they paid for the service/product and used it. We have a more extensive criteria on our stance, but didn't put it all the factors into the article.
The friends perspective is interesting too. Can you expound on that more (e.g. where do you draw the line of qualifying who are "friends", does it change if they are a paying customer)? Are we talking friends/family of the business owner(s) or of employees, etc. We haven't added that one to our list yet one way or the other.
I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to start a new thread as it'd be interesting to hear your opinion on each of the categories of potential reviewers we identified and where you would agree vs. disagree.

Yes, I am referencing that write-up.