Possible Bug: April 1 Impacting Reviews & Listings on Google Maps

[JoyHawkins]

This isn't an April Fool's joke I promise

I've had a several reports this morning about listings vanishing out of the SERPS and reviews completely disappearing (all reviews vanishing).

I believe it's a bug but have asked Google for more information. This is the pattern I'm seeing:

- The listing disappears from the SERPS
- All reviews vanished off the listing
- The listing is still fine in MapMaker and still is listed as verified
- The URL for Google Maps with the CID number (example) doesn't work.

 

[JoyHawkins]

An update from a business owner:

I just got off the phone with Google support. They said multiple businesses have reported a similar issue and that they think it is a technical problem on Maps. They said it should be resolved and back to normal in 24-48 hours.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Michael Hodgdon just mentioned on the Local Search Pros Community that if you login to GMB and move the pin marker it should fix it!

 

[dmarks]

Yes, this worked for us, quite odd

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Thanks Joy. I bet they're are quite a few clients and consultants freakin' out right about now.

 

[dlredd]

Thank you, Joy. I started getting a little worried. The listing only disappeared for 2 of our clients, but I freaked out a bit. Thank you for the post.

 

[fabaziou]

I should have come here first!

Just got off the phone with GMB support as most of our listings are down (missing reviews and no knowledge panel in SERPs).

The rep on the phone told me to call back in 2 weeks if the issue isn't fixed by then. LOL

 

[JoyHawkins]

HA! Gotta love those "helpful" phone support reps.

 

[James Watt]

Wow, just another reason it's a good idea to take a peek at the forum every day. Knowing this kind of thing when the client calls in a panic is a huge way to keep the relationship healthy. Thanks for sharing Joy!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Edgar Estrada from Brandify also pointed out:

For GMB dashboard with hundreds/thousands of listings, a bulk upload with any minor tweak to the 'Description' field will restore the listings. (e.g., remove a period at the end of a sentence). 

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I will confirm that the GMB pin tweak works like a charm. Made me feel like a GMB magician!

 

[whitespark]

I did a quick post on it. I don't think it's been reported yet that it also affected the appearance of the Knowledge Panel on branded search (which will affect your ability to get reviews if you link to this when you ask).
Disappearing Google Local Listings & Reviews - NOT an April Fool's Joke. | Whitespark

 

[mhodgdon]

Hi Guys, Hope it's ok to post a link to the blog post regarding this saga and the fix this morning. All of My Pins, Reviews & Knowledge Panel for Google My Business Are Gone?

 

[Louis Nava]

I guess this was on a roll out situation because I saw the disappearing act within the past hour. Nice to hear there's actually a real time fix on this.

As soon as I poked the page, everything for that particular business went back to normal. I just feel bad for the businesses that are still missing and don't know.

Everyone providing answers here are A-Mazing! Thanks

 

[Carmelo Local Success]

I was really freaking out. Here in Germany the most of our clients and our own listings and the knowledge graph on brand searches disappeared and reviews are gone. After 20 minutes of checking, I thought, I have to check the localsearchforum, maybe somemone else have noticed this issue. And so was. Hope they will fix it soon. Thank you all guys.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Wow, just another reason it's a good idea to take a peek at the forum every day. Knowing this kind of thing when the client calls in a panic is a huge way to keep the relationship healthy. Thanks for sharing Joy!

Yes Joy, thanks so much for keeping everyone in the loop in both places, with fixes as they are discovered. And everyone else too for sharing solutions and updates. The networking and willingness to share we have in this industry is just amazing!!!

Wow what a fiasco! Bet some people that don't yet know what's going on are having heart attacks.

Well I guess now we know for sure a new way to poke a listing.

Is anyone else seeing any other type of weirdness? Because as we all know often a shakeup like this precludes an update.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

The poke lives!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[OIG_Steve]

This whole issue is quite worrisome because... (and please let me know if I'm wrong).... Other than from this forum, I would never have a way to know about a missing listing unless I was scanning the serps or maps or snackpack, for all clients, all the time. (And clients probably assume I would be doing this)

Am I correct here?

-Steve

 

[Priya Chandra]

Hi Steve

This forum is definitely a great place to find out about things like this and the solution!

I'd also recommend keeping an eye on the GMB forum as small business owners doing their own SEO will often come there for help - so it's a good place to see these sort of breaking issues.

 

[OIG_Steve]

Thanks - appreciate the GMB forum link also. My main concern is still present though - I don't expect I or any clients will catch these types of serious business-impacting local serp (or organic serp also) issues unless we/they search on their own keywords every day, which none of us has time to do. Maybe an automated ranking report would help but still that would have to be run and checked daily. I think I need to set up something automated though, because of the business risk of not catching something like this.