Q&As Keep Getting Removed

[cferg33]

Hi all! I am new to this forum, but certainly not Google Local search. Up until about 6 months ago, our agency used a "strategy" of posting Q&As on our client's GMB accounts. In addition to this, some legitimate questions would come through from users on Google. We would consider this strategy successful, as it would bring more attention and activity to the GMB over time. Also, there seem to be articles everywhere that promote the use of this strategy as well.

Then, 6 months ago, Google started taking down A LOT of Q&As for our clients. I found this thread from last year, where someone else seemed to be having the same issue but they didn't follow up. We have added a question to our client's Google My Business Q&A section and it keeps disappearing. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

There are way too many to list and share. However, one of the most recent ones was:

“I was hit by a vehicle that fled the scene. What should I do?”

So my question is, is anyone else having this issue? What steps do you take to get the questions back up? OR is this something that is against GMB policy that we should stop doing?

 

[ElizabethRule]

Are you seeing the questions removed in Incognito mode and/or when signed into the account that owns the business profile? Like Joy mentioned in the thread you linked to, Google sometimes filters questions and answers from showing on search. If you see it when signed into the account but not incognito, it's probably being filtered.

You can see in this thread that filtering happens in a wide range of business categories.

OR is this something that is against GMB policy that we should stop doing?

Not against Google policy so you can keep doing this and try to re-work the questions to avoid filtering.

Also, I found this support thread from 2019, where @krystaltaing mentions that "owners can ask questions but these may be hidden if Google finds them unnatural. I've seen this happen on a number of occassions, the questions and answers publish but become hidden to non-owners of the listings after a few hours."

 

[BenFisher]

You can raise this on the community with examples and your dashboard url