Nothing is more frustrating than putting time, energy, and money into a specific goal and not seeing the payoff right away. Especially when it seems like you’ve earned the promised results of your work.
Whether you’re new to the world of online reviews or have been working on building up your online reputation for months, it can be discouraging to make review gathering a priority and not to see the volume of reviews you expect. This can happen for several reasons. Maybe leaving your review-leaving process is complex, maybe your products or services are subpar, or maybe your customer experience is tepid. Or maybe…Google is hiding some of your reviews.
Why does this happen? How can you prevent it, and what are the real review guidelines when it comes to Google Reviews? We’re here to help you with all your questions and make sure that you get the reviews you’ve earned. Read on to learn the ins and outs of Google’s review policy, why some of your reviews might be missing, and how to get them back.
What is Google’s Review Policy?
Google’s review policy is fairly straightforward: allow people to give honest, objective feedback about your products and services, and don’t discourage negative reviews. To encourage this, there are many guidelines that customers must comply with when reviewing your business. (These guidelines are meant to protect customers, local businesses, and potential customers who may be considering engaging with you).
- Relevance. Reviews should be directly related to your business and based on personal experiences. Irrelevant content, such as political or social commentary, is discouraged.
- Genuine Experiences. Reviews should reflect genuine experiences with your business. Fake Google Reviews, whether positive or negative, are against Google’s policies. (Anonymous reviews that are posted to mislead are flagged, as are spam reviews).
- Conflict of Interest. Reviews should not be submitted by individuals with a conflict of interest, such as current or former employees, competitors, or those with a close personal relationship with your business.
- Hate Speech and Offensive Content. Reviews containing hate speech, profanity, or offensive and inappropriate content are not allowed.
- Privacy and Personal Information. Reviews should not include personal information or details that could violate privacy laws. (Customers are restricted from oversharing personal information.)
- Promotional Content. Reviews should not be used for promotional purposes, and businesses should not offer incentives for positive reviews.
- Accurate Location. Reviews should be submitted by individuals who have visited the location they are reviewing. (Reviews also need to be written in the language of the target audience).
- Impersonation. Reviews should not impersonate others or falsely represent the reviewer’s identity.
- Illegal Content. Reviews containing or promoting illegal content, including illegal activities or substances, are not permitted. (Reviewers also cannot share the same review content repeatedly from different accounts).
- Review Responses. Business owners are encouraged to respond to reviews professionally and avoid disclosing private customer information in their responses.
While you can’t delete, edit, or hide reviews that customers (or other individuals) give your business, there are a number of things you can do. For example, you can flag inappropriate or misleading reviews and petition to have them removed.
What to Do If Your Google Reviews Aren’t Showing Up
There are a number of reasons your Google Reviews might not be showing, and here are a few steps you can take to understand what’s going on.
1. Check Google Review Guidelines
After ensuring that there aren’t any technical issues with your Google profile, the first thing to do is check Google’s review guidelines for any violations that might be preventing the customer feedback from going public.
2. Contact Google Support
If you think there’s been a mistake, or a huge portion of your reviews are missing, you can always contact Google Support for help. Their support team can personally investigate the issue.
3. Investigate Any Business-Related Issues
Make sure your Google Business Profile is up-to-date, your products/services are impeccable, and your actions (online and off) are ethical. Your business information should be consistent across all of your listings. Your business listing should be current/accurate, and you shouldn’t have any duplicate listings or inactive listings.
4. Monitor and Encourage Reviews
You should be responsive to all of the positive and negative reviews you receive—solving problems quickly, making changes, and thanking customers for their feedback.
12 Reasons Your Google Reviews are Not Showing Up
If you’ve noticed that your Google Reviews are not showing up or have gone missing from your Google Business Profile, it’s time to do some sleuthing. Your missing Google Reviews may be lost due to Google policy violations, conflict with your business location, inaccurate information, or more. Here are a few common reasons:
1. A Reviewer Deleted Their Review
While businesses can’t delete reviews people leave for them, people can delete reviews they wrote. If someone had a change of opinion about your business or decided their Google business review was inaccurate or dishonest, they may choose to delete a review they wrote. This could be the culprit if you notice reviews going missing from your Google Business Profile.
2. The Review is Awaiting Moderation
If you’ve just started collecting reviews, it’s normal for them to take some time to appear on your profile. Google typically moderates reviews to ensure that they’re appropriate and follow their guidelines.
It’s important to note that Google’s review filtering algorithms are constantly evolving, so what may be filtered today may not be filtered in the future. Stay up-to-date on any changes so that you can advise your customers when encouraging them to leave you a review.
3. The Review Violates Google’s Review Policy
Google has a number of guidelines in place for reviews—these help protect both businesses and customers. As we mentioned, reviews that violate Google’s policy include:
- Reviews that contain spam or are posted by fake accounts.
- Reviews that contain offensive language.
- Reviews that are off-topic or not relevant to the business or location being reviewed.
- Reviews that are written by employees of the business or by business owners reviewing their own businesses.
- Reviews that contain personal information, such as phone numbers or email addresses.
- Reviews that were written with the intention of attacking a competitor.
4. Your Google Business Profile was Suspended
Suspension can happen for a number of reasons and can cause a major headache for local businesses, especially when it comes to managing and maintaining your customer reviews.
If your Google Business Profile was recently suspended, it’s possible that some of your reviews disappeared during that process. Luckily, there might be a way for you to get those lost reviews back. If you think this happened to you, submit a support ticket to Google’s team here.
5. You Got an Unusual Influx of Reviews Overnight
For some brands, getting dozens of new reviews on a weekly—or even daily—basis is the norm. But if you’re a brand that’s just started trying to build an online portfolio of reviews, a random influx of a bunch of reviews in one day can trigger Google’s spam alarms. Try asking a small handful of customers for reviews every week rather than asking all of your customers for reviews at the same time.
6. The Review Came from Your Store
Having a dedicated review station in your store might sound like a good idea but if multiple reviews of your business come from the same IP address, Google might flag the reviews as spam, causing them not to appear on your profile. Instead of setting up a review station, consider displaying a QR code in-store that people can scan to be taken to your Google Business Profile. Then, they can leave a review using their personal device.
7. The Review Was Bought
It’s true that many local businesses will do whatever it takes to get reviews. After all, Google Reviews are becoming more influential in consumer-decision-making, not less. Business reviews affect local SEO, boost your small business account, and make every search engine love you by increasing social proof and improving your star rating. However, if you pay for a review or incentivize someone to leave a good review, Google will flag and delete these reviews. Google will also lower your business’s status in Google search rankings.
So, while it may be tempting to buy someone’s good opinion (especially if you have some negative reviews you’re trying to balance out), don’t–it’s unethical and could backfire in a major way.
8. The Review Contains a Link
Your reviewer may be trying to help by sending people to another site for more information that contextualizes or confirms their experience, but this can cause their review to be suspended. Google Reviews aren’t allowed to contain any links or URLs of any kind. Encourage customers to keep their reviews simple and relevant. If they really want to add context, you can encourage them to share photos of their experience with you.
9. There are Location-Based Restrictions
Google may filter reviews based on the geographic location of the user. This means that reviews from users in different locations may not appear immediately. Encourage reviewers to review you on-site in order to prevent this from happening. You can ask for a review in person, show them how easy it is to give you one, and then explain that reviewing you before leaving the area could help you.
10. There Are Device Compatibility Issues
Sometimes when a customer leaves you a review on an older device or via an older operating system, their review doesn’t appear right away. Device compatibility issues can lead to ghost reviews–reviews that are significantly delayed or never make it to the platform at all.
Of course, this is a simple fix. You should always recommend that your customers ensure they’ve updated their operating system when reviewing you and have the latest version of the Google Maps app on their phone. Don’t let failures to update bottleneck your review success.
11. The Review Came from Your Employees
While the people who work for you undoubtedly have the inside scoop on your business and products/services, they definitely shouldn’t be the ones sharing. As we said, Google flags reviews from current and former employees. You should never ask them to post a review, even if they become customers later. This is viewed as unethical or incentivized reviewing.
So, no matter how much Jenny loves working at your ice cream shop and wants to promote it, don’t let it get to Google Reviews. Instead, encourage her to support you via social media or word-of-mouth.
12. The Review Reveals Confidential Information
And finally, if a review is missing it might be because the individual is sharing private or confidential information. Reviews cannot contain personal financial info, contact info (attached to a name), confidential records, government-issued IDs, or links to personal info.
Make sure your customers know exactly what they can and cannot share. To encourage relevant reviews, encourage them to focus on a specific aspect of their experience with you and to use reviews safely. Help them to protect not only your business but themselves as well..
Google Reviews Not Showing Up FAQs
Got a few more questions about the mystery of lost Google Reviews? You’ve come to the right place. Read on for answers to common inquiries.
Can businesses hide Google Reviews?
Because Google aims to provide an open and transparent platform for users to share their experiences, you do not have the ability to hide or remove reviews directly on Google. However, you can respond to reviews, both positive and negative, through the Google Business Profile platform. And, you can flag inappropriate reviews, and these may be removed directly by Google.
How do I enable Google Reviews?
First, ensure that your Google Business Profile is up-to-date and functioning properly. It should be completely filled out and verified. Go to your dashboard, and locate the “Reviews” tab. Click to enable reviews, and watch your five-star praises grow!
Where can I see my Google Reviews?
To view and manage your Google Reviews, simply sign in to your Google account on Google Maps. When you select the tab with three horizontal lines on the top left, a menu will drop down. Click “Your contributions” and then navigate to “Reviews.” To view reviews that others have left your business, simply login to your Google Business Profile or view your business on Google Maps.
Podium is the Secret to a 5-Star Reputation
Obtaining a 5-star reputation isn’t rocket science. It simply involves making leaving reviews easy and managing your reviews well. It includes responding to all reviews, both positive and negative, quickly and seamlessly, making sure no customer’s feedback slips through the crack. This can be challenging for a team of any size to take on. However, with the right tools, it doesn’t have to be.
Podium allows you to automate the review invitation process by sending customers a text with a link they can click to leave you a Google Review quickly and easily. It gathers all of your reviews, responses, and conversations into one place, making for easy tracking that allows you to have full and thorough insight into what’s happening in your review world at all times. With over 150,000 local business associates, customers have been seeing the positive effects of text.
Using Podium, Pura Vida Body & Mind Spa has seen a 20x increase in Google Reviews.
“We had 28 Google Reviews… And now we’re over 600. And Podium’s easy for the staff to use.” Julie Davis, Pura Vida
Bedzzz Express has seen a 62% increase in reviews.
“We chose Podium because of the ease of use. We saw an immediate bump in reviews when we started automating review invites.” Austin Bond, Bedzz Express
