Why are Google reviews not showing up? Here’s why!

Why are Google reviews not showing up? Here’s why!

Why are my Google Reviews missing? | CI Web Group

Have you received the most wonderful and positive customer reviews with a 5-star rating on your Google My Business (GMB) page, but you can’t seem to view or find them anywhere? Here are 15 reasons that can cause your customers’ reviews to disappear from your GMB page.

1. Google reviews are temporarily disabled because of Covid-19

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Google has fewer staff on their side and has temporarily disabled the review section on the GMB page. This prevents customers from posting any new reviews and similarly doesn’t allow you to view or respond to any of them. However, there are other ways to keep engaging with your loyal customers, such as asking them to provide reviews on other sites.

2. Your Google reviews consist of links and URLs

You should browse through your recently posted customer reviews and check any links amongst the text. If so, Google is most likely to remove the review. To solve this problem, you need to ask the authors of those posts to remove the URLs so the reviews can appear on your GMB page.

3. Spam Google reviews

Spam Google reviews can be one of the causes of missing customer reviews on your GMB page. Since Google is highly particular in fighting against review spam, strict guidelines have been put into place against prohibited and restricted content. So if one of your onlookers on your Google My Business page has flagged one of your reviews, Google will investigate further and delete the review from its listing.

4. Google reviews are in private mode or are getting deleted

Your customers may have kept their reviews private or may have deleted a post, even though that rarely happens. However, Google has updated its policies by eliminating a private option, thus making all reviews visible. However, if you want to hide a review, then the user has to delete it.

5. Google My Business listings to help new businesses

For start-up companies and businesses, Google My Business listings are made available to help attract customers. However, Google will only display your customers’ reviews once you get reviews from 5 different users.

6. Business listings are inactive

If you have not kept your GMB dashboard updated for a long time, then it’s most likely you will lose the verification status of your business. An unverified company will not show its presence on any Google platform. Thus, making it impossible for anyone to read your GMB reviews. If this is the case, you should manage your business listings and restore your status to active. 

7. A new location for your business

It’s important to update the location of your business if you have changed premises. If not, your reviews would be most likely to be transferred to the old site on Google maps. Therefore, it is recommended to inform Google about your new business location so you can re-verify your business. 

8. Duplicates in your business listings

You should always check your listings for any duplicates. When there are more than one business listings, Google will remove your customers’ reviews from one of them. Therefore, you must look for alternate listings to confirm posting the latest reviews. 

9. A natural delay in showing up the review

It may take Google up to 3 days to make a customer review visible on your GMB page. There has been no reason yet why this occurs. 

10. Third-party reviewers can never be visible on the Google My Business site

Google has set restrictions on posting reviews from third-party websites such as Yahoo or Facebook. Therefore, you can not post any third-party reviews on your GMB page. A few reputable websites can be found on Google listing and can go on reviews around the web section to find them.

11. Your Google My Business page is receiving big pools of reviews

Sometimes the number of your customer reviews is higher than that of your competitors in your area. This is unrealistic. As a result, Google will remove some of these reviews. 

12. Fake Google Reviewers

Google always closely investigates suspicious Google accounts, especially ones with no profile pictures, names, and other details. Your business could be getting reviews from these fake users, and there is no chance for you to recover any of them. 

13. A reviewer may remove his customer review

Customers have the right to remove their reviews at any time without notifying you. In cases like these, you definitely can’t retrieve those reviews. 

14. Repetitive reviews or error-free reviews

Google is suspicious of perfectly worded and grammatical correct reviews as no customer focuses on these when writing up a review for your business. This makes it seem as though you have pre-made reviews for your GMB page. 

15. Google can be tricking you

You never thought this could be possible, but Google can purposefully delete your business reviews in some instances. New businesses trying to start up are encouraged to use Google Ads but tend to avoid doing so. This makes them a target for Google to remove your customers’ reviews. 

Since you are now aware of some of the possibilities for your disappearing reviews, don’t get yourself worked up. Instead, focus on your business and ways to provide high-quality services and products to your customers.

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