Creating a Google My Business profile is a great way to locate your business firmly before the world. It gives you control over mentioning the right information about your business directly without the indulgence of any agent. It has been helping the local businesses and the big enterprises for the past many years. However, a new war of disappearing reviews has been reported since last Friday, February 7th. Some are in doubt whether it is the new algorithm or just the Google Review glitch. However, whatever the case, it is affecting the businesses badly and may lower their Google rating due to the loss of many valuable reviews on the GMB Platform.
Google Reviews issue in Detail
It seems that since last Friday, February 7th, a glitch has been causing Google reviews to vanish. This has understandably alarmed many small businesses and local SEOs. However, since this issue is affecting everyone, the concern might be a bit overblown, especially as Google appears to be actively working on a fix.
What You must do before Reporting Missing Reviews
Before Reporting Missing Reviews, make sure you’re actually missing reviews. Many users have found that while the counter may seem off, all the reviews are still present. Try manually counting your reviews—if they’re all there, Google will likely fix the display soon.
If you’ve just checked your Google Business Profile and noticed missing reviews, rest assured you’re not alone. Google recently updated its system, which has led to many businesses losing reviews through no fault of their own.
Let’s Understand what’s causing the Google Review Disappearing Issue.
Google always suggests its GMB users to update only the legit reviews. Consequently, Google removes reviews that violate its policies, such as reviews that contain inappropriate content advertising, are abusive, off-topic or have any kind of conflict on it regarding words contained in it and otherwise. However, this time, it seems that the normal reviews that are legit are also disappeared from almost every GMB profile.
Amidst this event, there has sparked a thread of conversation on support.google.com. Many users are very disappointed about the issue. Some have stated that we have collected the reviews with our hardship, and now, many of it has been removed without any notice. Additionally, they claim that they were all original reviews that took us years to earn from valuable customers.
On the basis of this, it doesn’t look like Google has come up with a new algorithm. However, it is looking like Google is facing some glitch over its GMB platform. Nonetheless no clarification has been provided by the Google until now on any platform.
See what different Businesses have been about GMB on Support.Google.com
Amidst the event, many users have been active on the Google Support platform regarding the issue. Many raised objections and discussed their views while few are the important ones listed below that could provide you the zist of what’s happening on the GMB.
User 1:
One user by the name “User 17266889637283410012” stated, “I am overseeing several Montreal-based GBPs, and they have just lost dozens of genuine reviews, some with clients’ photos. Google has obviously released some Algo updates, which are not functioning properly. They need to hear this feedback and roll it back or fix it. All support form requests are left without a response, and what is worse, owners get no notifications. If there’s a valid reason for removal, at least a formal automated response should be sent out. This needs to be escalated.”
As per this statement Google seems to come up with new update on the GMB but this doesn’t end well and brought GMB to a functionality issue. Further, according to him, Google is not responding to their requests and also has not offered any notification to date.
User 2:
A further user named “Liang Jiang” said while responding to the other user, “…….Hello, here is the link. Thank you for your help. The reviews are actually there I think the number count is wrong. Thank you”
According to him the reviews counts are affected however no reviews have been removed. It is just the reviews count that are not showing up correctly.
User 3:
While one user with the name “treebles” came up with the response, “We have to wait for Google to fix this bug, we were told last week they were aware of the issue and working on a fix, that is all we know at the moment.”
This made it clear that Google has replied to his requests and asked them to wait for Google to fix this bug. It concluded that Google is aware of its GMB glitch and is working on a fix.
Conclusion
Looking at the various forums about the GMB disappearing review issue, we have come to the conclusion that it is just a glitch and Google is aware of it. However, if you look at your GMB account, the reviews are not actually removed it is just the review count that is showing incorrectly. However, if you are one of them facing this issue, be calm and compose it’s just a glitch and not the issue that has been produced due to your actions on GMB.