Why are my customer’s reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing?

Why are my customer’s reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing?

Why are my customer's reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing?

Why are my customer’s reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing?

Why are my customer’s reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing? Your business is doing an exceptional job and your customers are leaving great 5-star reviews but for some reason those reviews are not showing up on the Google Map listing.

There are several reasons why this might be happening but the number one reason is that someone is trying to circumvent the Google Review system. Sometimes Google filters or removes reviews if they feel that the person violated the Google’s review policies.

Based on cases I’ve looked at, here is what I’ve come up with for reasons why my customer’s reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing:

  • URLs in reviews
  • The same review appears elsewhere online (Yelp, a testimonials page on your website etc)
  • The person who wrote the review is a manager of your G+ Page
  • The person who wrote the review works for you
  • The person wrote the review from the same computer/IP Address that you sign into to manage your local listing
  • The person wrote the review from the same IP address as other users who left you reviews
  • The person tried to post a review for you several times on different dates (Ex: they wrote one August 5 and it got filtered so they tried again on October 10)
  • You’ve been collecting reviews in mass within a short time frame
  • The person reviewing you has also reviewed multiple other businesses with the same name (if you have several locations and they reviewed all of them)
  • The person reviewing you has a completely blank G+ profile and has never had any activity on that Google profile before or after they left you that review.
  • You have an onsite review station (Ipad, Computer etc) at your location
  • You are offering incentives for people who write you reviews.
  • Your # of reviews is abnormally higher than most businesses in your industry.

For a complete list of the Google Review Policies, click here: https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114

Google looks at the patterns that are normal for both your business, and similar for other businesses in your category. If a business normally get few reviews, then suddenly gets a a lot reviews, that can flag those reviews for the Google Web Spam team.

The Google Review Policy system is completely automated and many times it flags a review that is completely legitimate. If this is the case, you could try a support associate through Google My Business. Log into your dashboard, by clicking here: https://business.google.com/ and go to the section for Reviews, click on the home menu and choose Support, then select a method of contact (Phone or Email) and provide details.

To flag an inappropriate review, click here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/4596773?hl=en.

If you would like to see how to get your customers to leave legitimate 5-star reviews that will not be flagged or deleted, click here.

 

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Why are my customer’s reviews not showing up on the Google Maps listing?