What is the first thing that you do before making a purchase? You read its reviews on Amazon or other eCommerce websites. If a product has a solid rating with mostly positive reviews, you are more likely to purchase the product. You trust your peer’s review more than the high-quality, fancy photographs posted by the brand. This is because a review genuinely shares the customer’s experience and feedback.
Similarly, when you want to visit a restaurant, cafe, or a new store that has recently opened in town, you look up its Google reviews to decide whether it's worth a visit or not. If a business has mostly negative reviews, you will not waste your time there, and if it has many good ones, you’re definitely paying it a visit.
Businesses - big or small - essentially rely on Google reviews on their Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) to attract more customers and increase their clientele. But what makes Google reviews so important?
Let’s get started to understand why your Google review not showing up!
What are Google reviews?
Google reviews are an integrated feature in Google maps that allows customers to publish reviews and ratings of a particular establishment. The reviews include a customer’s personal experience with the company and its products or services.
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How does it work?
The first thing you need to do is create your profile on Google My Business. In order to have reviews, you will need your customers to review your product to increase your visibility.
This way, potential customers will Google your products or Google the name of your business to be redirected to your Google reviews. These reviews will help them decide if they want to give your business a chance or not.
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Importance of Google reviews for a business
Whether you’re an established business or just starting out, Google reviews can help you market your business for free. Yes, free. In fact, 76% of consumers are more likely to share content that is shared by peers than the brand itself.
All you have to do is list your business on Google and ask your clients to leave a review. Google will eventually increase your exposure in the digital space and help your local business with its SEO. You’ll find your Google reviews on GMB.
Some pros of Google reviews are:
| Transparency | Google plays a major role in increasing a brand’s credibility and trust among its customers. More than the fancy marketing campaign, word-of-mouth, and reviews from people like you who have tried and tested the product is revered. In fact, 90% of the customers will read reviews of a business before visiting it. And another study showed that 52% of consumers are more likely to trust a business that has positive reviews. |
| Online exposure and local Search Engine Optimization | Google SEO is one tricky riddle. However, one thing that can definitely boost your local SEO is; Google reviews. Every Google review consists of review signals, including velocity, diversity, and the quantity of the review. Combine the three review signals tactfully, and your business will have a better SEO than all the keywords and blogging marketing. This helps your business a lot in the long run as this makes potential customers call you directly from Google rather than visit the website first. |
| Customer service | Have you ever wondered about the best way you can improve your business? Well, you can always learn a thing or two from the reviews your customers leave. Google is an excellent way to improve your customer service since it allows you to connect with a customer and reply to their comments directly. You can even thank them for leaving a positive review. But what if the review is negative? In that case, you need to formulate a response. You can ask your customer for the details of the issue and do your best to rectify it. This not only creates a bond of trust between you and the customer but also notifies Google that you are an active business. As a result, Google increases your online exposure even more. |
| Click-through rates | One thing that makes your business stand out among the competitors and rivals is; its high rating. Let's say you want to visit a restaurant nearby. You’ll come across various restaurants but will only check one with a high rating and positive reviews. Therefore, if your business has a high rating on Google, netizens will surely click on your website to see what your business is about. |
| Search engine | To put it humbly, Google is on top of the global search engines and dominates all the other search engines. So much so that 86.19% percent market share of all the searches by a desktop are by Google. This makes it more important to create your business on Google Business Profile. |
But, there may be a few instances when your Google review not showing up might give you a headache. Don’t worry; it’s a problem that has been lately faced by many people.
How long does it take for a Google review to show up?
Wondering why is the google review not showing up. Or maybe it has disappeared out of existence? A client might have emailed you about a review they have posted, but you can not see it. So, why is the review not showing up on google?
Whenever someone posts a review on Google, it will show up publicly within 24 hours. The data of the review typically takes 7 days to appear. Google servers might glitch and not show a review for a week. However, if it’s been longer than that and the Google review not showing up is still a problem, then you might be facing an issue.
Why do my Google reviews not show up?
As a business owner, are you scratching your head over why my google review not showing up?
There are several reasons why the review is not showing up on Google. One of the main reasons is; that it does not follow the criteria set by Google. Google has a set of guidelines that one must follow while posting a review. If a Google review does not meet the guidelines, then it’s more than likely to be flagged by Google’s filters.
Here are some reasons why your Google business review is not showing up.
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Google has detected the review from a fake Google account.
In order to boost the social presence of their business, some businesses choose to buy fake Google reviews. But, Google reviews should sincerely reflect an individual’s experience with the business. So, if Google deems a review to be dishonest and fake, it flags it as spam.
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Plus, if a customer posts a review using your business's IP address, Google will also flag it as spam, even if the review is completely genuine. This might happen if the reviewer is connected to your business’s free wifi. This is because Google’s AI will consider the review posted by current or former employees, thus marking it as fake.
This will not only delete the review but will also put your Google My Business profile at risk of being penalized.
On the other hand, if you’re a service (electrician, plumber, or roofer) who serves local customers and a review is posted from across the country, Google will immediately take action against it. This might be why the google review not showing up is an issue.
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The reviewer has tried to promote their business by leaving a link, email address, or any other indication of their business.
Why isn't my google review showing up?
Google does not allow reviewers to post links, URLs, email addresses, or coupons in their reviews. This is because these types of reviews are considered promotional by Google’s automated filters.
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Since Google reviews are genuine feedback regarding a specific business, posting promotional content taints the honesty of the review. This kind of review is removed by Google. In case the URLs were not promotional in nature, you can contact the author of the review and ask them to post it again with any links.
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The reviewers have left a review containing restricted content.
A reason for your google review not showing up is that Google closely monitors the content of the reviews and has a full right to delete your review if it contains promotional offers to restricted content, including:
- Alcohol
- Adult services
- Tobacco
- Guns
- Gambling
- Financial services
- Pharmaceuticals
- Health and medical devices
But, that's not the only concern Google might deem as restricted. Besides, there are several other things a Google might flag as restricted, such as if it contains obscenity or profanity.
If a review contains sexually explicit content and content that sexually exploits minors, then such a review will be deleted from Google. Moreover, a review containing offensive and/or derogatory language, obscene gestures, and profanity will be removed too.
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Google has detected the presence of illegal content in the review.
If you're wondering why a review is not showing up on Google, then it might be because it contains illegal content. Although laws of every area differ from one another, there are still some activities that are judged as illegal by Google, such as
- Content that is either produced by a terrorist organization or contains an indication of terrorism
- Promotion of illegal products and services, including illegal drugs, prescription drugs that are sold illegally, etc.
- Images, videos, or other content that potentially promotes physical violence, mental abuse, or sexual torture.
- Images, videos, or other types of content that violate the owner's copyrights and/or are posted without the owner's consent.
- Images or other content that contains highly dangerous illegal acts such as sexual assault, human trafficking, etc.
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You have suddenly received a large influx of Google reviews at one time.
Imagine a business with only 4-5 reviews suddenly receives 15 reviews overnight. Sounds suspicious, doesn't it? Google thinks so too!
Google is always on the lookout for any suspicious activity or anything that might look out of the blue. While you might want to boost your social presence with more reviews, a large influx of them in such a short time can cause Google to delete or moderate it.
Therefore, it's important for businesses to generate reviews organically and ask their clients to post a review consistently. Otherwise, you’ll be thinking, why isn't my google review showing up?
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The review might have contained dangerous or derogatory content.
Based on its judgments, Google will remove any review that it considers dangerous or derogatory content. For example, if a review contains content that instigates violence or threatens to harm oneself or someone else, then Google will remove it immediately.
Furthermore, content that tries to bully, humiliate, harass or intimidate an individual or organization is also reported by Google. There are several types of content that are characterized as derogatory by Google, such as; content that promotes hatred or discrimination against a certain race, religion, ethnicity, age, nationality, disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other types of systematic marginalization.
Plus, if you find such activity in a review and it’s not removed, you can report the review yourself. What happens when you report a google review? Google will review your request.
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Google has removed the review because of bad grammar and misspelled words or a review that is 100% grammatically correct.
As strange as it may sound, yes, it actually happens. Google reserves the right to make judgments regarding your reviews and delete/moderate reviews that either seem too perfect or too suspicious.
If you think about it, it's actually a clever way to filter out spam reviews by Google's artificial intelligence. For instance, if a review has too many incoherent sentences, the review could potentially look illegitimate. If this type of review gets published, it could harm your company's listing.
On the other hand, if a review is 100% perfect and seems like it was written by, well, a robot, then Google's foolproof system will deem it as fake.
This is because each and every review should meet Google's quality criteria; otherwise, Google's clever system will filter out all the fake, spam reviews.
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The review was posted from a newly-made Google account.
You may try to gain an advantage over a competitor by buying more reviews to improve your rank in Google’s listings.
For you, it's just a way to boost your business and market it in society. But, for Google, it is an unfair way to reach the top of the rank. Therefore, Google will immediately remove such reviews that may seem suspicious.
Source: Unsplash
Google is likely to remove a review if the author of the profile recently created their account. Google also reserves the right to single out and delete the reviews that seem like they were posted by a fake Google account with no profile picture, name or history, or even a review before. You can always ask your customers to leave a review. Interestingly, 68% of consumers will leave a review if the business asks them to do so.
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The review contains a political statement or content that is off-topic.
Google reviews are all about the genuine experience of people with the business. They are posted to help other individuals gain knowledge about a certain group or organization and help them in making the final decision of their purchase.
Another answer to your google review not showing up is the presence of a political statement. Adding a political comment to a review seems unnecessary and a harmful way to spark a heated discussion in the comments section. This takes away from the purpose of Google reviews. Therefore, Google removes any review that strays off topic. This might be why is the Google business review not showing up.
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The review is not deleted by Google but delayed.
Maybe it really is a glitch, and the review did not stray from the official guidelines set by Google. Unfortunately, Google servers have often faced this issue where a published review does not appear for several days. You get an email notification of a review, you open it, and there’s nothing.
In that case, don’t be too worried. A review is delayed, but it will surely be published. It can sit in moderation for a few days/week and will ultimately be published on your Google Business Profile.
Now that you have received the answer, why is my google review not showing up? Let’s move on to the next part; how to flag or report reviews.
What if I am missing reviews that are legitimate?
Here comes another question: What should I do if the review has followed all the guidelines yet the google business review is not showing up?
There is not much to be done in that regard. However, you can issue a complaint and post about it Google Business Profile community. Google reviews disappearing into thin air have happened a lot of times.
As we have mentioned above, this is an instance that usually takes place due to a glitch. If you're still unable to recover the review, well, there is not much else you can do except ask the customer to post the review again and hope that the review is published this time.
How do I delete fake reviews?
You can not delete your reviews. But there are certain actions you can take if you smell something suspicious. For instance, you might believe that a review has been negatively published to tarnish the reputation of your business. Maybe it was published by a competitor, causing a conflict of interest. Or you might think that a review is posted by a fake account.
Regardless of the reason, here are the few steps you can take to remove the review:
Flag the review.
Flagging the review means marking it as spam. All you have to do is click on the flag icon on the specific review. This will direct you to “Report a policy violation.” Here, you can submit the violation, and Google will judge whether the review follows the guidelines or not.
So, what happens when you report a google review?
Google will review your request and decide for itself if the review violates its guidelines or not. In case it does not, and Google denies your request, take the next step.
Fake Review Removal
In case Google rejects your request, you can take this issue to Google My Business help section. In this section, you can write in detail the issue that you are facing and provide your contact details. A Google representative will soon contact you to resolve the issue.
Key Takeaway
Google reviews can make or break a business. Besides boosting your online exposure and helping you with local SEO for free, Google reviews engage customers and bridge the communication gap between the company and the customers. There are a lot of ways Google reviews can help a business. However, there might some instances when you encounter a problem with google review not showing up.
It’s extremely frustrating as a business owner to find that your reviews have been disappearing. If your Google listing is not generating more reviews, it can impact your rating on Google. On the other hand, a staggering number of reviews can work wonders for your business's marketing. There are several answers to why the review is not showing up on google. This article enlists all the possible reasons.
A review must meet Google's review policy, and if it fails to do so, the review will be immediately removed by Google. If a review, following all the guidelines, still does not show up, you can report the problem to Google. You can also remove reviews that you think are from fake Google accounts.
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