Did you recently notice a minor or major drop in your Google review count, and then realize that some of your actual reviews had gone missing, too? Read on to see if your experience of removal review was part of the action Google took in late May surrounding anonymous reviews.
Q: What happened?
A: As nearly as I can pinpoint it, Google began discounting reviews left by “A Google User” from total review counts around May 23, 2018. For a brief period, these anonymous reviews were still visible, but were then removed from display. I haven’t seen any official announcement about this, to date, and it remains unclear as to whether all reviews designated as being from “A Google User” have been removed, or whether some still remain. I haven’t been able to discover a single one since the update.
Q: How do I know if I was affected by this action?
A: If, prior to my estimated date, you had reviews that had been left by profiles marked “A Google User,” and these reviews are now gone, that’s the diagnostic of why your total review count has dropped.
Q: The reviews I’ve lost weren’t from “A Google User” profiles. What happened?
A: If you’ve lost reviews from non-anonymous profiles, it’s time to investigate other causes of removal. These could include:
- Having paid for or incentivized reviews, either directly or via an unethical marketer
- Reviews stemming from a review station/kiosk at your business
- Getting too many reviews at once
- URLs, prohibited language, or other objectionable content in the body of reviews
- Reviewing yourself, or having employees (past or present) do so
- Reviews were left on your same IP (as in the case of free on-site Wi-Fi)
- The use of review strategies/software that prohibit negative