Google Business Reviews Not Showing Up: Why And What To Do?

What if your Google business reviews not showing up? Perhaps one of your five-star Google reviews has disappeared or gone missing, causing your star rating to drop. This article, Audiencegain discusses Google’s review policies and provides an overview of some of the typical reasons why Google reviews may not appear as expected.

Read more: Buy Google Reviews | 100% Cheap & Secure

1. What are Google reviews?

Google Customer Reviews is a service that allows businesses to collect reviews on their websites. You must have a Google Merchant account to participate in the Google Customer Reviews program.

Google does most of the hard work by collecting customer feedback for you. To gather feedback, Google will send your customers an email asking if they want to provide feedback on their experience with your brand. Customers who choose to participate will receive a short survey form to fill out.

Customer ratings and reviews in surveys will likely show up on your website and other marketing platforms. In addition, they also help determine the seller rating that Google gives sellers, including the average star rating and the number of ratings. The higher the rating, the more trustworthy the seller.

Replacing the recently discontinued Trusted Stores program, Google customer reviews are a great way to demonstrate to potential customers that you’ll live up to your promises so they can trust you.

Concept of reviews on Google

2. Why are Google customer reviews important?

If you’re wondering whether you should be interested in Google Customer Reviews program, let us give you three important reasons why you should.

Help build social proof

Winning the trust of your customers is one of the essential elements to growing and running a successful e-commerce business. That’s what Google Customer Reviews will help you do.

You can use your collected customer reviews to build social proof and gain new customers’ trust. Social proof simply means proof that people trust that you have provided them with a positive shopping experience. This makes other customers feel more comfortable when shopping. As such, this has a positive impact on your conversion rate.

You can build social proof, add a Google-branded badge on your website, and help drive conversions when participating in the Google Customer Reviews program.

Use your collected customer reviews to build social proof and gain

Help build better brands and products

Besides helping you win the trust of your customers, Google Customer Reviews are also a great way to get feedback from your customers. Thanks to this feedback, you can improve your product or service offering, build your brand, and create a buying journey that your customers will love.

Boost your local SEO

You can leverage Google Customer Reviews to boost your local SEO. Search engines, especially Google, want to serve businesses most relevant in local search. To do so, they need to look at what your brand does.

Most importantly, they appreciate the opinions of people who have had direct experience with you. That’s where Google Customer Reviews come in. They help search engines know which businesses to recommend to users. Google will reward brands with good reviews by ranking them higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Customer reviews via Google also help users decide which brands to do business with. You need more positive reviews than your competitors to get a fair share of the business.

Ignoring the Google Customer Reviews section can deprive you of the opportunity to bring more to your business and marketing. Studies have shown that 87% of people read online reviews when researching local businesses.

Important reasons for the Google customer review program

You may also like: Details Guide – How To Write A Google Review?

3. What is the review policy at Google?

For reviews, Google will have strict policies for including customer reviews on its platform buy reviews for Google. Two guidelines affecting missing Google reviews are Prohibited and Restricted Content and Format Specific Criteria for reviews and text annotations.

3.1 Prohibited and restricted content

Google has a set of Prohibited and Restricted Content policies that apply to reviews. Google analyzes all reviews and determines which reviews may be removed for reasons such as offensive language, fake reviews, spam, or conflicts of interest.

If you’ve seen one of Google business reviews not showing up, it’s possible that the review violated this Google policy.

If Google finds any off-topic or inappropriate reviews, they will flag them and take them down because they don’t comply with their policies.

There are several Prohibited and Restricted Content regulations on Google

3.2 Format-specific criteria for text reviews and captions

In addition to Prohibited and Restricted Content, Google has set Format-Specific Criteria, including “reviews with text and annotations”, that can determine the eligibility of a review.

For example, you can’t selectively solicit positive reviews, actively discourage negative reviews, or pay for other reviews.

So have you ever wondered “Why my Google business reviews are not showing up?” It’s possible that you’re violating some of these examples from Google’s Format-Specific Criteria.

Let’s go through this list of all the reasons why Google business reviews not showing up so you can accurately diagnose your particular situation.

Google has set Format-Specific Criteria and determines the eligibility of a review

4. Why is Google review not showing up?

When Google business reviews not showing up, it means you’ve made a mistake that needs to be fixed, or the reviewer itself violated policy.

Here are some common reasons why Google business reviews not showing up: 

4.1 Links in embedded Google reviews

When adding URLs and links to reviews, Google has strict guidelines. Reviews with URLs are deleted almost immediately. Because Google considers reviews with URLs in them to be spam.

If you see a review that uses the link and hasn’t been removed, try to contact the customer and ask them to edit their review to remove the link before it is removed by Google.

4.2 Review on Google marked as spam

Google’s top priority is quality, so they are very strict about removing any spam reviews. For a review to not be considered spam, it must comply with Google’s review policies on Prohibited and Restricted content. Additionally, Google also flags reviews flagged as spam by others.

Google has flagged a review as spam

4.3 Fake reviews on Google

Reviews created from profiles without names, photos, and other important details have been flagged as fake reviews by Google because Google wants to maintain transparency and authenticity.

In many cases, fake reviews are sent when a business purchases Google reviews. In such cases, most of these reviews were generated by bots that used fake profiles.

As a result, buying Google business reviews not showing up can lead to serious problems with your business’s appearance on Google. Those reviews can even get your Google Business Profile removed.

4.4 Reviews on Google are momentarily disabled

In the past when traffic was too high and Google limited its team members, they had to temporarily disable Google Business Profile reviews for a period of time. This comes at the start of an ongoing global health pandemic where Google has temporarily disabled reviews.

In such times, missing reviews is a common occurrence. Furthermore, customers won’t be able to leave new reviews and you won’t be able to reply to any existing reviews.

Google has temporarily disabled reviews

4.5 Your business has just been added to Google

If your business is new to Google, customers may need to learn more about your Google Business Profile because it may not yet be ranked highly and is difficult to find.

Therefore, increasing marketing efforts to attract more customers is essential now. The more customers you attract, the more reviews you get.

4.6 Google business page is down

If you haven’t been able to update your Google Business Profile for a long time and customers are no longer interacting with it, the verified business is not showing on Google search.

Furthermore, Google will disable Business Profiles that lose their eligibility status. Unverified businesses will need help to rank on Google Maps or Google Search. As a result, existing or new reviews left by your customers will not be publicly visible.

The profile won’t show up when not updated for a long time

4.7 Reviewer’s account disabled

Sometimes, past reviews will be lost if the customer who wrote the review has had their personal Google account disabled. This can happen if they have violated Google’s policies or even intentionally.

For security reasons, people can deactivate their previous accounts through Google’s Inactive Account Manager. All user data, including their reviews, will be deleted when this happens.

The account of the Reviewer is inactive

4.8 Duplicate Google business profile

When there are duplicate listings, including those accidentally or intentionally, Google will remove one of them. So if your Google Business Profile shows up as duplicates, your business’s reviews may appear on a different listing instead of the active one.

To check if your business is duplicated, search for your business through Google and if found, you can fix it by reporting it as a duplicate.

4.9 Businesses change location

In most cases, when Google moves all reviews to a new location on Google Maps your business has been moved, but sometimes this may not happen.

For businesses like restaurants and hotels with strong local connections, it’s possible that Google will only automatically transfer reviews.

In such cases, contact Google for assistance with this issue. While it may take a while for them to process the change, transferring your business’s reviews is worth your time and effort.

To avoid any problems, if your business has changed locations, proactively update your business’s address on your Google Business Profile. This may require your business to re-verify its business.

When Google moves all reviews to a new location on Google Maps your business has been moved

5. Why do local businesses need Google reviews?

Google reviews are really important because they provide valuable feedback about local businesses. Google uses this feedback to improve its search algorithm and deliver more relevant results to users.

Making businesses more visible in search results through Google reviews also helps promote local businesses. Plus, Google reviews can improve your business’s ranking on Google Maps, giving potential customers a better chance of finding your business when searching for related services or products.

Ultimately, Google business reviews not showing up will cost businesses more opportunities to interact with their customers and build strong relationships. Therefore, businesses should value customer feedback and be willing to improve by responding to them. So Google reviews are an integral part of any local business’s marketing strategy.

Google reviews are really important for local businesses

You may also like: What Happens When You Report A Google review?

6. Steps to fix Google my business reviews not showing

As Google has stated, most cases of Google business reviews not showing up anymore because of “policy violations like inappropriate content or spam”.

In principle, Google won’t reinstate reviews that violate policies, but you can defend yourself against violations if you think Google made a mistake in the first place.

For Google business reviews not showing up for other reasons, you can ask Google to use the same steps below as if you were reporting an incorrect policy violation.

If Google business reviews not showing up, you can fix the problem by taking the following steps:

• Step 1: Collect all evidence that new Google business reviews are not showing. This includes screenshots of reviews not showing up on your Google Business Profile.
• Step 2: If you recently restored your Google Business Profile, contact support and provide them with your profile number and recovery details to request a review transfer.
• Step 3: For Google Business Profiles that have not been paused recently, you’ll need to contact Google Support for assistance with your missing reviews.
• Step 4: If you are not satisfied with Google’s help, you can post your issue to the Google Business Pages Community to try to get the attention of Googlers.

How to fix Google reviews for my business that are not displaying

7. FAQ verified business not showing on Google search

How long does Google take to appear?

Google reviews are a valuable way for businesses to gather feedback and track customer satisfaction in detail. How long does it take for a Google business review not showing up?

The answer depends on many factors, including the number of recent reviews and whether the verified business not showing on Google search. Generally, most businesses should see their review appear within a few days.

Of course, there will always be exceptions, and some businesses may have to wait longer for their reviews to appear. But as long as businesses are patient, they can rest assured that their Google reviews will eventually show up.

Within a few days, most businesses will see their reviews appear

Google review: Do they last forever?

The answer is both yes and no. Once a customer leaves their review, it won’t be possible to change or delete it. However, Google has allowed customers to edit their reviews if their opinion changes or they make a mistake.

In addition, if a review is found to be in violation of Google’s policies, it may be removed immediately. While businesses may have little control over their Google reviews once posted, there’s still some opportunity for reviews to be modified or deleted over time.

Related articles:

• How Does Google Reviews Work | Things To Know
• What Is Google Review? The Newest Overview Of Google Review

Google business reviews not showing up, and many companies run into this regularly. However, simply perform the procedures outlined in the article to fix the problem. Always collect additional Google reviews to maintain your star rating and outperform your local competitors.

This will ensure you always have reviews, even if some disappear. Follow Audiencegain for more interesting updates.