Google is proving good on its word when it said it would display a warning informing consumers that fake reviews have been removed from a business profile that was breaking its latest business profile violations.
I wrote about Google updating its restrictions on business profile violations, mentioning that one restriction, in particular, could have a devastating effect.
That restriction now appears in the UK.
Fake review warning on UK business profile
Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Roundtable was the first to report a fake Google review notice on a Google Maps business profile in the UK.
In what might be a first, Google is now placing the “Suspected fake reviews were recently removed from this place” warning on UK Google Business Profile listings when it believes some reviews are fake.
Here’s Mike’s post on X showing Google’s notice:
The red triangular warning icon next to it really catches the eye!
Profile violation restriction recap
Google said its updated restrictions for policy violations will sanction business profiles using fake or incentivized reviews.
Google said upon releasing the update:
- “If we determine that a business owner has violated its Fake Engagement policy, we might place restrictions on their Business Profile (in addition to removing the violative reviews).”
Those restrictions on businesses that Google believes are violating its Fake Engagement policy included:
- Business Profile will not be able to receive new reviews or ratings for a set period of time.
- Business Profile’s existing reviews or ratings will be unpublished for a set period of time.
- Business Profile will display a warning to let consumers know that fake reviews were removed.
In my previous post on Google’s new restrictions, I mentioned that warnings about fake reviews could devastate businesses Google believes are using them.
Now, seeing it live on a Google Maps business profile, I don`t think I was being over dramatic.
Policy violation restrictions remove legitimate reviews
As a local business owner who ran a guest house and relied on my guests’ honest Google My Business profile reviews, I understand how crucial customer reviews are to a local business’ success.
Mike spotted this in the UK and posted it on a local search forum where many other local business owners shared stories about how Google’s new restrictions are affecting their businesses.
Kyleekay wrote this about her recent experience:
- “Our profile was reinstated a few days ago after being suspended and going through the appeal process. Suddenly today all 301 of our reviews have been completely wiped out. They were all legitimate customers with genuine experiences, many posted photos with the review. How can we get them back? We didn’t receive any policy violation notice either; we just searched for our business and saw that every single review was gone.”
Another local business owner not only had their genuine reviews removed, but Google also reinstated 12 fake reviews!
MMMdotcom wrote:
- “Google support restored 1 missing review. Also pushed live 12 previously removed 1-star spam reviews.
All the 1-star reviews were spam (from outside the US, a competitor, the wrong business, etc.), and we worked with support to remove them over the last few years. They are now all live again.”
Google’s response to reinstating the fake reviews seems to contradict its policy violations:
- “We’ve now reinstated the reviews that don’t violate Google’s policies. We’ve found a few reviews that violate our policies, so we didn’t reinstate them.”
A bumpy road ahead
Whether those business owners had broken a Google profile violation is hard to know.
But let’s say they hadn’t, and the violation was because of one of Google’s policy violation gray areas! If so, many local businesses could be in for a bumpy ride.
As Google wrote:
- “We take fake and/or incentivized reviews and ratings on businesses very seriously.”
Hopefully, Google will also take “reinstating genuine reviews very seriously” because honest local business owners need them to drive traffic to their websites and shoppers through their doors.
When he is not writing content, Terry can be found on his boat in Italy or chilling in his villa in Spain.
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