Google has confirmed that a bug caused the recent Business Profiles review outage, saying it is aware of the issue and working to fix it.
Business Profile review outage
Last Friday, February 7, Google Business Profile reviews began disappearing from UK local listings on Google Search and Maps without notice, leaving many business owners relying on positive word-of-mouth customer reviews more than a little worried.
Business Profile owners reported various instances where reviews disappeared; the number of lost reviews varied, with many reporting a few missing reviews, others dozens, and in some cases, the reviews remained, but their review count didn’t add up.
Barry Schwartz, Executive Editor of Search Engine RoundTable, first reported the review outage when he wrote:
- “I am seeing a ton of complaints in the Google Business Profiles forums about reviews going missing. A lot of people are saying the review counts have dropped from one number to a lower number.”
Google has now confirmed the review outage was caused by a bug in their system.
Google confirms an internal bug
Google employee Victoria Kroll acknowledged the review outage on Google’s Business Profile Help page, reassuring those affected that Google is working to fix the problem and will update Business Profile owners on the progress.
Kroll also asked those with lost reviews to first read Google’s review guidelines, saying several reasons exist why Google removes reviews, indicating that policy violations might be the cause.
Victoria wrote:
“GBP Review Count Known Issue Update
- We’re aware of an issue affecting some Google Business Profiles, causing some profiles to show lower-than-actual review counts due to a display issue. The reviews themselves have not actually been removed. We’re working hard to resolve this and restore accurate review counts as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and will share updates on this thread as they become available.
Before reporting missing reviews, please note that there are several reasons why reviews may be removed from maps. Usually, missing reviews are removed for policy violations like spam or inappropriate content.
Read more about our Review policy guidelines here before proceeding. You can also refer to the Help Center Article for more information.”
Google’s clampdown on fake reviews
Google recently announced that it is working with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to remove fake reviews from UK business profiles, so there may be a connection—or perhaps it’s just a coincidence!
Google has yet to confirm or deny whether the recent changes to its review identification process contributed to the disappearing reviews.
No action required
Reviews are the lifeblood of many small companies, and they use their Google Business Profiles to promote their businesses on Search and Google Maps. These profiles include essential information like their location, opening hours, contact details, and, of course, those precious positive customer reviews.
For now, however, local listings with lost reviews can only sit, wait, and hope Google will fix the problem and restore all their hard-earned lost reviews.
