Google Removed All Anonymous Reviews from GMB Listings with No Warning

[HammerandHand]

I just saw that Google is no longer accepting anonymous reviews for businesses, and in fact have REMOVED all current anonymous reviews. This just happened in late May, but I'm pretty surprised there hasn't been any talk about this, it's a pretty big deal.

Before I knew this I called their "specialists" to ask why we lost so many reviews. I specifically asked if Google had changed their review requirements that would result in old reviews being removed. She said no. She's either not well informed or just lied.

https://orthopreneur.com/anonymous-google-reviews-disappeared/

My company just lost 20+ positive reviews. Anyone else hurting from the change and finding solutions?

[swathij]

@HammerandHand We lost 5-6 genuine customer reviews. Google has not restored them. Multiple support emails are not helping. We are a financial company, and all the reviews came from real clients. But Google removed them without any notification. How can we stop this or get a copy of the reviews? The Google GMB team will never give specific answers about what the customer reviews have violated from their rules.

[PR-ReviewInc]

Thanks for the post Laura,

Here's an interesting article that talks about this topic and how fake reviews tie into the motive
https://blog.reviewinc.com/2018/07/24/fake-reviews-latest-news-you-should-know/

[MiriamEllis]

Just wanted to update this thread with a little note that I've created a blog post about this very topic, published this afternoon on the Moz Blog: https://moz.com/blog/lost-anonymous-google-reviews

[MiriamEllis]

I totally understand, Laura. It's really dreadful to see your hard-earned reviews just disappear, at the stroke of a pen from Google!

Something I hope will help to think about ... it's consistently found by surveys that well over 1/2 of customers will leave reviews if asked. It's just finding the best way to ask that's the challenge. If your consumer segment is particularly tough, you might want to consider checking out software like GetFiveStars, that will help you systematize review acquisition.

[HammerandHand]

Thanks Miriam. After seeing our competitors have suffered the same fate (some worse than us) I have calmed down a bit. I understand the reasoning behind removing old anonymous reviews but to do it without any notice just seems wrong.

It's tough for some businesses - for example we have a small number of clients per year, not thousands like a restaurant or coffee shop - and many of them are incredibly private people. Getting them to write online reviews is difficult. Seeing the ones we were able to get from clients over the years disappearing like that was a bit devastating.

We don't like to bug our clients with requests for reviews but looks like we're going to have to!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Pau,

Thanks for contributing to this thread.

I do want to offer a very serious warning against ever buying reviews. Doing so can lead to:

1. Legal action against the brand

2. Public humiliation and irreversible brand damage

3. Removal of local business listings

Purchasing reviews is an act that has the intention of deceiving the public. It's not an honest business practice, and any potential reward will never be worth the risk of lawsuits and loss of the public's trust.

The good news is, good businesses need never purchase reviews. Deliver a quality experience to customers, follow the guidelines of the various platforms as to how you can/can't ask for reviews, and you should be just fine.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Laura,

I agree with you that there hasn't been a ton of buzz surrounding this. I'd put it down to the fact that when Google makes a decision like this, there's nothing you can really do about it. You can't get the reviews back. What a pain, I know. My suggestions:

1. Be sure you have an active review acquisition strategy in place so that you are continually earning reviews at a moderate pace.

2. Be sure you are earning reviews beyond Google on the other platforms your customers are most likely to use.

These are the best insurance policies I know of in an environment in which Google can make policy changes at the drop of a hat.

[paupastorlopez]

Hi Laura,

as the article says, "There is nothing that business owners can do about the removal of anonymous reviews. This is an update that Google made to its core algorithm. It was not a selective penalty levied against a small number of businesses.".

What you can do about this is ask your clients for reviews if they are satisfied with your service or product, you can also offer an incentive so that more customers are encouraged to leave a review.

Here you can see some interesting articles about it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+get+google+reviews+from+customers&rlz=1C1CHBD_esES777ES777&oq=way+to+get+google+reviews+f&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.8463j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

If you can't get reviews this way, I suggest the possibility of buying reviews, but be careful with this it can be risky. If you want to do it, do it natural, buy from real people with reputation on Google that live near your business.

But better try to get real reviews from your clients.

Hope that helps, best wishes!

[Seenlyst]

Hey there,

I think the best thing you could do now is to have a strategy to ask for a review from your existing clients

and to be honest anonymous review doesn't carry much credibility either.