Google reviews not showing up? Here’s how to fix it in 2023.

If you’ve noticed that your Google reviews aren’t showing up, don’t worry – there are a few potential reasons and simple solutions to get them back. In this blog post, we’ll uncover the 12 reasons why your online reviews may not be appearing and tips on how to fix missing Google reviews quickly. With this knowledge in hand, you can continue to get valuable customer feedback by leveraging Google reviews.

What is Google’s review policy?

Google’s review policy is designed to provide people with honest, unbiased feedback about products and services. Google reviews are automatically processed to detect and scan in order to adhere to predetermined guidelines. Google only allows reviews from verified customers, meaning users must have purchased a product or service directly from the company. 

Furthermore, reviews must include details about the customer’s experience in order to be posted. Google also prohibits anonymous reviews, solicitations for compensation in exchange for a review, hate speech, and other forms of abuse or manipulation. According to Google, in most cases, missing reviews are due to policy violations.  

12 Reasons why Google reviews are not showing up and how to fix it

It can be really frustrating if some of your customer reviews are missing from Google. Your review counts matters, and each review you have can influence potential customers to trust your company.

There are twelve main reasons why this might happen, but we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll explain why your Google reviews may not be showing up and show you how to get them back.

So, why aren’t your Google reviews not showing up? Well, It’s possible that there may be issues with your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business or GMB)  that are preventing your reviews from showing up. The following are the top three listing issues that may be causing disappearing Google reviews. 

1. Inaccurate listing information 

Incorrect listing information can not only hurt your SEO, won’t just hurt your local SEO efforts. It can also reduce the number of reviews your company gets from customers.

Luckily, there’s an easy fix. You can edit your information in your Google Business Profile.

Here’s how to fix inaccurate listing information:

1. First, Log into your Google account.
2. Find the location or listing you want to edit and click “View profile.”
3. Then select Business information and find the selection you want to edit.
4. Select the pencil icon to add or edit information.
5. Finally, make the edits you need and click “Apply.”

Once you’ve updated your business information, you’ll be more likely to see more reviews displayed on your listings, as your customers will know that this is your authentic profile when they want to leave a review.

2. Duplicate Business Listings 

Having multiple Google Business Listings might also be why you’re not seeing the reviews you’re expecting. Your customers might accidentally leave reviews in the duplicate listings when they should be leaving them on your primary business listing.

To solve this problem, you’ll need to remove any duplicate listings you have. 

Here’s how to remove duplicate listings:

1. First, log into your  Business Profile Manager.
2. Next, go to Manage locations.
3. From there, check the boxes for any duplicate listings you want to be removed.
4. Then click “Actions” and Remove location.

3. Inactive listings

If you’ve been logged out of your Google My Business Listing for a while, there’s a chance that Google might have unverified your business listing.

In fact, Google says it will un-verify business listings if companies are inactive on their Google My Business Page for more than six months.

Suppose you’ve lost verification on your business listings. In that case, it’s important that you regain your verification not only to collect reviews but also so that you can edit your Google Business listing and respond to Google reviews.

The solution: Contact Google support to re-verify your business.

Now, let’s talk about issues with the reviews themselves.  

If the issue isn’t with your Business Page, chances are it’s an issue with the review itself. If a review violates Google’s policies, it will be removed.  Let’s run through the next five common reasons why a Google review might get removed. 

4. Reviews from current or former employees 

Remember, Google reviews are meant to represent the genuine experiences of your customers. If a review comes from a current or former employee, it will be deleted because Google will assume it’s biased. 

The solution: Don’t request reviews from your employees. Save it for your customers.

5. Reviews with links and URLs 

This one is simple but can cause some issues. Google doesn’t allow reviews to have any outbound links to other websites. If they do, they’ll be removed.

The solution: In your review request, advise your customers not to include links in their reviews. 

6. You’ve been paying for/ incentivizing reviews 

Reviews that were paid for or incentivized are a big red flag for Google. Under no circumstances should you be buying Google reviews. 

If you’ve been paying for or incentivizing reviews, you’ll have your reviews deleted. Even worse, Google will penalize your company in search rankings.

The solution: NEVER buy Google reviews, no matter how tempting this may be.

7. Profanity in Google review 

Google doesn’t tolerate profanity of any kind in written reviews. If the review has any profane language, it will be removed.

The solution: Encourage customers to refrain from using profanity in their reviews.

8. User deleted Google review

It’s also possible that, for whatever reason, the customer decided to delete their own Google review.

The solution: This can be frustrating, but you can remedy this by contacting the customer directly and asking why they deleted the review. It may have been a mistake, and you can get their review reposted.

The next two examples may be outliers that don’t happen very often but are still possible explanations for missing reviews on Google.

9. There could be a bug with Google

It’s not very common, but your Google reviews may not be showing up because of a bug on Google’s end, just like what happened recently when Google pushed several new changes live at once to the Business Profile.

The solution: If you think this is happening to you, you need to contact Google support.

Take note of the problems you’re having so you can bring them to Google’s customer service support team right away. You’ll want to give your old and new CID numbers to Google – this is the unique ID that Google assigns to a business location to identify it within its systems and explain in detail the issue you’re having in the GBP Support Form to have your reviews reinstated.

10. Your business isn’t opened to the public yet

If you have an upcoming opening date for your company that has yet to open to the public, Google will automatically remove any reviews left by customers before opening to the public. 

The solution: Wait until you are open to the public before requesting reviews from your customers. 

These last two examples are why your online reviews might be delayed in showing up. 

11. Older operating systems might be causing issues leaving a review

If you have customers that are leaving a review on old devices and operating systems, then there are likely to be some issues with their reviews not appearing right away. 

The solution: Recommend to your customers that they update their operating system and Google Maps app on their smartphone or tablet. 

12. Your Google Profiles have recently merged

If you and your customer experience a specific review taking a lot longer to appear on Google Search and/or Google Maps, it could be because Google Profiles are merged. If this is the case, it will most likely be resolved in a few days, according to Google.

Use missing Google reviews as an opportunity 

When your Google reviews disappear, don’t stress. Now you know why it might have happened and how to fix it. So, let this be an opportunity to motivate your company to collect more reviews from your customers. 

So how can you collect more Google reviews? Send review requests to your customers via text and email with a custom short link to your Google My Business profile. Chances are that your customers will be happy to give you more feedback. 
Check out our article on how to get more Google reviews in 5 steps.

FAQs about Google reviews not showing up

Start managing your Google reviews with Birdeye 

You might have two reviews or two hundred. No matter where your company stands, Birdeye is here to make things easier. We’ve helped over 100,000 businesses get more reviews from their happy customers and build a strong online reputation on a single, easy-to-use platform. 

Originally published Jan 09, 2023