For several hours, many Google Business Profile owners have noticed an unexplained drop in the number of reviews displayed on their page. This is a Google bug that prevents some profiles from showing their actual review counts, causing concern among local businesses that rely on these reviews for reputation and visibility. Google is currently working on a fix.
Key takeaways:
- Google has confirmed a bug affecting the display of the number of reviews on Google Business Profile listings.
- The reviews themselves haven’t been deleted; it’s only a display issue.
- Google is working on a fix and warns that some reviews may be removed for violating the rules.
- Businesses should wait and avoid reporting “missing” reviews until the problem is resolved.
A worrying bug for local businesses
Customer reviews are a central element of local SEO on Google. They influence a business's credibility and play a major role in consumer choice. Since yesterday, several managers of Google Business Profile listings have noticed a sudden, unexplained decrease in the number of displayed reviews, sparking panic within the SEO community.
Faced with many questions, Victoria Kroll, a Google employee, officially acknowledged the issue last night:
“We are aware of an issue affecting some Google Business Profile listings, causing the display of a lower-than-accurate number of reviews due to a display problem. The reviews themselves have not been deleted. We are actively working to resolve this issue and restore accurate counts as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and will share updates on this thread as they become available.”
The reviews are still there, but temporarily invisible
Contrary to initial fears, Google assures that the reviews have not been deleted, but simply hidden by a display bug. This means that when a user leaves a comment, it is indeed recorded on Google's servers, but does not necessarily appear on the affected profile.
However, Victoria Kroll reminds us that there are several valid reasons why some reviews may disappear permanently, including for non-compliance with Google's rules. She therefore recommends that businesses read the review policies before reporting missing reviews.
Google is working on a fix, but no date has been announced
Google has not yet given a precise timeframe for resolving the issue, but promised to keep users informed. This type of incident underscores the importance for businesses of diversifying their review collection channels and not relying solely on Google.
Owners of Google Business Profile (GBP) listings are asked to be patient and to avoid submitting reports for missing reviews, as the issue could resolve automatically once the bug is fixed.
Stay tuned!
The article “Google Business Profile: an outage causes business reviews to disappear” was published on the site Abondance.
