Why your Google reviews disappeared, and what you can do.

Work out which kind of disappearance you have

The pattern of what vanished usually points to the cause. Start with what you saw:

• One new review never appeared: it is probably still being checked, or the filter stopped it.
• One or two older reviews went: the filter removed them, or the reviewer edited or deleted them.
• Several reviews from the same week went together: they arrived as a burst, or were tied to an offer.
• Most or all of them went at once: a restriction on the profile, a category change, a merge or a problem on Google's side.
• They went after you changed the name, the address or the category: the profile went back through checks.

Then rule out the simple explanations before you change anything. This guide is about genuine reviews that went missing. For fake ones you want taken down, see how to remove fake Google reviews.

Check what customers see

What you see while signed in to the business account is not always what customers see. Look at the profile the way a customer would:

• Search for the business name in a private browser window, signed out, and open the reviews.
• Open the profile in the Google Maps app on a phone that is not signed in to the business account.
• Compare the count on Search with the count on Maps, and write both down with the date.

If a customer says their review has gone, ask them to look at their own Google Maps profile, where their reviews are listed. Google says removed content may still show there, marked "Not posted", "Private", "Not accepted" or similar. That label tells you the review was removed rather than lost, and that the customer can still act on it.

It is still being checked

Google checks reviews against its policies before they appear, and says this can take a few days. During that time the review exists, it just is not public yet.

Give it a week before you chase. Do not ask the customer to post it again in the meantime: a second copy of the same review is the kind of repetition Google's policy treats as spam.

If it still has not appeared, ask the customer which Google account they were signed in to. A review posted from a work account or a partner's phone shows under that account, and the customer may be looking for it in the wrong place.

Google's spam filter removed it

Google says it uses a mix of people and automated systems to find fake reviews, and that it aims to catch them before anyone sees them. Its policy names the signs it looks for, and genuine reviews can trip over the same ones:

• Unusual posting volumes or patterns, such as many reviews in a short time.
• Several accounts controlled by one person.
• Reviews from people with a conflict of interest, such as current or former staff.
• Reviews given in return for an incentive.

Google admits the filter gets it wrong at times. Its help says automated spam detection may occasionally remove legitimate reviews, and asks owners to contact support when that happens. Have the date and the reviewer's public name ready. A clinic or a law firm should say only that a review was removed in error, without confirming who the reviewer is or what they came in for.

Owners often blame the shop Wi-Fi. Google does not say it filters reviews by network, so treat that as a guess. Yelp is different: its alerts name large numbers of reviews from one IP address as suspicious. The safe habit suits both: customers post from their own phones, in their own time, and never on a tablet at your counter.

You asked everyone at once

A common way to lose genuine reviews: the owner reads that reviews matter, exports the customer list and emails everyone on one evening. Thirty reviews arrive in two days after months of quiet, and a week later several of them have gone.

From the outside, a heap of reviews after months of nothing looks like the unusual pattern Google's policy describes, whoever wrote them. The fix is the steady version of the same idea: ask each customer when their job ends, so reviews arrive a few at a time all year. How to get more Google reviews covers the asking, and an automation can send the request after each finished job.

If you still want to reach past customers, spread it out: a small batch each week, most recent customers first, and nobody asked twice.

The reviews were tied to an offer

A discount for a review, a prize draw for everyone who posts, a free coffee for showing a review at the till: Google treats these as fake engagement and removes the reviews, whatever they say. It makes no difference that the customer was genuinely happy.

It can go further than removal. Google can restrict the profile: no new reviews or ratings for a set period, existing reviews unpublished for a set period, and a warning telling customers that fake reviews were removed. Google says it emails the owner before it applies a restriction, so if your reviews vanished all at once, look for that email first.

What to do: stop the offer everywhere it appears, including signs, receipts and old email templates, and tell your staff. Then appeal the restriction through the form linked from Google's help, saying what you have changed. The reviews removed because of the offer will not come back. The review request rules set out what to do instead.

You changed the profile

Google reviews edits before they go live, and some edits send the whole profile back through checks. Its help says a business that changes its name after verification might need to verify again, and one that moves to a new address must verify again. Three situations catch owners out:

• A rebrand that Google sees as a new business. Its guidelines say a rename that does not meet the rebranding criteria means marking the old profile closed and creating a new one, and a new profile starts with none of the old reviews. Read the criteria before you rename.
• A suspension and reinstatement. Google's help says reviews can sometimes be removed after a profile is reinstated, and asks owners to contact support if it happens.
• A category. Google has removed reviews entirely from profiles whose main category is a school for students aged 6 to 18, and turned new reviews off for them. Universities, day care centres and swim schools are excluded. If you run one of the tutoring centres or schools this affects, check that your main category describes what you really are.

Google also says it may temporarily switch off reviews for certain profiles or business categories to protect owners. If every business in your trade nearby lost its reviews at the same time, that may be the reason, and there is nothing to fix on your side.

Two profiles became one, or yours was a duplicate

A business can end up with two profiles without anyone meaning to: an old one from a previous address, one a former manager created, one made from a customer's suggestion. Google hides duplicates from Search and Maps, so reviews written on a duplicate do not show to customers at all. What you do next decides what happens to them:

• Merging: you ask Google to combine the profiles by reporting the duplicate through Google Maps, and Google reviews every merge request. After a merge, reviews from both can take a few days to show, and Google warns that replies to reviews may be lost.
• Removing: if you delete a duplicate you created by mistake, its content goes with it, reviews included.

Before you delete a duplicate profile, check whether it has reviews. If it does, ask for a merge instead, or the reviews are deleted with it.

A problem on Google's side

Sometimes reviews vanish from many businesses at once and come back days later. Before you change anything, check whether it is only you:

• Look at two or three competitors and neighbouring businesses. If their counts dropped on the same day, it is not your profile.
• Search Google's Business Profile Help Community for posts from the same days.
• Note the counts each morning for a few days.

If it is a wider problem, wait. Asking customers to post again only creates duplicates, and editing your profile adds a check of its own on top of the problem.

When a customer says their review never appeared

A customer may write to say they left a review and cannot see it. A short answer helps them and keeps you within the rules:

"Thank you for writing it. Google checks reviews before they go up, which can take a few days. If it still is not showing next week, you can see its status in your Google Maps profile, and Google lets you edit and repost it, or appeal if it was removed."

What the customer can do, according to Google's help:

• Check that they were signed in, and update the Maps app if their phone is old.
• Look up the review's status in their own Maps profile.
• Edit and repost it, if it was removed and they think Google got it wrong.
• Appeal the removal from their Maps profile. Each removal can be appealed once, within a year, and editing or deleting the review afterwards cancels the appeal.

What you must not do: write the review for them, post it from your own device or account, or offer anything for a second attempt. Each of those turns a genuine review into one Google is right to remove.

What comes back, and what is gone

• Still being checked: it appears by itself after a few days.
• Hidden by a merge: it reappears once the merge settles.
• A display problem on Google's side: it returns when Google fixes it.
• Removed by the filter in error: contact Business Profile support, and ask the customer to appeal from their Maps profile.
• Removed because of an offer, staff reviews or bought reviews: gone. Google says removed reviews are not restored, so fix the cause.
• Unpublished under a restriction: Google describes this as lasting a set period, so wait it out or appeal.
• On a deleted duplicate, or on a school profile in the affected categories: gone.

Keep a record before you need it

Support can only look into reviews you can point to, and once a review has gone you cannot open it to copy the details. A record kept as you go makes that conversation short:

• Once a month, note the total on Search and on Maps.
• Keep a simple list of new reviews: the reviewer's public name, the date, the star rating and the first line.
• Save a screenshot of any review you would hate to lose, such as a detailed one about a big job.
• Note anything you changed on the profile that month, and any email from Google about it.

When reviews vanish, the list tells you which ones went, when, and what changed around the same time. Those are the first things support will ask.

How to keep the next ones

• Ask every customer when their job ends, so reviews arrive steadily.
• Let customers post from their own phones, in their own time.
• Offer nothing for a review, and keep staff and family out of it.
• Make profile edits deliberately, one at a time, and keep the name on the profile the same as the one on your sign.
• Merge duplicates instead of deleting them.
• Write down the review count on the first of every month, so you notice a drop the week it happens.

If keeping that count sounds like a chore, our Growth plan includes a monthly look at your Google results and reviews in plain words; the details are on the prices page.