Oh, Google. I had an article planned for a different topic, but that was before Google decided to do possibly the most Google thing imaginable – right on the heels of me criticizing their frustrating automated systems.
A few people alerted me to a very strange issue – on February 8 (and likely even before that), two clients noticed that their legitimate Google Business reviews were disappearing without any notice. One client had 15 reviews reduced to 5, another person lost nearly 100. A few other reports followed, with people rightly expressing a mixture of confusion and worry.
The concern is absolutely valid, as Google has confirmed directly that review sentiment on Google reviews is directly correlated with both logical and organic search engine prominence. There’s a reason why it’s not a coincidence that the places that appear high on Google Local search results tend to have a lot of positive reviews.
It’s also worth noting that Google itself does filter and remove reviews for a variety of reasons according to its algorithm: Reviews that are irrelevant, violate terms and conditions, contain illegal content or are deemed to be fake or astroturfed. Yet none of that applied here for these reviews, and the scale – and speed – of these reviews seemingly being removed was alarming.
A cursory investigation lead me to the subreddit for Google My Business, which was in an uproar. Numerous confused and concerned people were reporting that their reviews were disappearing en masse, and nobody seemed to have any solutions. So at the very least this wasn’t an isolated incident.
A few days later on February 10th a Google employee finally issued a public statement making a general acknowledgement that they knew about the issue and…that was it. No timeline on a fix. At the very least they were able to confirm that the reviews were simply being erroneously filtered rather than removed outright, and that in all likelihood reviews would come back. By February 13th nearly everyone was reporting that the reviews were back and the commotion died down.
So to recap the good news about all of this debacle: First, it was not an isolated incident and seemingly affected the majority of the Google Business community. Additionally, the reviews were merely “filtered” rather than outright removed and have been restored. Third and most importantly, the reviews reappeared within what seems to be a week – far too little time for search engine rankings of businesses to be significantly impacted.
With that having been said, think about what just happened here. Google has spent more than a decade aggressively pushing its Google Business profiles and their value to small businesses. It’s outright said that business owners should aspire to get positive feedback and word of mouth for the benefit of visibility. All of this makes perfect sense and it’s something Google has (for the most part) gotten right.
Then, with no warning, no explanation, and not even a widespread notice other than an announcement on the Google forums that most people wouldn’t even see, Google flips a switch. I can only assume that there was some sort of algorithm modification that didn’t work properly, but regardless, Google instantly wiped out potentially years of hard work by business owners to get honest, positive feedback from their customers and clients.
Then without any explanation or reassurance, Google reverts the damage, but otherwise…nothing. Aside from essentially shrugging, Google did nothing to reassure the business community, which is understandably on edge after having dozens or even hundreds of reviews disappear instantaneously.
This is, unfortunately, not new, and at this point it’s actually par for the course for the search engine giant. I’ve talked about this before but Google is notoriously opaque. Whether it’s Google Business profiles being suspended for vague and unclear reasons or videos on YouTube being flagged for copyright infringement without clarifying what the infringing content is, Google has cultivated a “guilty until proven innocent” with robots running the show.
The likelihood of getting any explanation from the company is almost negligible – and if anything it’s gotten worse over the years. Even when your problem is eventually solved, you’re not likely to hear anything about how it happened or what you can do to prevent it. Google’s approach when issues like this is essentially “Trust us” which experience has taught most of us by now that you should not be inclined to do.
Despite that, let’s face it: We’re all still using it. I’m on Google, all of you are on Google, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. Despite everything Google has immensely streamlined its processes when they work. It’s just a shame that the company has gotten so hopelessly reactive, especially for a company whose original motto was “Don’t be evil.”
We’re all going to still be on Google’s playground, so treat this as a cautionary tale. When something strange or unexpected happens, remember that it’s likely Google’s robots or algorithms messing up somehow, wait for the inevitable news, and finally the eventual fix. The wheels of Google grind slowly, and we’re just along for the ride.