Welcome back to another episode of Local Search Tuesdays. This week, we’re talking about Google reviews again – if you’re missing reviews from customers, we’re going share how to get them back.

Back in January, we shared an episode that talked about why reviews weren’t showing up… and the problem still exists six months later. In fact, it might even be worse.

So as a quick recap, if you’re hearing from customers that they’ve left reviews but they’re not showing up in your Google Business Profile, here are the reason why it might be happening:

  1. The review was left from the same IP address that was used by someone else who left a review.
  2. You offer public WiFi, you’ve logged into your Google Business Profile account from that WiFi, and the customer was logged into the same WiFi when they left a review.
  3. The review contains a phone number or URL.
  4. The review contains restricted language, like profanity or racial slurs.
  5. You’ve hired a company to post reviews for you.
  6. You have an on-site review station.
  7. The review is located nowhere near you or has never physically visited your location

But also – sometimes it’s just Google’s aggressive spam filter that keeps reviews from showing.

If you’re missing reviews (or if reviews have disappeared), here’s what you should do.

First, create a public Google Doc. Make sure it’s set to public, so anyone can see it. Then list as much detail as you can about the missing reviews. Be sure to include a link to your Google Business Profile, your business name, your website URL, and as much information as you can share about the reviews. If you’ve got screencaps from the customers who left the reviews, be sure to include those as well.

Then, contact support by going to support.google.com/business/gethelp – when you get connected with support, share the link to the Google Doc so the support team can have all the details.

In most cases, they’ll be able to get your reviews to show up. In situations where they’re not able to help, add your support case ID number to the Google Doc, and then go create a new thread at the Google Business Profile Community Forum. Keep your thread brief, with a one or two sentence explanation of your problem, and then link to your Google Doc.

Then, one of the Product Experts on the forum will be able to escalate your thread to the GBP team, who can then typically get the reviews reinstated.