We understand inappropriate or false reviews get removed, but when those seemingly perfect ones disappear on Google My Business, it makes us wonder: “why is Google deleting my business reviews?” 

We are here to tell you it’s not an accident if your reviews start to play a game of hide n seek — there one day and gone the next. It is most likely due to Google’s guidelines which are put in place to ensure businesses are being transparent. You don’t need to panic and start Googling how to increase Google reviews (many of those tactics might even worsen the issue if you’re experiencing disappearing reviews). The good news is that understanding why Google deletes reviews can help prevent it from happening in the future. So, here are a few of the top reasons why your reviews aren’t sticking: 

Reason #1: You’re offering incentives for positive reviews. When you provide incentives to everyone or resort to buying Google My Business reviews, it leads to issues. Not only can your reviews end up in spam if you’re offering incentives that people who aren’t even customers can cash in on, but your competitors can go tattle to Google (a much bigger issue). If it’s brought to Google’s attention that you’re offering incentives for fake Google reviews, they might even delete your business’ page. It will also affect your genuine reviews by making it more challenging to get them approved. 

Reason #2: You have a duplicate listing. There are many reasons this happens. For example, maybe you bought your business from someone who already created a Google My Business account for the brand, and you unknowingly created a new one. Regardless of how it happened, ensuring you are the only Google My Business listing for your business is important. When there are duplicate listings, it can cause issues, and you might notice your reviews begin to disappear. 

Thankfully, there is a way to fix this if you can prove both accounts are your business! Here’s how: 

You can actually combine both accounts! But for Google to do this, the two accounts must have identical addresses. If they don’t, you’ll likely need to address the situation with Google and see what they can do to resolve the issue. 

Reason #3: You ask people to leave you a review in the office. Google is more intelligent than we think, and they’re onto the whole leave a review in the office scheme. When you leave a review, Google tracks the IP address, which means if all your reviews come from one location, it looks a little suspicious. This could put your business at risk of not getting reviews approved by Google, which is why your reviews seem to vanish overnight.

We know this is frustrating. That is why we suggest emailing customers instead of asking them to leave a review in the office! This strategy will ensure your customers see the email after they’ve left the office and are in different locations.