A new report from GMBapi suggests that Google is deleting local reviews at a much higher rate than before. The data is based on tens of thousands of Google Business Profiles across multiple countries and shows a clear increase in review removals over the past year.
At the same time, Michel van Luijtelaar shared insights about this trend on LinkedIn. He explained that disappearing reviews are not random and are happening for specific reasons.
According to the findings he shared and later expanded on in Search Engine Land, review deletions are speeding up across many markets.
Here are some key takeaways from the data:
- First, review deletions are increasing faster than in previous years.
- Next, both 5-star and 1-star reviews are being removed the most.
- In English-speaking countries, positive reviews are removed more often than expected.
- In Germany, legal takedown requests are removing negative reviews at a large scale.
The report also includes charts that show how many reviews are deleted each week and how deletions vary by star rating and business category.
Here is it by review stars and category:
Interestingly, this data comes shortly after Google confirmed that it fixed a recent bug where reviews were disappearing. It is still unclear how much that bug may have affected GMBapi’s long-term data. However, many business owners continue to report missing reviews almost daily.
Overall, the report highlights a growing concern for local businesses that rely heavily on reviews for trust and visibility. To explore the full data and analysis, visit GMBapi directly.
You can also follow the discussion on LinkedIn.
