Overheard a franchise owner talking about how Google My Business reviews got him flagged

I was at a coffee shop in Phoenix and heard a guy explaining how he lost 20 reviews overnight because Google thought he was buying them, but he just asked every customer in person. Has anyone else had Google penalize them for trying too hard to get legitimate reviews?

2 comments

2 Comments

walker.jana28d ago

...and the worst part is I knew that Google was probably gonna flag me before I even started. I mean, I run a small bakery and I printed little cards saying "If you liked your muffin, please leave a review!" I handed them out with every purchase for like two weeks. Boom, 15 reviews in three days. Then one morning they were all gone and I got a warning email. Felt like I got sent to detention for being too helpful.

thomas29127d ago

Yeah Google's AI is super aggressive about patterns. If you get a bunch of reviews all at once from customers you probably asked in person it looks exactly like paid reviews to their algorithm. They don't have a way to tell the difference between a legit push and a bought one. The real trick is to spread it out and never ask everyone at the same time.