Hotel Review is getting shadowbanned if i add Puctures to the review

Google Maps tips & tricks
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Hello everyone,

Lately, I’ve noticed that reviews are often not displayed for some reason, usually because they allegedly don’t comply with Google guidelines. When this happens, I try to correct the review using the Google guidelines and ChatGPT. However, this didn’t work for my last review.

After experimenting through trial and error, I discovered that the images I added to the review triggered a shadowban. The images are high-quality photos of the hotel room and dining area, totaling about 7-10 pictures. Since Google gives a lot of points for images and focuses on them, I wanted to post the best and most accurate pictures possible.

This opaque practice of shadowbanning is often frustrating, especially when you put in a lot of effort as a local guide to do a good job.

Can someone explain why a review gets a shadowban, even though images are essential on Google?

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@fabianCH not only the text of a review, but also each single photo or video is checked by the SPAM filter and if a single one is rejected, the entire review will be hidden too.

While trying to obey the rules as good as possible, I gave up analyzing why a particular photo is rejected and simply delete it. In addition, I don’t attach any media to the reviews anymore, but post them directly to the place pin. This makes it easier to recognize which on was rejected.

Comparing you public profile with the number of posted reviews and photos I found out, 7% of your reviews and 2% of your photos are hidden. This might play a role too.

Have look at @MortenCopenhagen 's article here: Hidden Reviews? Read this.

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Hi @fabianCH

Reviews can be taken down = not shown publicly even though they are shown in your photo contribution list.

Some Local guides experience that none of their reviews go public no matter what they do. I call this a block on your account.

The term Shadow banned is not very clear. It sounds like a mixture of hidden contributions and a block on your account.

I think you mean some your reviews are taken down. Or did you mean you experience a block?

All the best

Morten

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Hi @fabianCH , and thank you for asking.

As far as I can see your last review was published 11 hours ago, so I don’t see a restriction (this is how Google defines what you call “shadowban”) in your account for publishing reviews.

But indeed it’s true that 36 of your reviews and 80 of your media aren’t public.

There are many reasons for a review and the attached media not to be published, and can be grouped in two different groups:

  • A review can be not published because one of the attached media is filtered by the AI, like @WilfriedB said.
  • A review can be not published because the content is not following the rules.

The first step to fix it is to identify the “hidden” reviews. This can be done by opening this link in a web browser in incognito mode, and comparing what is publicly visible with the contribute in your profile in the App.

The second step is to try to edit the review and to post it without any media. If it works, you can try to attach the media one by one, to find the one that is triggering the filter.

If it doesn’t work, or your review doesn’t have any media attached, focus on the content of the text.

A lot of people believe that the filter is working only on specific words or specific contents (like a phone number or a URL) inside the reviews, but this is not true. The filter is not a simple binary switch, it is an AI, and it is analysing the complete review.

A review should be related to your experience about a place, and not simply on a generic description of the location.

Just to provide an example, obviously based only on what we can see, your last review says “Big airport. The food court is located behind the security check.” This is a generic review that everyone could write just checking the airport listing in Google Maps, and it is not really showing an experience about the place. This is a type of review that could be easily taken down.

ChatGTP nor any other AI software can help you in this, because it can’t replace your original experience.

I think you should make a test

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@fabianCH , I am adding a note related to your sentence “Google gives a lot of points for images and focuses on them”

This is indeed true, but must be understood: Google wants images that are showing different aspects of a listing, because this adds more information about the place, and it is totally against “redundancy” that in this case means “very similar photos of the same location” because this kind of contribution doesn’t give any additional information about a place.

In several places you posted a lot of extremely similar photos, and this is a big NO. A good practice should be to take several photos and then select and post only the best one. You take great photos, but you should select them carefully. Redundancy is considered just a trick to get more points, and in an extreme case can end in a permanent removal of the user from the Local Guides program. If you need some examples in your contributions just let me know

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Hi @ErmesT

Can you help me figure out how to get rid of the photo shadow ban? I have already removed several photos but without a clue as to what to do, it is difficult to get back on track.

Last weekend I went to a festival and posted a video, just a few good quality photos and a review. The post is not visible to the public and all the photos and the viewo have 0 hits.

Older pictures are still up and have lots of views.

It is very frustrating now. I have written over 300 good reviews without getting anything from google. It was fun, and now every review I attach a photo to is completely hidden… no fun anymore. :disappointed:

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Hi @fabianCH

Are you talking about this review?

If so I can confirm that the review is visible on your profile, together with a video and five photos, but apparently it is not visible on the Listing in Google Maps.

The review appears as posted two days ago.

This is quite common when a video is attached to the review, because Google Maps takes time to check and accept videos. What is not common is to have a “public” review not visible on the listing. Fir this reason I am tagging here a Good Moderator, @DeniGu , to escalate your problem to the team.

Regarding the views on the photos, normally these are starting to get views only after a few days. Google is aware of this, and already at work to fix the issue.

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hi @ErmesT allright. Good to hear thank you for your investigation.

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Hi @ErmesT and @fabianCH ,

The festival review can now be found on the business listing when sorting the reviews from Newest to oldest. As Ermes mentioned earlier, it is expected for photos and videos to take longer to appear on Maps, including publicly on the business listing they were added to. :blush:

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