In Common Review Violations, I explained some of the most frequent reasons for having reviews hidden on Google Maps. But sometimes Local Guides need more help identifying their review issues. As fellow local guides can not see the hidden reviews the text of a few hidden reviews needs to be copied and shared in another way if someone offers you to take a look. This post will explain how this can be done.
Let’s say you want to share the text of your latest 10 hidden reviews. This involves the following steps:
- Figuring out which of your latest reviews are hidden
- Copying the text and pasting the texts into a text document together with the category of the place.
- Translating the text if needed and then share it.
I recommend doing this on a desktop rather than on a mobile device since it is easier to copy-paste the texts on a desktop computer.
If you speak the same language it might be a lot easier to just share screenshots of your hidden reviews.
1 Finding your hidden reviews
Please see Count your hidden contributions on a Desktop (or Count your hidden contributions on a Mobile if you are using a mobile device). If all your reviews are hidden then it is very easy. You just need to copy the full text of the first 10 reviews in your list of review contributions.
If your hidden reviews are mixed in between a lot of public reviews, please compare your list of reviews in two different windows/tabs: One where you are logged in using your Local Guides account and the other from an incognito window/tab where you can see only your public reviews. You can also use a friend’s phone where also only your public reviews will show up under your profile. You can then manually scroll down in parallel and look for any review that is visible when you are logged in and not visible in the other window/tab. This can for sure be very time-consuming should you have a lot of reviews. Then you may want to use the tips shared here: Which of my reviews are invisible?
2. Copying the full review texts
Make sure to hit “More” before you copy longer reviews. On mobile, you may need to start editing the review to be able to select and copy all the text.
3. Paste, translate and share
Open a Google Doc text document (or any other text editor) and paste the review text into the document. It would be helpful if you would also copy the categories as shown below.
Repeat this until you have the text from 10 hidden reviews in your text document. Your document should look something like this:
Review of a discount store:
It’s a little hard to guess what they’ll sell in Normal. So I often go in vain because I guess wrong!
Review of a sculpture:
This is a commentary to the bridge just next to the sculpture. The bridge is also called the Stupid, Stupid Bridge because of all the design faults. It was delayed for many years. It’s also called the Kissing Bridge. I like the art piece because it’s a fresh new element where many more benches are needed. You can sit on this sculpture.
Review of a supermarket:
Visited on their very first day of business. Well and neatly organized. All shelves fully stocked. Modern look and design. But a bit too pricy to my taste. Plenty of very young staffers. Balloons and loud music at the entrance to celebrate the grand opening.
Review of a church:
An old church with a new Neon/Led sign to celebrate 1870-2020 50 years of existence. Please! I hope the sign is a temporary sign. In my opinion, the sign is not doing this building any good.
Review of a sculpture:
Beautiful concrete art. Above the square, hang LED lamps with varying colors. I just think there is a little folk music missing 
Review of a building materials store:
Prices are very competitive. You can save some time by entering from the OK gas station instead of following the google maps navigation!
Review of a shopping center:
The options for eating a meal food in the center are very limited or non-existent. Unless ice cream and sweets count as meals! They do not in my book.
Review of a flooring shop:
Pick-up takes place outdoors, which is fine in times of a pandemic. However, had to ring the bell five times before anyone responded.
Review of a fabric store:
Got really good help with choosing fabric for chairs and other materials.
Review of a pizza place:
Pretty good pizza. A very traditional provincial restaurant. I noticed that takeaway pizzas are prepared before pizzas for the eat-in guests. Not good when you are hungry and eat-in.
Some of my reviews were posted in the Danish language. You can use Google Translate or simply set the language in Google Maps to one that your helper can read and understand.
The list can then be shared publicly on Connect, in private via Private message, or via email, for your helpers to take a look and try to spot what review guidelines you violated.
Hopefully, there are no violations in the above examples, since these are my actual reviews that are currently not hidden. The one from a church contains “1870-2020 50” which could be taken as spam (a phone number maybe) but it’s just the anniversary years.
Hopefully, these instructions will increase your chances of figuring out what the problem is with your reviews.
Cheers
Morten
PS: This is not an open invitation to post the text of your hidden reviews as comments below. Most local guides will be able to easily recognize their own issues by simply reading the review guidelines and Common Review Violations. Only follow the steps outlined above if someone asked you to do so and promised to evaluate your hidden reviews.
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