Recently I have observed that my reviews are not getting enough views and likes and to clear the doubt I asked one of my friends who runs a shop to check my review that I posted for him. But unfortunately he couldn’t even see my review even when I am sharing the link of my review directly with him.
Can anyone help me understand the reason? Why my reviews are only visible to me?
Hi @Gouty
You might have answered your question yourself. Reviewing a friend’s business is called conflict of interest. Such reviews are not allowed on Google Maps.
I can confirm from your public profile that you have added 113 reviews and only 84 of them are public.
Google has automatic filters that hide your reviews so only you can see them. This can happen when some of your reviews violate the review guidelines.
Read about typical review guideline violations here. And please see my latest post called 4 Tips on writing better reviews.
If you are on a Desktop use this link to Count your hidden contributions. From a mobile device use this link.
If you want to identify which of your reviews are hidden check this post.
I also noticed some redundant photos of yours. Please don’t share photos of the same food seen from different angles.
Some of your public reviews sounds more like general remarks or advertising texts than authentic first hand experiences. Use the 4-tips post to identify them.
You can use the form called Account Investigation for contributions not visible on Google Maps if you believe that some of your contributions have been wrongfully unpublished. Keep in mind, it takes several weeks for the check to be done, and you will not be notified about the result, so I suggest you check the status of your reviews once a week or so.
Best of luck
Morten
I actually didn’t understand the logic behind the policy. If a friend of mine runs a restaurant and I want to review my experience at the restaurant as a foodie, I can’t do that for policy guidelines? Don’t you think that policy needs to be rectified?
I haven’t mentioned anywhere that its my friends restaurant, he is a very good person, please do visit blah blah… Its just a general genuine review as a public just how I ate and paid as a public there.
I hope you understand my frustration!
As a map user, I would like reviews to not be biased. Don’t you agree? In my opinion, reviews from friends and family should not be allowed as they are can easily be partisan.
Sorry if I misunderstood that your friend was the restaurant owner.
Did you find the rest of my message useful?
Morten
Yes, Thank you for the links. I will fill that google doc because all my posts were my first hand experience and not generic reviews to earn points. They shouldn’t get filtered.
Problem is after 1 suspicion all my posts are getting filtered. Well that’s non-sensical.
Please have an open mind to accept that not all your reviews are perfect. I know this is difficult. If you fill out the form and they are not republished then you will need to reconsider. If they all go public everything is fine.
Best of luck
Morten