Hello fellow Local Guides and moderators,
Some time ago, I wrote a post on this forum about a detailed review I wrote for a restaurant, and how I believe the non-publication of some reviews can negatively impact businesses. You can find the post here: “How the selection of reviews can negatively impact business reputation” . However, this has not been an isolated case. I have had similar issues with other reviews that have also gone unpublished. It’s important to note that the majority of my reviews do get published, but there was a period of weeks when none of my reviews were published. While this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, I occasionally find that some of my reviews or updates are not published… few in any case.
As a Local Guide, my main goal is to assist other users by providing valuable information about the places I have visited. However, if these reviews are not published, I cannot fulfill this goal. Moreover, the more reviews I publish, the higher the chances that Google might close my account, as I have seen in many cases in this forum.
Recently, I was on vacation and visited several points of interest, restaurants, and a hotel. I have already uploaded some photos, 360 photos, and videos from these experiences to Google Maps, and it seems that all of them have been published, with some even being highlighted. However, I still have many more to upload, but I have not written any reviews yet. This brings me to my dilemma: Should I invest my time in writing detailed and useful reviews that may not get published?
In addition, I have noticed that brief and less informative reviews, such as “very nice”, seem to get published more often and also grant points. If my goal was simply to accumulate points, I could opt for this approach. But my goal is to provide useful and detailed reviews. I am not in favor of the points system as I believe it negatively affects the quality of Google Maps.
Since I wrote my unpublished reviews, I have filled out Google’s form two times to report this issue, but the reviews remain unpublished. I don’t want to have to edit and delete parts of my reviews to try to guess what content might be acceptable to Google.
Furthermore, I find it confusing that some of my reviews get published and are classified as “most relevant”, while others are not published at all.
This brings us to a common dilemma: Should we continue writing detailed reviews, with photos and videos, for the hotels, restaurants, and places of interest that we visit? Or should we definitively discard wasting time writing reviews and look for other ways to contribute through other channels? I like the idea of being a local guide, but I don’t like spending time on tasks that may or may not see the light of day depending on factors I don’t understand.
Just a reflection…
I would appreciate any advice or perspective you can offer.
Thank you for your time.
Francesc Domingo
