2022
This is a post in the miniseries called Getting In and Out of Trouble as a Local Guide. If you want to start by reading the first post, please find it here or scroll down to find an overview with links to more posts in this miniseries.
In recent years Google has greatly improved the automatic filters to detect and remove policy-violating reviews. Typically reviews will be blocked even before they get posted on Google Maps. The filters look for hateful language, swear words, sexy words, and any signs of reviews being fake or spam.
If you add a phone number, special characters like £ to $, an email, a website, or if you make a personal attack your review will never go public. And Local Guides might not notice this, because it is not that straightforward and quick to check if your reviews have been made private. How to check if your reviews are made private was explained in the post Sanctions Explained.
You might have seen ads on Facebook where bad actors offer to make false negative reviews for money and post them to competing listings. This is to make one business look relatively better on Google Maps. Or a business owner can buy a shady click-farm to like and post fake positive reviews on their Google Maps listing to fool more customers in.
The anti-spam filters will look for such patterns and check your location history and track record of adding reviews. So if reviews suddenly start coming from users in a completely different country such reviews are very likely to be blocked or removed.
Before sharing some typical review violations let's take a moment to freshen up on Google's guidelines for reviews.
Review Guidelines
This section was updated in January 2023 because Google revised the review guidelines.
Two key documents outline the review guidelines. One is called Tips for contributing high-quality reviews, and the other document is named Prohibited and restricted content.
The Tips document is quite easy to read. Here is an overview of the content:
- Be informative and insightful
- Be authentic
- Be respectful
- Write with style
- Avoid personal and professional information
- Avoid general commentary.
From the Tips document I have extracted the following essential guidelines:
- Please write about your firsthand experience with the place and not general commentary
- Review your own experience, and explain what the place was like and the service you received
- Try to share something unique and new, and make sure your criticism is constructive
- One paragraph is a great length for a review.
If you follow these simple and helpful guidelines, you may not even need to read the second written by lawyers. It lists all the things we should obviously never share in a review. Examples include spam, offensive language, advertising, off-topic comments, rants, and repetitive sentences.
Typical review violations by Local Guides
Below you will 5 review tips that are likely to keep you out of trouble.
Avoid revenge reviews
Local Guides sometimes experience bad service or low-quality products from a business. And they might feel cheated by the business. As a way to pay back or punish the business, some Local Guides write very negative reviews - often in the heat of the moment.
When outraged it is super easy to use language that is too impolite and partial. Or the text can turn into a personal attack. And to really make your points your sentences can get exaggerated and hence easily proven incorrect.
It is perfectly OK to write negative reviews, but stick to facts and stay cool. Explain what you saw and what happened. And you can express how the experience made you feel. A business owner can never prove that your feelings were wrong. Only you know.
After some cooling time has passed it is often a lot easier to acknowledge that your review text was over the line and unfair.
Cool reviews that are based on facts, and use polite language can be as negative and even more effective in my experience.
When going over your reviews (which you should do regularly) keep an open mind and try imagining how the business owner will feel when reading your review. If you want him/her to improve something, it is always better to start by praising some positive aspects before sharing some constructive criticism.
You can get sued for posting harmful reviews. And be aware that Google will not step in and help you if you should get in legal trouble for writing harmful reviews on Google Maps.
Avoid posting stolen text in reviews
I have helped Local Guides who thought they did the right thing and were helpful by copy-pasting texts from other websites like Wikipedia, Tripadvisor, or the website belonging to the place. Some even copied reviews from Yelp and thought that was Okay and helpful. It is not.
This can happen if Local Guides believe they need to write reviews in English and they don't have perfect English skills. Just copying some random text about a place is very easy to detect since such texts often sound more formal and official than what you would expect from a local guide. It is often better and a lot more helpful to write reviews in your local language that local Maps Users can understand.
Reusing text from other sites is clearly against the guidelines. You can only post original reviews that you have written yourself. The spam-detecting filters on Google Maps are pretty advanced and can detect if you paste stolen text in reviews. Also, if you post a text of your own to more than one place, the filter will detect this.
Avoid posting short worthless reviews
Some Local Guides are motivated by the points system and want to gain points quickly by adding a lot of reviews. I have seen tons of 1-or-2-word-reviews like: "Great", "Good place", and "Expensive". And others make laughable reviews by simply repeating the category of the place like "Bakery" or "Bank". Such reviews are not at all helpful to Maps Users and should also be avoided.
Below you can see actual examples recently made by a Local Guide:
Category | Review text |
Building materials store | Excellent |
Resort | Excellent |
Restaurant | Hey |
Fast food restaurant | Special |
Resort | Good |
Library | Integrated |
Heritage building | Heritage heritage |
Wedding venue | Creativity |
Call center | Good |
Always prove you were there
Some local guides think it is better to use very formal language and stick to broad and general statements like This is a very popular restaurant and it was selected as the best in town in 2019. The staff is very polite and the food quality is excellent. Anyone can write this review after doing a bit of online research or visiting the website. This text does not prove that you actually visited the restaurant.
I recommend that you always mention some specific details that prove you are a genuine customer/visitor. Some examples: I really liked the colorful porcelain. Unfortunately, the men's room was under renovation during our visit. We were treated to free coffee after the meal. The front entrance could use a ramp for wheelchairs.
Such personal observations are more valuable, interesting, and helpful for Maps Users. It is all about being helpful and authentic.
Don't hit 'like' under your own reviews
For no good reason, some local guides have been systematically liking their own reviews. This may look good on your profile page, but likes do not earn points so there is no benefit in terms of points or a higher LG level.
It is very easy for Google to identify those who liked their own reviews. In recent months quite a few LGs have found their reviews become hidden for this. Also, asking your friends or family to like your reviews can get you in trouble.
If you find yourself in need of figuring out which of your reviews are private and not all of them are, this is a brilliant tip shared by @C_T: Which of my reviews are invisible?
This concludes the post on Common Review Violations. If you remember and follow the above-mentioned five review tips you will be a lot less likely to experience negative sanctions related to your reviews.
Summary:
- Avoid revenge reviews
- Avoid posting stolen text in reviews
- Avoid posting short worthless reviews
- Always prove you were there
- Don't like your own reviews
Next up are violations of the photo rules.
Cheers
Morten
Miniseries overview
How to Get In and Out of Trouble: The Main post
Count your hidden contributions on a Desktop
Count your hidden contributions on a Mobile
Review Violations (= this post)
