Google Review Numbers Dropping Across the Board for Small Businesses

You might have heard… reports have emerged of Google Business Profiles showing incorrect review counts, causing concern across the small business community. Over this past weekend, February 8-9, 2025, numerous businesses, including many we work with, began noticing apparent discrepancies in their review numbers – Nolan Consulting Group being no exception!

Official Google Response

On February 10th, Google addressed these concerns in the Google Business Profiles Forums with an important clarification:

“We’re aware of an issue affecting some Google Business Profiles, causing some profiles to show lower-than-actual review counts due to a display issue. The reviews themselves have not actually been removed. We’re working hard to resolve this and restore accurate review counts as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and will share updates on this thread as they become available.

Before reporting missing reviews, please note that there are several reasons why reviews may be removed from maps. Usually, missing reviews are removed for policy violations like spam or inappropriate content. Read more about our Review policy guidelines here before proceeding. You can also refer to the Help Center Article for more information”

Understanding Review Policies

While Google emphasized this current situation is a display issue, there are legitimate reasons why reviews might be removed from Maps. Typically, reviews are removed when they violate Google’s policy guidelines, such as:

Spam content
Inappropriate material
Violation of review policies

That being said, we’ve also seen reviews removed for no reason at all. Just two months ago, we went through the process of filing a ticket after noticing at least 7 of our recent Google Reviews were no longer active. After a complaint was filed and a couple weeks gone by, they were actively reinstated with no explanation as to why they were removed in the first place. All reviews met the policy guidelines.

Why This Matters

Google Reviews remain a cornerstone of local business engagement and your company’s SEO success They:

Build customer trust and credibility
Influence potential customers’ purchasing decisions
Impact your local search rankings
Provide valuable feedback from your customer base

What Business Owners Should Do Now

While Google claims this to be (only) a display issue and they are “actively working” to restore review counts, we would encourage you to still file a ticket reporting your lost reviews just in case.

Take these Steps:

Don’t panic – they say this is a display issue and there are ways to resolve the problem
Document your current review numbers on a regular basis and take screenshots for reference
If you receive email notifications each time you get a NEW Google Review, consider saving them to a folder for future auditing purposes. This helped us!
File a ticket reporting your missing reviews – I personally found this video from Torie Mathis helpful.
Stay informed through the Google Business Profiles Forums

Moving Forward

While Google works to resolve this display issue, consider this an opportunity to strengthen your overall review strategy:

Familiarize yourself with Google’s review policies
Stay aware of your weekly Google counts so you can quickly notice when things look off
Respond to all reviews – good & bad – as this will help with legitimacy

While Google actively works to resolve the issue and reinstate your reviews, don’t let that stop you from continuing to request reviews and maintaining the high standards that earned those reviews in the first place.