Google Reviews Are Disappearing From Business Profiles.
- 20 July 2026
- General
- 5 minute read time
If you’ve checked your Google Business Profile recently and found your review count has dropped, you’re not the only one.
Over the past couple of weeks, business owners have been reporting the same thing on Google’s own support forums: reviews vanishing overnight, sometimes by the thousand, with no warning and no explanation.Â
One business owner said they’d built up around 4,650 genuine reviews over many years – then watched that number fall to just 63 within about 24 hours. Another reported losing over 1,200 reviews overnight. A third said their review count and rating had dropped to zero.
These aren’t isolated one-offs. Search Engine Land, one of the industry’s main news sources, reported dozens of similar complaints piling up in the same forum within days of each other. Some businesses have also found they can’t collect new reviews at all – the count just freezes in place.
Google has now confirmed it’s aware of the issue and is investigating, though it hasn’t given a timeframe for fixing it.
So what’s actually happening?
This isn’t a random glitch. Google’s spam-detection system appears to be removing reviews and blocking new ones on profiles it flags as suspicious. What’s caught people out is the pattern behind it: in several reported cases, the trouble started right after a business owner reported fake or spam reviews on their own listing – and it was their profile that then got hit, sometimes with the rating dropping to zero.
It’s still not clear whether this is Google’s system reacting to a genuine wave of fake reviews, or whether the detection has simply become too aggressive and started catching real ones in the net. Google hasn’t said which.
Why this matters for local and trade businesses
For a lot of local and trade businesses, your review count is one of the first things a customer checks before they call you. It’s the difference between “these lot look solid” and moving straight on to the next result. Losing reviews overnight, through no fault of your own, can knock a business’s credibility right when it’s least expected.
What to do if it happens to you
Don’t rush to replace them
If you’ve lost reviews, try not to ask all your customers to leave new ones at once. Google’s spam detection is clearly jumpy at the moment, and a sudden burst of new reviews could make things worse rather than better.
Keep a record
Note the date your reviews disappeared or stopped showing, and roughly how many you lost. That’s useful if a restoration request is needed further down the line.
Keep things steady
 A normal, gradual flow of genuine reviews from real customers is what you want anyway – it’s what builds trust with customers and with Google over time.
Be patient
Google review wobbles aren’t new – something similar happened in October 2025 – and in most cases, things do settle down, even if the fix isn’t quick or well-communicated.
Final thoughts
For now, the situation remains open, with no official timeline from Google on when reviews will be restored or the underlying issue resolved.
If you’re concerned about your review count, Google Business Profile or any other digital marketing matter, we’re here to help!
Get in touch via the contact form or book a meeting and we’ll see how we can help.
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