Google is starting to take fake reviews procured by certain businesses seriously. A new feature will showcase a warning on Google Maps when a business listing has recently had fake reviews removed.
Google Maps has become one of the easiest ways to find out about a business quickly, and reviews are a huge part of that. Users and businesses have been known to take advantage of this by either creating fake reviews to benefit the business’s image or by trying to defame the company with false negative reviews.
Google is beginning to see this as an issue, though it has been going on for a while. A reporting system has been implemented for some time, though it’s hard to see if it has any effect on the business or user behind the malicious review.
According to Search Engine Roundtable, Google has started implementing a warning card within Google Maps. The warning will notify the viewer that one or more fake reviews have been removed from the listing. This feature was first spotted in the UK but has apparently begun to roll out in the US.
Suspected fake reviews were recently removed from this place
In the UK suspected review abuse can lead to a 30 day review ban pic.twitter.com/m2eMY5hFrp
— Mike Blumenthal (@mblumenthal) September 16, 2024
The warning comes with some limitations for the business profile itself. That includes blocking the business profile from receiving any new reviews for a certain time. Google also notes that existing reviews and ratings can be unpublished, likely until the investigation is complete. These have existed for some time in Google’s business profile policy.
However, the newest addition to the policy is a note that affected businesses will display a warning to let consumers know that the fake reviews were removed – the warning seen in Google Maps.
As mentioned, this feature is seemingly rolling out to most regions, though we have not been able to find the new warning in Google Maps as of yet.
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