Google reviews are important for all businesses, but especially for service businesses, because they are often the only thing that separates you from your competitors.
For example, discover a new Italian restaurant, find someone to help you remodel your kitchen, or locate a realtor to sell your home. Irrespective of your business, there is a good chance that Google reviews will be an important part of a customer’s decision-making process.
If you are unfamiliar with Google Reviews, here is a quick recap. Google Reviews are primarily given by customers and sometimes employees about their experience with a particular business – these reviews are then displayed in Google’s search results and map.
Example – Google Search Results
Example – Google Maps
As we mentioned earlier, the number of positive reviews you have can be the only difference between you and your competitors, so it is vital that you get every possible review, whether it’s asking your customers to give you a review or trying to get lost reviews back.
The good news is that Google has a straightforward way to retrieve missing reviews – if they have been removed or never displayed in the first place.
How to get your Google Reviews Back (Steps):
Step 1
Go to your My Google Business Page (the simplest way to do this is to Google your business name, and if you are logged in, you will see the following options
Step 2
Click on the menu (3 dots) to see additional Google My Business profile management options. The menu should look similar to the image below.
Step 3
Click on the “Send Feedback” option, and you will see a new menu open on the right-hand side of your browser.
Step 4
Click on “Report an issue.” At this point, you should see a form and a dropdown option, “Manage Review Removals.”
Step 5
Please describe the issue with your review and send it to Google. For example, if you think one of the reviews was incorrectly removed or a customer review never showed up. The more descriptive you are, the better your chances of retrieving a review.
If the missing review you reported is legitimate, you have a good chance of getting it back. However, don’t expect a 100% success rate.
Summary
Getting your missing reviews back is crucial, especially if you don’t have many (under 20 reviews).
Several of our clients acquired new business due to a specific review, so every review matters. Also, it’s not uncommon for individual reviews to get over 100 views. Why is that important? Because having over 100 people read a positive experience about your business is invaluable. Now, multiply that by 20, 50, or 100 reviews, and you can quickly see the enormous influence of Google reviews on your business.
That one lost or missing review can help you acquire numerous customers, so don’t take missing reviews lightly. Lastly, as you can see in the steps above, Google made it very simple to inquire about missing reviews, so there is no reason not to do it.
