My colleague Zach Mallett just noticed that Google updated their options for flagging a review inside the Google My Business dashboard. This is what it looks like:
What’s Changed?
- The descriptions below each option weren’t there before. This is new and extremely helpful as it makes it much easier for a business owner to see which option they should choose. It also gives greater insights into what types of reviews are actually against Google’s guidelines.
- Previously there was only one option called “hateful, violent, or innapropriate”. This has been split up into 3 specific ones: Profanity, bullying or harassment, and discrimination and hate speech.
- The personal information option is new.
- They also have a new page that shows up after you select the violation type which clarifies that it takes 3 business days for Google to review the request. This was something that a lot of people weren’t aware of previously so this messaging makes it much clearer.
To see an image of what it used to look like, check out the screenshot in this article by Whitespark:
Joy is the owner of the Local Search Forum, LocalU, and Sterling Sky, a Local SEO agency in Canada & the USA. She has been working in the industry since 2006, writes for publications such as Search Engine Land, and enjoys speaking regularly at marketing conferences such as MozCon, LocalU, Pubcon, SearchLove, and State of Search. You can find her on Twitter or volunteering as a Product Expert on the Google My Business Forum.
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While this is a step in the right direction, Google needs to take action. I am seeing an uptick in review attack cases. Google has been unwilling to remove the reviews in several cases. I am currently working on a case that I have been involved with for four months that spans 2 years. One upset individual has been obsessed with a woman and has been taking out his anger by attacking her listing, companies she works at, her friends’ businesses, and others. I have had to get reviews removed for 24 listings and each week I have another person contacting me for help. There are other cases where competitors have bought fake negative reviews to lower their competitors’ ratings. One business was able to get the reviews removed. The other lawyer, Google refused to take action and remove the reviews, even though the additional reviews the fake profiles were all removed. Talk is cheap, let’s see some action on Google’s part.