It was recently reported at Local U that there are new options in the Google My Business dashboard that are available when flagging reviews.
As bad spammy reviews, reviews from ex-employees, and even reviews from competitors continue to be an issue for many business owners, the addition of the new options is being widely celebrated. Let’s take a look at what Google added.
New Options Menu
The menu structure is quite similar to what users see when they suggest edits to GMB to combat spam listings.
In detail, this is what Joy Hawkins of Local U found has changed:
- The descriptions under each option were not there before, making it easier now for owners to find the most fitting option
- The option for “hateful, violent, or inappropriate” has now been split up
- The option for personal information is new
- After selecting your flagging option, you are prompted with a new page that states it will take 3 days for Google to review your request
Some Industry Responses
This update finally matches the report that you make when reporting a review for take down with the actual reasons Google MIGHT take down a review… hopefully ending the cognitive dissonance previously involved in reporting.
But remember, it is still based on the TOS NOT truth https://t.co/7n8E7cossy
— Mike Blumenthal (@mblumenthal) January 22, 2021
Thanks for sharing That is a much needed improvement now if we can get them to actually do something with it.
— Search Talk Live (@Searchtalklive) January 23, 2021
Bonus: Real Person Review
Unlike how Google Maps spam is reviewed by an algorithm, when reviews are flagged they are manually reviewed by a Google representative, which many may not have known!
A human does review them last I checked. 🙂
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) January 22, 2021
