Oh Shit... Google Lost Your Reviews! (But Don't Freak Out)
Even Google screws up from time to time. Software is hard!
TLDR: They’re not lost, Google just glitched.
If you woke up to find your gym's Google reviews missing this weekend - take a deep breath. You're not alone, and this isn't the apocalypse.
Software is hard, folks. Even Google - yeah, that trillion-dollar tech giant - screws up sometimes. And right now, they're dealing with a pretty massive screw-up affecting Google Business Profiles across the board.
According to SearchEngine Land's Barry Schwartz, since Friday "tons of reviews have been disappearing from the local listings within Google Search and Google Maps." This isn't isolated - the article reports "dozens and dozens of complaint threads popping up in the Google Business Profiles forums from concerned small businesses."
We're aware of an issue affecting some Google Business Profiles, causing some profiles to show lower-than-actual review counts due to a display issue. The reviews themselves have not actually been removed. We're working hard to resolve this and restore accurate review counts as quickly as possible.
Victoria Kroll - Google Support
Translation: It's just a display bug. Your reviews still exist in Google's database - they're just playing hide and seek right now.
Some businesses "lost only a few reviews, while others say they lost dozens of positive reviews," according to the report. But as Joy Hawkins, a local SEO and Google top contributor confirmed, this is a bug that Google is actively working to fix.
Software is hard. Harder than you think…
Dan Uyemura - PushPress
For those of you using review widgets or third-party tools (there's chatter on Reddit about Go High Level users being concerned), this isn't related to your tech stack. This is purely a Google display issue that they're scrambling to resolve.
The best thing you can do right now? Keep delivering amazing experiences to your members. Keep being the kind of gym that naturally attracts 5-star reviews. The technical stuff will sort itself out.
And remember - even the biggest tech companies in the world have bad deployments sometimes. At least your bug didn't cost billions in market cap, right? 😉
PS: Want to stay in the loop? Follow the official Google Business Profiles thread here: https://support.google.com/business/thread/324226897. They're promising to "share updates on this thread as they become available."