Looks like reviews being added to Google Maps business listings are being delayed for some reason. There are numerous complaints about this both in the Local Search Forums and the Google My Business Help Forums.
It is unclear exactly when these problems started, I mean, there are often complaints of reviews not showing up fast enough. But according to Joy Hawkins, a Google product expert in Google My Business forums, she said there is a spike in complaints about this.
There appears to be an issue right now with reviews not publishing. I'm waiting to hear back from Google on it and will keep this thread updated: https://t.co/ITt3ai5Bi4
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) November 11, 2020
We are waiting to hear back from Google on this.
I posted a review from my personal account on my business to see if I can replicate it. I posted this review on November 11, 2020 at 5:55pm ET and yes, it showed in my account but it did not yet show publicly in Google Maps reviews yet.
This next screen shot was taken five minutes later:
Nor did it show up yet in the Google My Business console as the business owner:
I checked at the time this story was published as well, about 12+ hours later and the review is not live.
But I did dig a bit more and yes, there are more complaints as I linked to above. Here are some of those complaints:
I left a review for this business here.I can see it when I am logged into my gmail account, however, unable to view it outside of that. Also, the business owner is not able to see it.
Is anyone else experiencing a problem with missing ( non published) reviews? We a large UK franchisor with some 370 locations in the UK, all with their own verified GMB listings. Since the start of COVID we have had many instances where a client leaves a review and can see that review on Google, However this review does ever appear on Google itself ( and yes we have allowed to 7 to 10 days stated by Google). Of course Google will not enter into any dialogue and only answers via usually poorly written stock type responses referring to policies and repeating simplistic explanations of the review process.
I'm seeing this issue too across hundreds of locations. Nothing being published for the last 2 days. Most wouldn't fall into Joy's article for being filtered.
Customer has now left a review twice but I'm not being alerted to it and it is not showing up on my business page.
Joy said in the thread:
Hey Guys - I'm hearing reports of this as well now from multiple sources. We also haven't received a single review alert for any of our clients today. I've brought it up with Google and will update you when I hear back.
So if you are experiencing this as well, you are not alone.
Forum discussion at Local Search Forums and the Google My Business Help Forums.
Update: At 10:30am ET today Joy updated us saying "Google has identified the issue and missing reviews should show up in the next 24 hours."
Update 2: On November 15th at 3pm ET the review from November 11th is finally showing up:
