Google Reviews 2026 Update — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Welcome back to another episode of Local
2. 0:02Search Tuesdays. This week I'm talking
3. 0:04about Google's recent update to the
4. 0:06restricted and prohibited content
5. 0:08guidelines. Thanks to this update, you
6. 0:11might be breaking the rules and risking
7. 0:13problems.
8. 0:24Just a few weeks ago, Google updated the
9. 0:26official policies around reviews in its
10. 0:29prohibited and restricted content
11. 0:31document. Here's what it looks like now.
12. 0:34So, make sure you follow all those new
13. 0:36rules so you don't get in trouble and
14. 0:38we'll see you next time.
15. 0:39>> Dude, you should tell the people what
16. 0:41changed.
17. 0:43Uh yeah, good point.
18. 0:45Review fraud has become a massive
19. 0:48problem. Fake reviews from businesses
20. 0:50make it much harder for customers to
21. 0:51know which businesses to choose.
22. 0:54Fake reviews from bad actors can hurt
23. 0:56businesses for the same reason. It's
24. 0:58important to understand the new
25. 1:00policies, especially because there are a
26. 1:02ton of businesses out there who are
27. 1:03violating the new policies and risking
28. 1:06the removal of a significant portion of
29. 1:08their reviews.
30. 1:09So, today I'm going to walk you through
31. 1:11the updates so you understand what's
32. 1:13allowed
33. 1:14and what's not.
34. 1:15Google starts by saying that
35. 1:17contributions to Google Maps should
36. 1:19reflect a genuine experience at a place
37. 1:21or business and a review or rating
38. 1:23should reflect an actual experience with
39. 1:25a business and be genuine and unbiased.
40. 1:30Google will remove any reviews that it
41. 1:32determines to be fake engagement
42. 1:34including
43. 1:36reviews that aren't based on a real
44. 1:38experience. No big change here, the
45. 1:41policy has always said that.
46. 1:43Reviews that have been paid for or
47. 1:45incentivized either directly or in kind.
48. 1:49You can't buy reviews and you can't
49. 1:50offer discounts or freebies for reviews.
50. 1:53This also includes incentivizing the
51. 1:56removal or update of a review.
52. 1:59Reviews posted by multiple accounts by
53. 2:02one person or at the request of one
54. 2:05person. Reviews posted using an emulator
55. 2:07or other service or operating system.
56. 2:10This was put in place to fight all the
57. 2:12fake AI generated reviews.
58. 2:15Reviews posted on a competitor's
59. 2:17business to undermine that business.
60. 2:21Unusual review volumes or patterns that
61. 2:23indicate an effort to manipulate the
62. 2:25rating of a business are also not
63. 2:27allowed. In other words, if you get a
64. 2:29sudden influx of positive reviews that
65. 2:32immediately drops off, it's likely that
66. 2:35none of those reviews will stick.
67. 2:38The language is also explicit around
68. 2:40reviews left with a conflict of
69. 2:42interest. Reviews cannot be left by
70. 2:45current or former employees, contractors
71. 2:48or consultants, anyone with a
72. 2:50professional affiliation or family
73. 2:52members.
74. 2:54Review gating is also against the rules.
75. 2:56This happens when businesses ask a
76. 2:58qualifying question first and then send
77. 3:01unhappy customers to a private form and
78. 3:05happy customers to a link to leave a
79. 3:07review.
80. 3:09Google added a new section that says
81. 3:10that merchants cannot require or
82. 3:12pressure customers to leave a review
83. 3:15while on the premises and that merchants
84. 3:18cannot request that specific content be
85. 3:22included. This is where a ton of
86. 3:24businesses are now violating guidelines.
87. 3:27Car dealers, I'm talking to you here,
88. 3:29but a huge number of other verticals do
89. 3:31the same thing. You can't ask a customer
90. 3:34to write something specific, including
91. 3:37asking the customer to include the
92. 3:39salesperson's name in the review.
93. 3:41I've been telling business owners for
94. 3:43years that it's not human nature to
95. 3:45leave the name of the person who sold
96. 3:47you the product or service in the
97. 3:48review, especially when the review
98. 3:51mentions the first and last name of the
99. 3:53salesperson.
100. 3:55Businesses do this because they think it
101. 3:57will help future customers know that
102. 3:59someone is great and that hopefully
103. 4:00customers will ask for that salesperson
104. 4:03by name.
105. 4:04They typically spiff employees so that
106. 4:07the salesperson gets extra money for
107. 4:09each review that mentions their name.
108. 4:12Now, that's against the rules and Google
109. 4:14will simply remove any reviews from the
110. 4:17business that it determines to have
111. 4:18broken this rule.
112. 4:20Be careful. If you're doing this, you
113. 4:22need to change your process immediately.
114. 4:25We've already seen tons of reviews
115. 4:27disappear in the wild because they
116. 4:29violate the updated policy. You should
117. 4:31definitely read the updated review
118. 4:33guidelines for yourself.
119. 4:35Head over to
120. 4:35bit.ly/google-restricted-content
121. 4:39to read the entire document.
122. 4:41That's all the time we have left for
123. 4:42this week's episode. So, you know what
124. 4:44that means. Put your hand on the screen
125. 4:46right here.
126. 4:47We totally just high-fived cuz you
127. 4:49learned something awesome. Thanks for
128. 4:50watching and we'll see you again next
129. 4:52time for another episode
130. 4:53of Local Search Tuesdays.