Google Business Profile Reviews Are Vanishing and Google Has Paused New Reviews While It Investigates

From late June into early July 2026, businesses reported reviews disappearing from their Google Business Profiles, in some cases thousands overnight. Google has confirmed it is investigating and is temporarily pausing the ability to leave new reviews on affected profiles while it works on the problem.

In a statement, Google said: “When our systems detect suspicious reviews, we take a range of actions including removing reviews and temporarily pausing reviews on the profile to prevent further abuse. We are investigating the issue and will restore any reviews that were incorrectly removed.”

What is happening?

Business owners and local SEOs have posted dozens of complaints in the Google Business Profile forums describing sudden drops in review counts, previously visible reviews now hidden, and the inability to collect new reviews on their listings. The scale varies with the size of the listing: a small business might lose a handful of reviews, while larger businesses have reported losing thousands.

The pattern points to Google’s review spam detection acting more aggressively than usual. When those systems flag a profile, they can both remove existing reviews and freeze the profile’s ability to accept new ones, which is why many affected businesses are seeing both symptoms at once. Google’s position is that this is an anti-abuse mechanism catching legitimate reviews as collateral, not a deliberate purge.

Why does this matter for local SEO?

Review signals are a confirmed local pack ranking factor. Review volume, velocity (the rate at which new reviews arrive), and average rating all feed local rankings, and by one industry estimate account for roughly 20% of local pack ranking weight. Reviews are also among the strongest influences on click-through from the local pack to a listing: a profile that suddenly shows far fewer reviews, or a lower rating, can lose clicks even where its ranking holds.

The paused-reviews element compounds the problem. A business that relies on a steady stream of fresh reviews to maintain velocity cannot collect any while the freeze is in place, so the gap widens the longer an individual profile stays affected.

What should businesses do now?

Google says restorations are coming, so the priority is to preserve evidence and avoid making things worse rather than to take drastic action.

• Document your current state. Record your review count and average rating now, ideally with dated screenshots, so you can show what was lost if you need to escalate. If you export Business Profile data to a dashboard, note the affected date range.
• Report through the right channel. Raise missing legitimate reviews through the Google Business Profile Help community and the profile’s support options rather than assuming they are gone for good. Google has said error removals will be restored.
• Do not delete or recreate the listing. Removing or rebuilding a profile will not bring reviews back and risks losing profile history and rankings. This is a Google-side incident, not a fault with your listing.
• Do not attempt to re-solicit lost reviews en masse. A sudden burst of new review requests can itself trip spam detection. Wait for the pause to lift on your profile before resuming normal review generation.

What this means

This is an active incident, and its status may change day to day. As of 6 July 2026, Google has confirmed the investigation and the temporary review pause but has not given a timeline for restoring incorrectly removed reviews or lifting the freeze on affected profiles.

Treat any sharp drop in your review count or rating in this window as likely tied to the incident rather than to something you have done, particularly if it coincides with an inability to collect new reviews. Keep monitoring the Business Profile forums and Google’s missing-reviews guidance for confirmation that restorations have begun.

Sources

• Google is investigating reports of reviews going missing and pausing reviews on local listings — Search Engine Land
• Google Business Profile Reviews Go Missing For Many — Search Engine Roundtable
• About missing or delayed reviews — Google Business Profile Help