I still remember the day I checked my business profile and noticed something odd several customer reviews were missing. At first, I thought it was a glitch or maybe a delay. But as time passes it became clear: something was wrong. As a business owner, I rely heavily on reviews. They’re not just feedback; they’re proof of trust, real experiences, and powerful tools that drive new customers in the door.
If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, you’re not alone. Google reviews not showing up is more common than most people think, and it can happen for a number of reasons some within your control and others not. Whether it’s a new listing, a spam filter, or just a temporary bug on Google’s end, these missing reviews can cost your business credibility.
In this article, I’ll break down the real reasons behind disappearing Google reviews, explain what might be happening behind the scenes, and show you what steps you can take to fix it.
If you’re a business owner and have lost Google reviews, it could be because Google removed them for reasons like fake, spam, or misleading information.
Contents
Why Can I Only See My Google Review When Logged In:
If your Google reviews are not working means not showing up whenever you post there are chances you are making a few mistakes that need to be fixed.
1. Reviews Rejected
Make sure you are adding your reviews to a valid GMB page that has an active base and explain the service you have received if the review does not match the listing information or the business is no longer in service or move to a new business, you probably would not be able to see the reviews.
To make sure you can run an experiment on some businesses by posting some reviews and soon will find out that the reviews are rejected for those whose businesses do not have any previous reviews yet. This may be because Google decided to not show up reviews before 5 were completed.
This case gets fixated if the GMB owner makes any changes or updates to the businesses your pending reviews might show up in future. Note this may be a temporary issue that soon get fixed automatically.
The listing will show up on Google Maps as well along with Google search results.
2. Google reviews are not counting
If you see the reviews posted vs the counting is mismatched then be sure that some of the reviews are removed or on hold. This happens due to some internal reasons including spam & abuse. Note that if you have posted any links on the reviews these are detected as spam and most probably irrelevant reviews are wiped out from the Google My Business page.
Many people reported that it’s noted whenever they posted any reviews that took a link inside it, has never went public. The reviews may be visible to you only but if you check them from the incognito window you might notice the missing one.
Before posting any Google Business reviews make sure it is relevant and do not consume any links in them. In addition, if you have just added a review and it’s showing 6 to you but publicly this is just 5 wait a few days to get it updated upon verification by the Google My Business spam detection team.
3. Your Google Account Has Limited Visibility or Activity
If your Google profile is inactive or missing key information (like a profile photo, name, or past contributions), your review might be considered suspicious even if it’s genuine.
Step 1: Go to your Google account and check your profile visibility and completeness.
Step 2: Add a profile photo, fill out basic info, and post a few genuine reviews.
Step 3: Engage with the platform—this boosts your trust score in Google’s eyes.
📌 TIP
A well-maintained account has a better chance of making reviews publicly visible.
4. Google public Review: IF DELETED
All of the reviews posted on Google My Business are generally public and recently there is no option that one can hide them. Either you have to delete the review or just keep it public. If your posted reviews are not visible then this might be due to either it pending approval or if you have a business page where a few reviews got deleted this may be due to the user having deleted that manually.
There may be two reasons either the review has been deleted by the user or just Google removed those automatically, even the deletion of the user’s Gmail account can result in all Google My Business reviews being removed.
5. Google’s Review Filter Mistakenly Flagged It
Google’s review algorithm is designed to catch fake or policy violating content but sometimes, it gets it wrong. Even real, honest reviews can be mistakenly filtered out.
Step 1: Review Google’s content policies here.
Step 2: Remove any violations in your review (like offensive language or promotional tone).
Step 3: Repost the review with clean, helpful language.
📢 Note
Ask the business owner to confirm if your review is visible from their side they may still see it in their dashboard.
How to Fix if Google Reviews are not Showing up:
You are just going to fix the issues that are interrupting the Google reviews to show up on the listing. There are some tips for you to follow if you want to fix the Google reviews not showing up problems when you post a review on a business page on Google.
1. Check Your Reviews
Google doesn’t publish every review right away. If it detects unusual behavior, such as rapid review posting or content that triggers spam filters, it may hold your review for moderation.
Step 1: After submitting your review, wait 24–48 hours to see if it becomes public.
Step 2: Avoid including links, repetitive keywords, or promotional content in your review.
Step 3: Make sure your review sounds natural and helpful.
📢 Important
Editing your review once or twice can trigger it to refresh and reprocess.
2. Avoid Grammatical Mistakes
Bad words or grammatical mistakes in review comments can really even change the meaning of a comment. In case you have a tendency of grammatical issues in writing make sure to recheck the review before posting and make sure no such offensive words in that post that Google detects and rejects from showing up.
From the reports, it’s proved that adding bad words to reviews can result in the deletion of that review permanently and the same has been confirmed on Google’s terms & conditions page with more additional info. Not just that limited, so be specific before posting stuff that is abusive or wrongly spelled.
In addition to that, I would suggest using Grammarly for your work or any other tools that detect your grammar and writing mistakes for free to avoid mistakes in writing. This is going to help in all fields of writing as an additional benefit.
3. Wait for 7 Business days
Google would not show up your reviews instantly even if you post them on working days & working hours. This might take time to appear on the Google My Business page up to 3-7 working days. But recently, this can take more than a week and this delay is temporary.
So, let’s wait for up to 7 business working days to show up your reviews on that page. If you see this is taking more than a few weeks check if your review is terminated for violating any Google policy on Google My Business.
4. Don’t Put URL in Review
If you put any URL on your Review, you are more likely going to get hit by Google Team by pretending your review is spam. As per Google’s policy adding links to reviews is determined as spam. That means avoid posting links on your review to get it approved in 7 days and show up publicly.
Whenever you want to post a review to any GMB page just keep it generic, simple, and descriptive for other users to understand.
5. You should not be an Employee
This thing people should be aware of is someone who is an employee of that particular business or just someone from the team trying to identify the business to users as interest, this is not allowed on Google My Business. You are not eligible to post your own review comments and this is needed to keep any business page unbiased.
Ever done that? Well, let’s remove it. You can post to other businesses where you are the actual customer but it is advisable to avoid reviewing your own business or if you’re an employee there.
6. Update Google My Business page: [For Owner]
Google My Business needs proper management to stay listed on Google search. If you are the owner of the business and lost access, you can claim the business and make any improvements or changes needed on the pages.
Also, if you see the ‘Permanently closed’ tag by mistake, you can claim and fix this by changing the status to ‘Open’.
The page owner might not get any reviews if the business is detected inactive for a long time and that can be easily fixed by claiming the business that I had done for my case and the same listing was restored and opened for taking further reviews.
Can I see if a Customer wrote a review today on Google?
If you have a Google My Business account and not getting any updates on reviews on a daily basis then you should know that Google takes 7 working days to show the reviews on Google My Business. In the same way, if you have just got a few reviews that appeared on your business today, these were actually posted a few days ago.
Why is My Google reviews are Disappearing:
A bulk of reviews can be disappeared if they are detected as spam. If you brought any reviews from Google, just detect those accounts and take action on them.
In personal cases, if you’re that person whose posted reviews have disappeared this is due to spam detection or if you just updated your reviews by adding bad words or links then this is the reason for the action taken by Google.
Now, if you want to get the review restored then just update the default back to normal if you have made any changes before and you’ll see the reviews restored within 5 working days. Also, if you’ve just updated the review with additional details most probably that is pending approval, and soon that will be shown up to the public.
Final Words
Understanding why your Google review is only visible when you’re logged in can be confusing, but the issue typically lies in how Google filters and moderates content not with your device or app. Whether it’s due to policy violations, an unverified business profile, or inactive accounts, there are clear reasons behind it. The tools and apps discussed can help you manage or monitor reviews, but they don’t directly control Google’s visibility settings.
Frequently Asked Questions:
If your Google review is only visible to you when logged in, it could be due to Google’s review moderation process. Sometimes, Google holds reviews for a brief period before they’re made public, or they might only be visible to you if there’s a potential issue with the review content.
Google reviews can take time to show up publicly. Your review may be under moderation, or Google may be checking it against their policies. If you see it, but others don’t, it’s likely in this process.
There could be multiple reasons why your review isn’t visible. Google may consider the review spam, detect suspicious activity, or flag content for policy violations like URLs, profanity, or fake reviews.
If you can see your review, but others can’t, it likely hasn’t passed Google’s moderation process. Google’s filters might have flagged it due to potential violations or for additional verification.
