Imagine waking up, opening your Google Business Profile, and seeing your hard-earned 4.8-star rating has suddenly dipped. Even worse, dozens of your most recent reviews have simply… vanished.
If this happened to you toward the end of 2025, you weren’t alone. It was the start of what local SEO experts are calling “The Great Review Purge.” For many businesses, it wasn’t just a glitch, it was a fundamental shift in how Google validates trust.
A Perfect Storm: The Bug vs. The Brain
The chaos was caused by two massive shifts happening simultaneously at Google.
First, there was the Technical Bug. In early November, a glitch caused review counts to plummet by 15% to 20% overnight for thousands of businesses. It was a heart stopping moment for brands that had done everything by the book.
But beneath the technical glitch was something more permanent: The AI Moderation Update. Google integrated its advanced Gemini-powered AI into its spam filters. This wasn’t just a filter, it was a digital detective that began retroactively scanning years of history to flag reviews that didn’t meet the new, stricter standards for E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
The “Hit List”: Why Google Reviews Vanished
The new AI detective was trained to look for specific patterns that suggest a review might not be 100% genuine. The update specifically targeted:
- Review Gating: The “old school” trick of only sending review links to customers you know are happy. Google’s AI now looks for lopsided patterns that suggest unhappy customers are being filtered out.
- The Guest Wi-Fi Trap: Many businesses encourage customers to leave reviews while on-site. However, if multiple reviews come from the same IP address (like your guest Wi-Fi), Google flags it as “suspicious location patterns.”
- Incentive Triggers: The AI is now incredibly good at spotting language that suggests a bribe. Words like “discount,” “freebie,” or “entered the draw” within a review text are now immediate red flags.
Protecting Your Reputation with Social Places
In this new era of AI-driven search, maintaining your Google Business Profile updates is no longer a “set and forget” task. To stay visible, businesses need a strategy that prioritises authentic, verified feedback over sheer volume.
At Social Places, we’ve built our Reputation Management software around navigating these exact shifts. Our tools help you manage reviews across hundreds of locations from a single dashboard while our team helps make sure we are moving away from risky practices Ensure your brand stays on the right side of the algorithm and don’t let a “purge” destroy years of hard work. Secure your local SEO and boost your AI visibility by switching to a smarter way of managing your digital footprint.
