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We've analyzed 335,520 deleted Google reviews from November 2023 to January 2026 to uncover key trends and help local SEOs keep GBP reviews safe and compliant.
Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
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Google deleted 221 million reviews from Business Profiles in 2025 alone. Localo’s dataset of deleted Google reviews between November 2023 and January 2026 finds 89.1% of those removals targeted 5-star ratings. If you manage Google Business Profiles for clients or your own business, the reviews you worked hardest to earn are the ones most likely to disappear.
Localo analyzed 335,520 deleted Google reviews across 22,292 Business Profiles to map how Google’s moderation algorithms decide which reviews to keep and which to remove. The dataset is nearly 7x larger than our original 50,000-review study from October 2024, and the patterns have shifted.
Three findings stand out. First, deletion volume grew 28x between Q4 2023 and Q4 2025, from 5,529 to 154,421 removed reviews per quarter. Second, reviews containing generic phrases like “highly recommend” and “excellent service” are flagged at the highest rates, while specific descriptions of real experiences survive. Third, Google is getting faster: 34.7% of deleted reviews now disappear within 10 days of posting, up from 16.6%.
This analysis breaks the data into 23 findings across deletion patterns, timing, review length, owner response behavior, and content signals. Each finding includes what the data shows, what it means for the Google Business Profiles, and what to do about it.
Google admits to deleting 221 million GBP reviews in 2025. This process isn’t new, as Google constantly monitors the quality and authenticity of reviews on Business Profiles to ensure they don’t include prohibited content. That includes:
That’s the theory about missing reviews, but what about facts? Localo’s analysis breaks down these points into specific reasons Google removes so many reviews.
Previously, we’ve reported peaks in review deletions in November 2023, with 8,000 reviews gone, and in September 2024, with 7,500+ missing reviews. We suspected that these sudden increases in review deletions were due to algorithm updates or changes to Google’s guidelines.
New data show a massive spike in deleted reviews in November 2025: Google removed over 86,000 reviews from Business Profiles, more than 2x the previous month. This sharp one-month rise suggests a new, stricter algorithm or an auto-moderation push towards detecting misleading review content.
🔎 Key takeaway:
The number of reviews Google removes can increase unexpectedly. If you notice a sudden increase in removals, it’s likely due to a new algorithm or changes in guidelines.
💡 Tip:
Use local SEO tools like Localo to monitor deleted reviews in real-time. It’ll help you react quickly, recover lost Google reviews, or improve those at risk of removal.
Localo’s noted a massive spike in missing reviews between Q4 2023 and Q4 2025, from 5,529 to 154,421, showing that the number of deleted reviews grew almost 28 times. The Q1 2026 data partially suggest the curve may be plateauing.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Review deletions aren’t seasonal. There’s a continuous increase in Google review moderation.
💡 Tip:
Invest in client relationships to encourage leaving Google reviews and ensure a steady flow of authentic reviews over time.
It’s a continuous trend: in 2024, we reported that 89.6% of deleted reviews were 5-star ratings.
Our new dataset shows a similar figure: in 2026, Localo confirms that 89.1% of deleted GBP reviews were 5-star. Other industry reports, such as research from GMBapi, also say that 5-star reviews disappear most frequently.
This shows that Google closely monitors the highest-rated reviews, and these reviews are often flagged as fake or misleading.
🔎 Key takeaway:
The prevalence of 5-star ratings among deleted reviews suggests that Google pays close attention to the authenticity of praise for businesses and services.
💡 Tip:
Encourage customers to leave honest reviews that describe genuine experiences without excessive recognition.
60.6% of businesses lost only 5-star reviews, and the average rating of deleted reviews is 4.62 stars. That can affect overall business visibility in local search, given the impact of reviews as a local ranking factor.
56.9% of deleted reviews were from 2025, meaning that Google closely monitors new reviews.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Losing 5-star reviews can lead to lower ratings and a need for more work on your business’s visibility in Google Local 3-Pack.
💡 Tip:
Estimate the potential impact of review removal on your business rating. If the rating drops suddenly, it could signal missing 5-star reviews.
Nearly 30% of review removal events are batch deletions, meaning 2+ reviews go missing from a single Business Profile on the same day. In rare instances, 50+ reviews were gone within a day.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Google may remove multiple reviews from a business at a time.
💡 Tip:
If you notice a missing Google review, check the Business Profile to see whether several were deleted by Google on the same day. It’s most useful to request a bundled review recovery rather than send individual submissions.
While batch deletions happen, it’s worth noting that Google rarely deletes big batches of reviews from a single business. 63% of profiles lost 1-5 reviews, and only 2.4% of businesses lost more than 100 reviews across the dataset.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Most businesses lose up to 5 reviews.
💡 Tip:
If Google removes more than 10 reviews from your profile, you’re in the top 25% of affected businesses and need to revisit your review acquisition strategy. The current ones the profile receives are code-red to Google.
Localo’s data from 2023-2024 showed that most reviews were deleted on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which accounted for over 40% of all deletions. Saturdays at 6% and Sundays at 7% were the least active days for Google mods.
Data through January 2026 show that this has changed, with content steadily disappearing throughout the week. It’s not Tuesdays and Wednesdays anymore. Mondays are the most active, with 18.1% of GBP reviews getting removed on that day. The least active day is Sunday, with 11.8% of deleted Google reviews.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Google checks and deletes reviews each day of the week.
💡 Tip:
Make it part of the profile maintenance to monitor GBP reviews daily or weekly for disappearing content.
We previously reported that 77.19% of deleted reviews remained on profiles for over 10 days, while only 4.27% were removed within a day of posting. This suggests that Google rarely removes reviews immediately, as its algorithms take time to analyze them.
Localo’s updated data aligns with these findings, but the exact figures have changed, leaning towards catching up with fake reviews faster.
As of January 2026, the removal of reviews that stayed for over 10 days has fallen to 65.3%, and 26% of deleted reviews were over a year old. The content that disappeared within a day of being posted increased to 7.5% in 2026, and 34.7% of deleted reviews were removed within 10 days of upload.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Most deleted reviews remained on profiles for over 10 days. However, Google has gotten faster at catching misleading and fake reviews, speeding up review moderation, and reviews that don’t align with content guidelines disappear faster.
💡 Tip:
Monitor reviews on GBPs frequently, and ask customers to leave reviews regularly so that disappearing feedback is replaced with new content.
Customers post reviews evenly throughout the week. While data through October 2024 showed that Monday was the busiest day, with 15.5% of all reviews, our updated report now shows that Thursday has taken the lead, with 15.2% of all reviews posted on that day. Sunday is still the least active day, with just over 12% of uploaded reviews, but the difference is tiny.
Note: this reflects when deleted reviews were originally posted, not the full population of GBP reviews.
🔎 Key takeaway:
As reviews pop up on Google Business Profiles throughout the week, you need to be ready to post responses and interact with customers no matter the day.
💡 Tip:
It’s healthy to ask customers to leave reviews regularly. Don’t focus on specific days of the week or the business’s busy times.
Data reaching October 2024 showed that negative reviews (1-2 stars) were the longest, averaging about 80 words. Positive reviews were shorter and less descriptive, with their length decreasing as the rating increased: 4-star reviews averaged 30 words, while 5-star reviews averaged 20 words.
As of January 2026, negative reviews are 2.5-3x as long as positive feedback. The average review length is 90-109 words for 1- and 2-star reviews and 36 words for 4- and 5-star reviews.
Dissatisfied customers usually describe their experiences in more detail, being specific about their dislikes. Positive reviews are shorter and less descriptive, leaning towards grasping the overall experience.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Happy customers leave short reviews. Unhappy customers describe their experiences in more detail.
💡 Tip:
Treat negative reviews as insight into customers’ expectations. It’ll help you understand their needs and improve the quality of services you offer. Localo can help you analyze Google reviews and gain insights into customer sentiment from your GBP reviews.
Longer explanations are still more likely to be removed. In October 2024, we reported that the largest group of deleted positive Google reviews was those 11-50 words long (56.82%). The next group included reviews with more than 51 words (25.02%). Shorter positives (6-10 words and 1-5 words) accounted for only 18% of deleted reviews in total.
Our updated analysis confirms that the majority of positive reviews deleted by Google had over 11 words. Of the positive reviews that Google removed by January 2026, over 76% were 11+ words, 55.4% were 11-50 words, 20.9% were more than 51 words, 12% were 6-10 words, and only 11.7% were fewer than 5 words.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Longer comments can be easier for Google algorithms to verify. They’re also more likely to get flagged as fake or misleading.
💡 Tip:
Encourage customers to leave brief, honest feedback, as Google may consider shorter reviews more credible.
Data from 2023-2024 showed that 53.07% of deleted negative Google reviews exceeded 51 words. The next group included reviews with 11-50 words at 34.99%. Shorter negatives (6-10 words and 1-5 words) made up only a small percentage of deleted Google reviews: 6.03% and 5.92%, respectively.
New data confirms that longer explanations are still treated as suspicious. Of all negative reviews that Google deleted through January 2026, 87% had more than 11 words, 49.1% had more than 51 words, and only 6% had up to 5 words.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Detailed negative comments are treated as more suspicious by Google’s moderation bots and can also be easier for Google’s algorithms to verify.
💡 Tip:
It’s worth reporting longer negative reviews to Google, as they’re likely to get deleted.
Generic praise dominates the list of common phrases appearing in deleted GBP reviews. The top 5 common words are:
Top 5 most common 2-word phrases include:
We’ve spotted these generic comments in 28,015 reviews with duplicate text, 81% of which appear across multiple Business Profiles. One-word reviews that appear word-for-word on multiple GBPs are treated as fake by Google.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Generic phrases dominate the content of deleted reviews, with “highly recommend” and “excellent service” the most popular.
💡 Tip:
Encourage customers to leave reviews that describe their specific experiences, including the service, the day of the visit, and even the product name, as such genuine descriptions are more trustworthy than generic feedback.
Google removes reviews that include text descriptions more frequently than those that include only star ratings.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Google verifies both the rating and the content of the review.
💡 Tip:
Don’t dismiss or try to get rid of reviews that include no specific text and only a rating. Reviews with only a star rating appear less frequently in deletion data.
Among the deleted Google reviews, 85% of 1-star and 81.4% of 5-star reviews included text. 3-star reviews are the ones most often left without text (only 58.9% have it).
🔎 Key takeaway:
Google’s deletion algorithms most often target 1- and 5-star reviews that include client explanations.
💡 Tip:
Generic 5-star reviews are at the highest risk of removal. A brief comment is better than a long but generic one.
Most reviews deleted by Google haven’t been edited after upload. The median lifetime of edited reviews is 254 days vs. 60 days for unedited feedback.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Editing a review doesn’t significantly increase the risk of removal.
💡 Tip:
If you make up for a bad customer experience and your client edits their review, you don’t have to worry. It’s not an automatic red flag for Google.
Deleted reviews with low ratings (1-2 stars) most often had negative sentiment, whereas positive sentiment was predominant with higher ratings (4-5 stars).
The sentiment rating was assigned based on the content of the reviews:
🔎 Key takeaway:
The sentiment of deleted reviews varies with star rating, but not always in ways that align with intuitive predictions. In the case of 1- and 2-star reviews, a significant portion of them not only had a negative tone but also included neutral or even positive sentiments.
💡 Tip:
If a review has a low rating, don’t treat it as criticism, but as an opportunity to improve the relationship with the customer. Ensure that professionalism and willingness to resolve the issue dominate in the responses.
Business activity doesn’t protect content from deletion. Our previous dataset showed that 60.6% of deleted reviews received a response from the business, while 39.4% were removed without any response.
As we’ve analyzed data up to January 2026, this finding stands: 60.1% of reviews deleted by Google received a response. While responding to reviews on Google helps to build relationships with customers, it does not guarantee that reviews will remain on the profile. Google deletes reviews regardless of the owner’s response if they are deemed non-compliant with regulations or potentially fake.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Responding to reviews is important from a business reputation standpoint, but it does not always prevent Google from deleting them.
💡 Tip:
Respond to reviews as it is important for maintaining a positive reputation. If you notice that a review may violate Google standards or appears suspicious, report it instead of responding.
A prompt reply to the review doesn’t protect it from deletion. Data from 2023-2024 showed that 52% of deleted reviews received a response from the business within the first 24 hours. Another 18% got a reply within 2-5 days, while only 5% got a reply within 6-10 days. 25% received a response after 10 days.
Our updated dataset, covering review deletions up to January 2026, shows the same trend, with slight changes in the exact figures: 48.6% of deleted reviews received a reply within 24 hours. Another 24.8% received replies within 2-5 days, 6.8% within 6-10 days, and 19.8% after 10 days.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Even if the business responds quickly to a review, it may still be deleted if it violates Google guidelines or is flagged as fake by algorithms.
💡 Tip:
Even fast, attentive responses don’t immunize a review from deletion. Focus on encouraging authentic, specific feedback rather than reactive response speed.
Google algorithms can take a while. The time between a business reply and review deletion is a median of 78 days and an average of 228 days.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Publishing a response doesn’t prevent Google from removing a review.
💡 Tip:
If you receive a review that violates user guidelines, consider reporting it to Google instead of replying straight away.
As of October 2024, our report stated that over 60% of removed positive reviews had a response from the business, while only about 40% of removed negative reviews received a reply.
This sentiment hasn’t changed significantly. Of all deleted reviews, 61.8% of positive comments received a response from the owner as of January 2026. On the other hand, over 50% of deleted negative reviews had no business reply.
This pattern likely reflects general response behavior — owners simply respond to positive reviews more often than negative ones — rather than a deletion signal.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Most deleted positive reviews had owner responses, while most deleted negative ones did not. Owner response patterns mirror typical engagement behavior, not a special trigger for removal.
💡 Tip:
Still keep responding to reviews and build client relationships. Potential customers looking through the GBP will consider the business’s approach to clients when making their buying decisions.
Business owners tend to respond more negatively to low ratings (1-2 stars) and more favorably to positive reviews (4-5 stars).
Sentiment analysis of owners’ responses indicates that a negative tone dominated responses to lower-rated reviews, while a positive sentiment was predominant in responses to higher-rated reviews.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Avoid a negative tone while responding to reviews. Maintaining a positive sentiment even in the face of negative reviews can help build trust and improve the business’s image.
💡 Tip:
When responding to negative reviews, try to show your understanding of the problem and offer a solution in a positive tone. Even with negative reviews, responses filled with empathy and professionalism can minimize their negative impact.
1-star reviews receive longer owner responses, averaging 74.9 words. They usually leave short replies to 4-star comments, averaging at 36.7 words.
🔎 Key takeaway:
Business owners react strongly to negative customer reviews, leaving responses that are 2x longer than their replies to positive feedback.
💡 Tip:
Don’t write long explanations in response to negative feedback. A short and professional reply is more effective.
Localo’s analysis used a comprehensive dataset of 335,520 deleted Google reviews from 22,292 unique Google Business Profiles removed between November 2023 and January 2026. To identify specific patterns in Google’s moderation algorithms, we’ve examined variables such as star ratings, word counts, and temporal patterns. The methodology focused on the lifecycle of a review, comparing the time between posting, owner response, and eventual removal to determine which engagement factors trigger moderation. All findings reflect patterns observed specifically in deleted reviews. They describe what removed content looks like, not the full population of GBP reviews.
Google removes reviews that violate its guidelines or seem fake or misleading. This can include reviews that contain links, are overly promotional, look like spam, or come from users with no history of activity on Google.
If you believe a review was removed unfairly, you can try contacting Google Support and reporting the issue. However, restoring reviews is usually challenging.
Google monitors 5-star reviews closely, as they’re frequently inauthentic or incentivized. If Google deleted a 5-star review from your profile, it was likely flagged as fake, overly promotional, or misleading.
Unfortunately, no. Localo’s data shows that 60.1% of deleted Google reviews had a response from the business owner.
Among deleted reviews, 80.6% had text, and only 19.4% were star-only. That suggests rating-only reviews are flagged less often, likely because Google’s algorithms have less content to evaluate against authenticity signals.
Yes, batch deletions happen. If you spot one missing review, you should check your profile to find out if other reviews are missing.
Though Google has certainly sped up the pace of review moderation, Localo’s data shows that 65% of deleted reviews were over 10 days old. Google may monitor the history of a specific review and only later decide to delete it.
Yes, Localo’s analysis shows that reviews with over 11 words are most likely to get removed by Google.
You should encourage customers to leave authentic reviews that describe their real experiences with your business. Genuine reviews that include specific information such as names of staff, dates, and services are more credible. Avoid feedback that’s overly positive and contains links or repetitive phrases that can be considered spam.
No, Google deletes both negative and positive reviews if they violate the platform’s guidelines.
If your review has disappeared from the profile, you can check this in your Google account by going to the “My Reviews” section. Local SEO software like Localo can help you track deleted reviews and analyze their content to better protect the business in the future.
Deleted reviews often feature generic positive phrases such as “highly recommend” and “excellent service”.
Localo’s analysis shows that 60.6% of profiles lost solely 5-star reviews. Such moderating activities from Google can negatively impact the overall business rating in Google Maps as well as visibility in local SEO.
Over half of deleted reviews spotted by Localo were from 2025, showing that Google moderation is getting faster.
Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
I have been involved in local marketing for years, starting my career at KS Agency, where I also initiated the Local SEO department. Currently, as a co-founder of Localo, I am developing a tool that helps local businesses reach their customers. I share my knowledge through blogs, webinars, social media, and YouTube videos. I focus on authenticity, a practical approach, and effectiveness to support the growth of local businesses and help them connect with their customers more effectively. I value unconventional thinking and am constantly seeking new solutions in marketing.
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Sebastian Żarnowski
Co-founder & CEO
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