Google Disables Reviews Amid Covid 19
This announcement was posted Friday (March 20, 2020) by Google as part of the effort to contend with coronavirus and its impact on businesses.
Google has determined that at this time, they will disable the ability to leave new reviews, reply to reviews, and post new Question and Answer content. This announcement was posted Friday by Google as part of the effort to contend with coronavirus and its impact on businesses.
As of Friday, Google My Business was displaying, in the Reviews tab of the GMB dashboard, the following message:
The normal buttons for replying to reviews are hidden from view.
As to why Google would choose to disable reviews, replies, and Q&A, this is part of a plan to, as the announcement puts it, “prioritize critical services.” Google goes on to explain: “We are currently focusing on the quality and reliability of the information on Google Search and Maps, ensuring that users and business owners have access to essential features like whether the business is open and/or has special hours.”
We have noticed strains on the system when trying to update items like special hours for a large number of businesses, so it makes sense for Google to focus all of its bandwidth — both in terms of machines and in terms of support staff — on the most important services.
As to what else is being prioritized, Google says: “We will prioritize reviewing all edits for critical health-related businesses. At this time, we will also prioritize reviewing open and closed states, special hours, temporary closures, business descriptions for other verified businesses.
We recommend posting and updating your hours on GMB – let us know if you need any help with this.
They also note that new listings, as well as new claims for existing listings in the healthcare space, will be subject to manual review at this time. Other new listings and verifications may be delayed as health-related listings are prioritized.
We will continue to update you on how COVID 19 may be impacting your digital business.
