The short answer
New profiles have few reviews, so each fake one moves the average a long way. Common early fakes come from former staff, competitors, people confusing you with an old business at the address, and spam accounts. Get verified access to the profile first, then report each review in the Reviews Management Tool under the policy it breaks. Do not seed the listing with friends' reviews.
Why new listings get hit
The maths is against a new profile. With five reviews, one fake one star review changes the average far more than it would on a listing with two hundred. A new business also tends to have people with a reason to resent it: the staff who did not come along, the shop down the road, the landlord dispute, the previous owner.
A new listing also has no track record for readers. A visitor who sees three reviews, one of them a one star rant, has nothing else to weigh it against. On an older listing the same review sits among hundreds. And fake reviews that land in the first weeks can sit unnoticed while you are busy opening, so read new reviews every day for your first few months.
The fakes that show up first
- A former employee or business partner writing about you as a person, not about a visit. That is a conflict of interest.
- A competitor nearby, often posing as a customer with no detail of a visit.
- Reviews meant for the old business at the same address, describing a service you never offered.
- Spam accounts that leave the same short line on many new listings.
- Ratings with no text from accounts with no other local reviews.
- Friends of a former partner or employee, posting within days of each other.
The old business problem is easy to miss. If the address used to be a different business, people may still search for it, land on your listing and review what they remember. These reviews are often not malicious, but they are not about your business either.
See which of your reviews break a rule.
The check reads every low review on your listing and labels it. Free, and nothing is filed until you pick.
Before you report: secure the profile
The Reviews Management Tool asks you to confirm the email linked to your Business Profile and to choose your business. That only works if the profile is verified and you are an owner or manager on it. If someone else set the profile up, ask them to add you as an owner or manager rather than handing over their login. Make sure the name, address, category and hours are complete and correct, since a review meant for another business is easier to show when your profile clearly says what you do. Then capture each fake review with its date and reviewer profile, as set out in the guide on documenting a review attack.
What not to do on a new listing
The pull to fill a thin listing with friendly reviews is strong. Google's policy bans reviews posted because of an incentive, reviews from people with a conflict of interest, and content not based on a real experience. Its help page on profile restrictions says a business that breaks the fake engagement policy can have new reviews blocked for a set period, existing reviews unpublished for a set period, or a warning shown that fake reviews were removed. On a new listing that is a hard start to recover from. The same goes for review exchange groups, where owners agree to review each other's businesses. If a well meaning friend has already posted a review without visiting, ask them to delete it.
Worth knowing: Reviews from your own staff and family count as a conflict of interest under Google's rules, even when every word is true.
Build real reviews from the start
- Share the review link from your Business Profile with real customers after a finished job or visit.
- Ask everyone the same way, not only the customers you expect to be happy.
- Reply to the first real reviews, so new customers see someone is reading.
- Never offer a discount, gift or entry into a draw in return for a review.
- Put the review link on receipts, invoices or a card at the counter, so asking becomes routine.
Real reviews do not remove fake ones, but they put them in context for readers while your reports are open. A steady flow of real reviews also makes any future wave easier to see, because there is now a normal pattern for it to break.
Keep watch for the first months
Read every new review on the day it arrives, and log any that match the patterns above with the date, the reviewer and a screenshot. If several arrive close together, treat it as an attack and follow the guide on the first 24 hours. If they trickle in from the same few sources, such as a former employee and their friends, the log will show the link over time. A pattern caught early is far easier to report than one found a year later.
Check the first reviews
Paste your Google Maps link into the free review check. It reads every low review on the new listing and labels each one: Conflict of interest, Off topic, Spam and the other kinds Google bans, or No rule broken. You see which reviews can be filed before you place an order, and you are billed only for a review Google removes. Placing an order takes no payment, so you can check the listing the week you open and decide later.