Report: Rejected Google Review Replies - The Hidden Rejections

A caller study has been released that looks astatine the reappraisal replies that person been rejected by Google. Business owners return the clip to reply to customer reviews and past Google deletes them, and often, the business proprietor has nary thought the reply was deleted because Google does not notify anyone - Google conscionable removes the review.

The study is from GMBapi that says it looked astatine 12,752 rejected reappraisal replies and it showed this successful summary:

• 92.6% were replies to 5-star reviews. Positive reviews are generating the astir rejections, almost surely because businesses (and AI tools) respond to them pinch templated, enthusiastic language.
• Rejections spiked sharply successful 2024. From 354 rejections successful each of 2022 and 398 successful 2023, the number jumped to 9,393 successful 2024 alone. Either Google’s select intelligibly became importantly much aggressive, Google aliases the value of the reappraisal changed.
• The mean rejected reply was written 1,221 hours, astir 50 days, aft the original reappraisal was posted. Delayed, bulk-scheduled replies look successful the information astatine a disproportionate rate, and that mean has grown since our first pull.

Michel van Luijtelaar, co-founder of GMBapi.com wrote connected LinkedIn:

From April 2025 onwards, the rejection volumes changes significantly. Total measurement drops and the AI boilerplate stock of rejections falls from supra 70% to azygous digits successful immoderate months. Two interpretations: either AI reply devices sewage smarter (it does not align pinch our motorboat of AI replies functionality) and businesses stopped submitting poor-quality templates. Or Google's select is operating astatine a different shape of the pipeline entirely.

For a deeper look astatine this data, spot the full study post.

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