Two things happened in the last week of July that are worth knowing about. Google confirmed it is investigating a bug that has been quietly deleting reviews from business profiles, with no clear pattern to who is affected. Separately, the chat feature that let customers message businesses directly through their profile was switched off for good on 31 July. If you were relying on either of those without checking in regularly, you may not have noticed until a customer mentioned it.
Neither of these is the end of the world on its own. But together they point to something bigger: Google Business Profile is not a set-and-forget listing any more. It is an active channel that needs someone keeping an eye on it, and most business owners simply do not have the time.
Signs your profile needs professional attention
A few questions worth asking honestly:
When did you last check your review count matched what you remembered? A drop of even two or three reviews can be a genuine loss of trust signals, and if it is due to a Google bug, you are entitled to have them restored, but only if you notice and report it.
Are you still asking customers for reviews, or did that habit quietly stop a few months ago? Profiles that stop growing reviews tend to lose ground to competitors who keep asking.
Is your profile information (opening hours, services, photos) still accurate, or has it drifted out of date since you last logged in?
Are you tracking how people find you through Search and Maps, or is that data just sitting there unused?
If you hesitated on any of those, your profile is probably underperforming quietly, which is the worst way for a listing to fail. No dramatic drop, just a slow leak of enquiries to competitors who are paying closer attention.
What proper management actually looks like
This is exactly the gap our SEO plans are built to close. Rather than a one-off setup and goodbye, ongoing management means someone checking your profile regularly, catching issues like the reviews bug before they cost you trust, keeping your listing current, and using the data Google gives you to actually improve your visibility rather than letting it gather dust.
If you are not sure whether your current profile is pulling its weight, that is worth a quick, honest look before it becomes a bigger problem. Get in touch and we will tell you straight whether it needs attention, and what that would involve.
