Can Fake Reviews Lead to a Google Business Profile (GBP) Suspension? The answer is no. I have seen this myth repeated on several forums, and even Google repeats it.
I looked at the three websites that posted these lies.
The First one was first indexed on April 24, 2024. They posted a list of 25 things that can get your GBP suspended. Twenty-three were flat out wrong or missing crucial information. They stated that Google will suspend your GBP for buying fake reviews, receiving too many Google reviews too fast, having too many negative reviews, and for review-gating. I don’t know how they came up with these, as they are false. Review-gating is when a business offers people a survey and prevents negative reviews from being posted on Google. I have reported businesses for buying fake reviews and for review-gating, but Google has never suspended any of them.
Here is a breakdown of the twenty-three suspension myths.
The next website published its post on June 8th, 2023. It claims Google will suspend your GBP for buying fake reviews or for having too many negative reviews.
The third website was first indexed on September 22nd, 2023. They claim Google will suspend your GBP for soliciting reviews from non-customers.
I posted the dates for these posts because on September 8th, 2023, Sterling Sky posted about reporting businesses with fake reviews. Nowhere in the blog post does it mention that Google might suspend a GBP for having fake reviews. There is a case study of a business where Google removed fake reviews three times. Where was the suspension that people talk about? It never happened.
Joy only saw one business get suspended, which had fake reviews. My question is, what did Google find wrong with the profile that we didn’t see?
If Google suspends GBPs for review violations, then why are they blocking GBPs from getting new reviews for months? Joy wrote about this on April 14th, 2025.
If Google suspends GBPs for fake reviews, why are they posting warnings on GBPs in the UK? This rolled out in September 2024. It’s because Google hasn’t suspended a GBP for having fake reviews.
