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Although every major review platform struggles to moderate high volumes of reviews, businesses and users alike recognise that Google has taken it a step too far. After all, aggregated ratings and reviews with keywords have become critical to driving digital performance<\/a>. If your positive, legitimate reviews are being unintentionally filtered out, you may well lose ground on your competitors, especially if you run a small business with reviews in the double digits or less.<\/p>\n Google is aware of this filtering problem, but has so far only advised business owners to “remain patient”. In the meantime, businesses can only request authors of rejected reviews to resubmit with different wording\u2014a work-around that’s impractical even on a small scale, never mind across multiple locations. Even then, there’s no guarantee that the edited review won’t be filtered a second time.<\/p>\n With no solution in sight, take solace in the fact that all businesses and industries seem to be equally impacted by this failed filtering update. If your business is losing reviews, at least your competitors are as well.<\/p>\n Google recently updated the map that accompanies three-pack results. It now displays zoom functions as well as a button that opens the local finder for additional results. But what’s most interesting is the freedom to interact with the map. By hovering over a business’s pin, searchers will see the business name, rating, and review count\u2014and not just for the three top-ranking businesses in the local pack. Manipulation of the map, however, does not change the three top ranking businesses.<\/p>\n GIF: Search Engine Land<\/p>\n This update, while novel, doesn’t seem like it will affect the leads generated by the local pack too drastically. Because the top three results remain static, competing business will only appear if a user seeks them out in the new interactive map. If your business already ranks in the three pack, your position remains enviable. If your business doesn’t rank in the three pack, you may notice a minor increase in leads from users who discover your listing in the map.<\/p>\n Star ratings have also been given prominent display on the interactive map, appearing next to every business name. Users only need to double-click on a business to see the content of those reviews.<\/p>\n Claiming a GBP listing used to involve either phone verification, receiving a postcard, or the recently created (and not very common) video verification. While the process was simple for most small businesses, larger corporations and those with franchised locations often have difficulty claiming and managing all their GBP listings. This may become even more difficult in light of Google’s announcement that it may require more than one verification method<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s not yet known how Google determines when double verification is needed. It may prove to be deployed only in fraud-heavy industries, such as insurance. Until more data is gathered on how the multiple verification process works, businesses simply need to be aware that whoever they coordinate their profile claims with, they may need to work through an even longer process.<\/p>\nThe local pack’s map is now interactive<\/h2>\n
![\"Interactive](\"\/wpe-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/google-local-pack-map-interactive.gif\")
<\/p>\nGoogle Business Profiles may require additional verification<\/h2>\n
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