Google recently changed the content policy of its Google My Business program to prohibit ex-employees from leaving negative reviews of their former companies. The newly introduced provision builds on the existing guidelines which already prevented current employees from reviewing the firms that pay them, though it’s likely to affect an entirely opposite type of reviews; whereas Google considers current employees to have a conflict of interest in a sense that they’re inclined to misrepresent their companies with excessive praises, it applies similar reasoning to highly negative reviews left by people who may have been laid off for legitimate reasons and are trying to get back at their former employers.
The change was introduced on December 14th and only pertains to negative reviews, with the company believing former employees aren’t in a conflict of interest if they leave a positive or neutral rating of the places they used to work at. The core principle of Google’s review guidelines is still the same and requires reviewers to do their best to rate an average customer experience. Reviewers still don’t have to be customers themselves, so long as they had provable intent to become ones in scenarios used as foundations for their reviews, as per the same rules. That particular clause leaves little room for the possibility of former employees leaving excessively positive reviews, whereas the newly introduced change prevents the same kind of reviewers from unjustifiably bashing the business. If you’re a business owner who’s been trying to get a negative review from an ex-employee removed in recent times, you should now be able to do so by reporting the rating and quoting the new guideline change linked below.
The Google Maps app is still one of the most convenient ways of participating in the Google My Business program, whether by having your company listed or reviewing another firm. The platform itself remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in mid-2014, save for the somewhat frequent additions to its guidelines aimed at ensuring it provides customers with a realistic representation of what kind of an experience they can expect from any particular company. The solution is officially part of Google’s enterprise offerings that include popular services like AdWords, G Suite, and AdSense.