06/05/2026
Google has updated how reviews are monitored across Business Profiles — with AI now playing a much larger role.
For clinics, this isn’t just a platform update.
It directly affects how your practice is seen — and found.
Practices using:
– review gating (only asking happy patients)
– incentivised reviews
– in-clinic kiosks or shared devices
– or filtered feedback flows
may now see reviews removed, or in some cases, restrictions applied.
Google is increasingly flagging patterns that appear inauthentic, including:
– multiple reviews from the same device or IP
– unusually clustered review activity
– sentiment-based filtering
At the same time, reviews are playing a bigger role in:
– local search rankings
– Google Business visibility
– AI-driven recommendations
So the risk isn’t just losing reviews.
It’s losing visibility.
What to do instead:
– Send review requests to all patients (not selectively)
– Avoid incentives or prompts
– Use a consistent, neutral request process
– Keep collection simple and individual (not shared devices)
The goal is straightforward:
authentic, consistent feedback — at scale.
If you’re unsure how your current process stacks up, it’s worth taking a closer look.