Measured: Google Is Wiping Business Reviews and Meta Just Changed Your Ad Targeting

Two things happened in the last month that most small business owners have not heard about. Both directly affect how your business shows up online and how your marketing works.

Story one: Google is quietly wiping legitimate business reviews. Small businesses across the country are watching their Google reviews disappear without warning. In at least one confirmed case, a business's rating dropped to zero. Search Engine Journal verified the pattern this month, and Google officially acknowledged the problem in early July. The pattern: a business owner reports fake or spam reviews on their listing, and Google's automated system responds by blocking new legitimate reviews from being posted.

This is not an isolated incident. Mass Google Business Profile suspensions hit thousands of small businesses in April. Google's June spam update caught legitimate sites. Google's own report says it removed or blocked 292 million reviews in 2025.

Story two: Meta just removed a user privacy control that affects your advertising. Starting this month, Meta removed the "Your activity off Meta technologies" setting from Facebook and Instagram. Users can no longer disconnect their off-platform activity from their Meta account.

For businesses advertising on Meta, three practical effects. Retargeting audiences should grow. Lookalike audiences should perform better. Reported performance metrics may look stronger. The improvements happen automatically if your Pixel and Conversions API are set up properly.

In this episode:

The Google reviews issue and what is actually happeningThe Meta privacy change and what it means for your advertisingThree practical effects on Meta advertisersWhat both stories tell us about platform dependency

Customer question: Should my business have a one-page website or multiple pages?

Featured project: Skyline Workshophttps://www.skylineworkshop.com/