Short answer: yes, you can track Google reviews. But the level of detail you can access depends on which tools you use. Google's native dashboard shows your reviews in a list — but it hides exact dates, doesn't send alerts, and gives you no trend data. Here's everything you can (and can't) track, and how to do it properly.
What You Can Track About Google Reviews
With the right setup, you can track:
- ●The exact date every review was posted (not just '3 weeks ago')
- ●Your total review count over time — by month, quarter, or year
- ●Your average star rating trend (is it going up or down?)
- ●Which reviews have been responded to and which haven't
- ●New reviews the moment they come in — via email alert
- ●Month-over-month growth (e.g. +8 reviews in March vs +3 in February)
What You Cannot Track
There are two things you genuinely cannot track about Google reviews:
- ●Who exactly left a review — reviewers can use any Google display name, including pseudonyms
- ●Whether a specific customer left a review — Google doesn't connect reviews to purchase data
If someone asks 'can someone track my Google review back to me?' — technically yes, your display name and profile are public. But the business owner cannot see your email address, phone number, or any personal details beyond what's on your Google profile.
How to Track Google Reviews (3 Methods)
Method 1: Google Business Profile (free, limited)
Log into your Google Business Profile at business.google.com. Under 'Reviews', you'll see all your reviews in reverse chronological order. Limitations: dates show as relative ('2 months ago'), no export, no alerts, no trend charts.
Method 2: Google Alerts (free, unreliable)
Set up a Google Alert for your business name. You'll occasionally get notified when your business is mentioned online — but Google Alerts does not reliably pick up Google Reviews, and often misses them entirely.
Method 3: Dedicated review tracking tool (best)
Tools like TrackReview poll your Google Business Profile every 6 hours and store each review with its exact date, rating, and text. You get an email the moment a new review comes in, a dashboard showing your monthly review count as a KPI, and trend charts over time.
Can You Track Fake Google Reviews?
You can identify suspicious reviews, but you cannot definitively prove they're fake. Signs of a potentially fake review include: reviewer has no profile photo or review history, the review text is generic, multiple similar reviews posted in a short window, or reviews from accounts created the same day.
If you suspect a fake review, you can flag it in Google Business Profile for removal. Google's policy prohibits reviews from people who never visited or used your business. Document the pattern and submit a removal request — Google removes a meaningful portion of flagged fake reviews.
Setting Up Proper Review Tracking in Under 5 Minutes
- Search for your business using the free tool at the top of this page
- See your current reviews with exact dates instantly
- Sign up for TrackReview to get email alerts and monthly KPI reports
- Your review count becomes a real business metric — tracked automatically
Most business owners who start tracking reviews properly are surprised by two things: how often reviews come in without them knowing, and how much faster their rating improves once they start responding consistently.