Cyanobacterial bloom is a global water environmental and health problem. The rapid information on the bloom processes is imperative to conduct effective control measures. Satellite remote sensing has been widely used to monitor the spatiotemporal dynamics of cyanobacterial blooms in lakes due to its large-scale and periodic observations. Our paper points out four key issues when using remote sensing to study cyanobacterial blooms in lakes: (1) signals of algal blooms can be interfered by other features in the lake; (2) atmospheric radiation impacts the extraction of algal blooms; (3) the acquired spatiotemporal trend of algal bloom can be influenced by the observational frequency of satellites; (4) it is challenging to use satellite remote sensing to accurately inverse the chlorophyll concentrations in algal bloom outbreak areas. We analyze the main reasons for the above-mentioned problems and recommend that appropriate remote sensing datasets and methods should be used to minimize the potential impacts.