How To Remove Google Reviews [Complete Guide 2024]
The Step-By-Step Guide To Erase Negative Google Reviews
Bad Google reviews can severely affect your local search and Google Maps rankings and conversions. Did you know it takes more than 30 positive 5-star reviews to offset one negative review?That’s a significant amount.
This is precisely why removing negative Google reviews is crucial to maintaining a high rating. After all, your local Google rating influences purchase decisions.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to remove negative, fake and inappropriate Google reviews. Plus, I want to share with you how why having some poor Google reviews can actually be beneficial for you as a business owner.
Source: Local Consumer Review Survey 2023 Brightlocal
Why Do People Leave Negative Reviews On Google?
People leave negative reviews because they’ve had a bad experience with a business. That might seem obvious, but what many business owners overlook is that a significant portion of their bad Google reviews could have been prevented through straightforward measures.Most problems arise due to communication gaps within the company. It often boils down to either inadequate explanations to customers or simply not listening to their concerns.
Note: Addressing product or service issues promptly and effectively can prevent bad experiences from translating into negative reviews.
Legal Obligations About Removing Reviews
Removing honest and legitimate reviews is considered illegal in many countries.
So, if you’re aiming to erase a genuine negative review from the web, that doesn't interfere with the platforms guidelines or any laws, it’s highly unlikely to succeed unless you engage directly with the reviewer.
Reviews remain unbiased and valuable only when they are unaltered by external parties.
If customers have specific opinions about your business, these can significantly influence purchasing decisions and motivate you to improve their experience.
Otherwise, reviews become meaningless if they only reflect what businesses want the public to see.
Nevertheless, there are legal methods to delete Google reviews. Here they are:
4 Ways To Delete Google Reviews
If you aim to remove negative reviews on Google or any other platform, these four tactics offer the best results without legal issues.
Success rates can vary depending on the method.
1. Purchase a fast review removal service
We've managed to set up a system that helps you remove Google reviews in less than 10 business days. This is certainly the most efficient method you can find online. Many marketing and reputation agencies need several weeks to remove only a few reviews. We have a 95% success rate and do it in just a few days.
If you want to learn more, check out this page: Fast Google Review Removal Services
2. Delete Google Reviews Through Responding
The first tactic involves responding to reviews in a way that fosters a sense of accountability without being manipulative. It’s about sincerely apologizing for any issues the customer experienced, which can sometimes prompt reflection on their part about the bad review they left.We also emphasize our commitment to resolving their concerns, demonstrating how much their feedback means to us. Simply stating the importance of their feedback isn’t enough; we need to show we’re actively addressing their specific complaints.
Even if we believe the customer may have misunderstood, acknowledging any communication gaps can make them feel valued. Many problems arise from miscommunication, where improving our communication strategy can prevent similar issues in the future.
This brings us to the principle of “The customer is always right.”
If you attempt to lecture the customer on what actually occurred, it typically won’t go far. Those reading your response will perceive that your focus is on proving yourself right rather than portraying yourself as kind and humble.
When you respond graciously, even to inaccuracies or misunderstandings, there’s a chance the reviewer may reconsider their negative review and remove it voluntarily.
This should always be our goal when addressing negative reviews—to encourage a positive resolution. Any other approach risks being perceived as egotistical.
It’s important to recognize that when you insist on being right, you’re often defending your business’s reputation more than the business itself. It’s natural to feel defensive when criticized, but responding with composure and respect requires courage and discipline.
3. Reach Out To The Reviewer
Whenever you respond to a negative review on your Google Business Profile, it’s beneficial to offer the customer a way to contact you directly to resolve the issue offline. In rare cases, reaching out to the customer immediately after their review to address their concerns can also be effective.We’ve successfully transformed multiple negative reviews this way over the past few years. Effective communication tactics can significantly improve a local business’s reputation.
For local SEO consultants or agencies, helping clients with customer relationship management is crucial. Even though it might not seem technical, it’s a very important skill to learn.
One success story highlights this importance: a client received their first negative review and thought it was impossible to recover from. We managed to turn that negative review into an excellent 5-star review, and the client was pleasantly surprised by the result. This example shows how effective customer relationship management can make a big difference.
Before:
After:
As demonstrated in this example, effective communication is crucial for maintaining a stellar online reputation.
Once more, negative reviews often stem not from poor services but from how customers are treated. Ignoring their concerns can be just as damaging as providing poor service.
4. Report the review Or Take Legal Action
The third option is viable only if the review violates the review platform’s policies or legal regulations.If a review is deemed unfair, spammy, misleading, or involves a conflict of interest, platforms such as Google or Yelp will investigate it further.
If it is found to violate their guidelines, the platform will typically remove the review.I will talk about that in more detail later. Why would Google Remove customer Reviews?Google will remove reviews only if the content violates its guidelines or contains illegal material.If you’re unsure whether a review breaches these rules but still believe it’s unfair, the following sections will address this.Note: Only Google or the reviewer themselves can delete Google reviews. Anyone claiming to provide Google review removal services can only increase the likelihood of removal, not guarantee it. Be cautious of anyone promising guaranteed removal of reviews.Here’s a list of prohibited and restricted content for reviews:
Deceptive Content & Behavior
- Fake engagement
- Impersonation
- Misinformation
- Misrepresentation
Inappropriate Content & Behavior
- Harassment
- Hate speech
- Offensive content
- Personal information
- Obscenity & profanity
- Sexually explicit content
- Adult-themed content
- Violence & gore
- Restricted content
- Dangerous content
- Illegal content
- Child safety
- Terrorist content
- Off-topic
- Advertising & solicitation
- Gibberish & repetitive content
- Defacement & mischief
How To Report & Remove A Google Review
Here are the precise steps you should follow to significantly improve your chances of successfully removing a Google review:1. Reply to the review
In order to have a review removed, you will need to reply to it first. If you suspect a review is fake or misleading, be sure to respond and specifically address what you believe violates Google policies. You don’t need to explicitly mention that the review violates Google’s guidelines; you’ll need to focus on the specific issue.Here’s a typical example of a response you can use in such cases:
Even if the review remains, responding professionally and positively reflects well on your business to everyone who reads it. Remember, a negative Google review isn’t the end of the world. As mentioned earlier, the issue often lies in poor communication rather than bad service.
Many readers will still view your business favorably if they see a professional response, regardless of the criticism. It’s crucial to consistently gather positive reviews to maintain a strong overall rating and mitigate the impact of negative feedback.
2. Flag the review
The next step is to flag the review. The more people who flag a review, the higher the chance it will be taken down.If you need more people to help you flag an inappropriate review, visit our Local SEO Hustlers Spam Forum where we crowd source Google review-reporting.
Note: Flagging the Google review from an authoritative high-level Local Guide account can help speed up the process. A low-authority high-level account won’t be as effective. However, Google places great importance on legitimate accounts that report reviews and content with a sense of authenticity and credibility.
My personal Google account is so powerful that Google reviews every report I send. This doesn’t usually happen with Level 1 accounts.
Here is how to flag a negative review on Google:
- Go to Google Maps.
- Search for a business by its name or address.
- Select the business from the Google Maps search results.
- In the panel on the right, scroll to the “Review summary” section.
5. Under the review section, click “Sort” and select.
6. Scroll to the Google review you’d like to report.
7. Click the 3 dots icon and choose “Flag as inappropriate”.
The other option "share review" enables you to share the Google review link.
8. In the window that appears, choose your category for the deletion.
9. Click Submit.
That’s it, you’ve reported a review to Google.
But don’t forget step number 3.
3. Report the reviewer's Google account
This is another way to remove Google reviews that many people aren’t aware of. You can report the account responsible for the fake review. If the Google account is banned or deleted, the fake review will be gone, too.Reporting accounts doesn’t really work from a desktop computer. For that to work, you’d need to open the Google Maps app on your mobile phone and report the account from there.
4 Steps to report a Google account
- Open Google Maps and find the review that you think is violating Google’s guidelines
- Click on the user name
3. Click on the 3 dots on the user profile and hit the report button.
4. Choose a reason why you think this account is violating Google’s policies.
Google will then decide whether they agree to your report or not. They will only take action if the account is obviously violating Google’s guidelines. I don’t think Google would ban accounts just because they left unfair reviews.
4. Contact Google To Delete A Review
First of all, you need to visit Google’s review management platform.
Next, confirm your email address.
Search for the business listing and click “continue”.
Next, select ‘Check the status of a review I’ve already reported and my appeal options.’
Here’s a tip: Google allows you to appeal a decision, which can be a bit confusing. You can even appeal a review removal request decision while it’s still pending. That’s exactly what we want to do.
It basically means escalating the review removal request to a Google representative for further review.
In this window, you can see the reviews you’ve reported and their status. The “Appeal eligible reviews” option will only show up if there are reviews with “decision pending.” That’s why you need to report the review before you contact Google.
Make sure there is at least one review you want to remove in this list and its status is “decision pending.”
Click ‘Appeal eligible reviews’ to proceed.
Google says you can submit an appeal if the review report happened more than 3 days ago. However, you can report the review before the 3 days have passed.
Click on “Submit an appeal.”
This will direct you to the Request Removal Of Inappropriate Reviews form.
Before you start, check the policy you’re referring to when filling out the review removal form. Add the policy's name to the first field.
Check the next image for further clarification. The name of my example policy is “Fake Engagement”.
In the next field, you want to explain the dispute to remove the review and describe the reason why you believe the review is against Google’s policies.
I recommend you refer to the information Google provides about each policy. Try to describe it as precisely as possible and avoid to add any unnecessary information.
There is a human reviewing your request on the other end. Don’t waste their time. The easier you make it for them to review your request, the higher your chance of success.
Note: You can access the URL of this page directly. However, if you use the form outside of the process I just described here, the review you selected during the process will not be attached to the form.
The following screenshot shows you the Google policy about prohibited and restricted content. (click on “policy” to access this page)
This is where you choose your policy name and the description about your review removal from.
The following screenshot shows you the Google policy about prohibited and restricted content. This is where you choose your policy name and the description about your review removal from.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Are Reviews Necessary?
Reviews play an important role in influencing purchasing decisions. People often rely on others’ opinions and good reviews can be a significant factor in increasing leads for a local business.Getting a high number of positive reviews can lead to more leads and sales. If your reviews are both higher in quality and quantity compared to your competitors, you’re more likely to attract potential customers.
According to a report from BrightLocal, 87% of consumers would not even consider a business with an average rating below 3 stars. This points out the importance of maintaining good reviews to not only grow your business but also to remain competitive in your market.
How To Prevent Negative Reviews?
To prevent negative reviews for your small business on Google, you will need to focus on high-quality products/services, excellent customer service and outstanding business communications.While great work usually reduces negative feedback, it’s impossible to completely avoid it. However, receiving some bad reviews isn’t always bad for business.
Note: Many consumers view a perfect 5.0-star rating as unrealistic and prefer businesses rated between 4.6 and 4.9 stars, which they perceive as more authentic and credible.
Source: Uberall The Reputation Management Revolution Report | Uberall
How you respond to negative reviews can significantly impact potential customers’ perceptions about other people’s experiences with your business. Rather than aiming to avoid one-star reviews altogether, it’s crucial to focus on how you handle them and that you get more reviews in general.
Every business, including yours, has its imperfections – it’s all about how you manage and learn from them. This particular approach or mindset demonstrates transparency and a commitment to customer satisfaction, which can eventually strengthen your business reputation and trustworthiness.
How To Ask A Customer To Remove A Negative Review?
The best way to handle negative reviews is to address them with a lot of empathy and work to resolve the customer’s issue.This approach can often make people feel a little guilty about leaving a negative review.
And that’s exactly what we want. What sounds like a manipulative tactic is actually a very ego-less move.
People’s complaints are usually not personal. They’re merely a reflection of their feelings. And if you do something (sometimes nothing) that hurts their feelings, you will inevitably get a bad review for it. (unless you reverse it)
A response that makes them feel bad about their harsh words can lead to them deleting the review themselves. This has worked for us a couple of times already.
However, and I want to stress that, if you really messed up, apologizing is not enough to make up for it. A negative 1 star review needs about 30 good reviews to make up for it. That’s what it takes to actually offset one bad review.
You will need to compensate the customer 30 times the value of what you messed up which can increase the chance to encourage the customer to delete the bad review.
Note: Customers typically complain about bad communication rather than poor service or products. It’s challenging for them to leave a negative review about someone they find nice, even if the service or product wasn’t that satisfying.
They might think, “I don’t want to harm their reputation because they’re a nice person, I want to let them know about my issue privately.”
Therefore, asking existing customers to delete a Google review shouldn’t be your first choice. Avoid letting your ego drive the discussion, as it’s not about being right or wrong.
Instead, focus on effective communication, understanding human psychology, and responding to customer reviews in a constructive way.
Can I take legal action against an unfair Google review?
Yes, you can file a legal removal request with Google. The success of the request depends heavily on the country you’re in and the specific laws that apply.However, removing inappropriate online reviews through a legal removal request is usually not a simple process. You need valid reasons that make sense in your country to justify the deletion of a Google review. Otherwise, your removal request is unlikely to be successful.
Here is how you can file a legal Google review removal request with Google:
- Log in to your Google Business Profile account
- Visit the Report Content for Legal Reasons page
- Click “Create a request”
- Choose “Google Search”
5. Select “Other search features”
6. Select “Local Listings” including business listings, reviews, photos and posts.
7. Select “Legal Reasons to report content”
8. Choose “Court order” if you have one. Otherwise select “Other”.
9. When clicked “Other”, you will be directed to the Legal removal issue page.
10. Read the form instructions carefully and fill out the form based on your own business details and case.
Tip: To increase your chances to have a Google review deleted, cite legal paragraphs and refer to specific laws and violations.
That’s it, now it is on Google to decide how to proceed with your legal review removal request.
What Tools Can Assist Me In Managing My Google Reviews?
You can use tools like Brightlocal’s review management tool and a fake review detector.
These tools can help you manage the reviews but they won’t do the work for you.
Can I Turn Off Google Reviews For My Business?
No, businesses can’t turn off reviews on their Google Business Profile Manager. Reviews are a key part of Google’s local listings, and they can’t be removed. Honest feedback is important for local marketing, and getting rid of appropriate reviews would make customers lose trust.What else can I do to keep an excellent Google rating?
Apart from trying to delete fake reviews, collecting positive reviews can help offset negative reviews on your Google account. To keep an excellent Google rating, it’s vital to have a constant stream of incoming legitimate reviews.This requires a review collection process that is at least semi-automated. From our experience, one effective method is to print QR codes that direct users to the review popup on your Google Business account where they can directly leave a review.
You can print those QR codes out and stick them on wherever your customers’ attention is. If you’re a bar owner you can put them on tables, glasses, or bottles. You can also use them in thank-you-emails or WhatsApp messages though the impact will be higher if they’re placed on offline objects.
What other review sites can improve my online reputation?
The most important review sites are Facebook, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, and BBB.org. These platforms are the most popular and should be prioritized for listing your local business and collecting consumer reviews.
Besides these, there are thousands of niche and geographically-specific sites where you can also list your business and gather reviews. Google is looking at other platforms to rank business on the map pack and on Google Maps.
However, many of these sites are low-quality. Be sure that the site gets regular and relevant traffic so that you can benefit from free incoming leads.
It’s highly recommended to research where your potential new customers hang out online and then create a profile wherever that is.
Final Words
Now you understand how to effectively tackle negative Google reviews. Positive Google reviews are crucial for your local SEO campaigns, and every piece of negative feedback can have a significant impact on your local search performance.
Remember, keeping a high Google rating requires a consistent stream of genuine 5-star reviews to counter any negative feedback.
The three steps discussed in this article will help you remove many of your fake Google reviews. You might even be able to delete some genuine poor reviews if they violate Google’s policies.
Ultimately, make sure your online reviews accurately reflect your services and aren’t influenced by a potential lack of communication skills.
Reach Out
If you have problems deleting reviews and want us to remove your defamatory or fake reviews faster, feel free to reach out here: Review Removal Request Form | HypetrixWe're seeing great results, and our success rate is nearly 100%.
Please leave a comment below if you like the guide. Thank you!
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