How to Remove Google Reviews in 3 Simple Steps

Google Reviews are an integral part of your digital real estate. As an essential aspect on a Google My Business Listing, these testimonials have a strong influence on how you are perceived online. Positive reviews can be leveraged to increase revenue while negative Google reviews have an opposite effect of decreasing your sales as prospective clients are dissuaded from engaging with your brand. In this light, knowledge of how to remove or suppress negative content online is a key aspect of your brand reputation management strategy.

Google Reviews: What Are They?

Google reviews are feedback or comments left by customers on a business’s Google profile. They appear in search results whenever people look for your business, such as on Google Maps and the local finder.

Why Deleting Negative Google Reviews Matters

Protect Your Business Image

Google Reviews are an integral part of your digital real estate. As an essential aspect of a Google My Business Listing, these testimonials have a strong influence on how you are perceived online.

Influence Consumer Decisions

Positive reviews can be leveraged to increase revenue while negative Google reviews have the opposite effect of decreasing your sales as prospective clients are dissuaded from engaging with your brand. In this light, knowledge of how to remove or suppress negative content online is a key aspect of your brand reputation management strategy. As the top website for reviews, Google influences consumer decisions more than other business review websites.

Improve Your Overall Rating

With zero-click searches on the rise, Google reviews and ratings have become a prominent feature on search engine result pages. Zero-click searches provide answers to a search query without the user having to leave the search engine result page to click through another website for more information.

3 Simple Steps to Remove Google Reviews

Before exploring how to remove Google reviews, let’s understand Google’s review removal policy.

Deleting Google reviews is possible if fall into the following categories:

• Fake reviews: This includes fabricated reviews not based on real experience, for example, customers provided reviews for some kind of incentive. 
• Misleading: Google also allows deleting the review if the information is being misquoted especially about sensitive civic issues such as medical.
• Personal and Offensive Content: You can also remove a Google review if it violates any privacy rules, or contains offensive information and illegal content.

In short, It is possible to directly contact Google and have them delete a negative online review if its violates any of its policy. However, do not attempt the delete the review simply because you do not like it, it may not work.

Step 1: Requesting Google to Remove the Reviews

Reporting or deleting inappropriate reviews from Google Business is a simple and straightforward process. Follow these to flag a review and request to have it deleted

Steps to Flag and Delete a Google Review

Find Your Google Business Profile

• Type your business name into the search engine and locate your business.
• Log into your Google business page.

Access Your Reviews

• Click on “Read Reviews” and select the listing you want to manage.
• Click on Reviews to view customer feedback.

Report the Review

• Click on the three vertical dots next to the review.
• Select the option to Report the Review.

Choose the Flagging Reason

• Select the reason for flagging the review as inappropriate.
• Submit the request to have the review deleted.

Report a Review in the Google My Business App

Open the Google My Business App:

• Open the app on your phone and sign in with your business account.

Locate Your Business Profile:

• After signing in, you will see the dashboard.  If you manage multiple businesses, select the business profile you want to remove the review from.

Go to Reviews Section:

• In the Google My Business app, tap on the Customers tab at the bottom of the screen.
• Select Reviews from the options.

Find the Review to Flag:

• Scroll through the list of reviews until you find the review you wish to report.
• Tap on the review to open it.

Flag the Review:

• Once the review is open, tap on the three vertical dots (more options) next to the review.
• From the menu, select Flag as inappropriate.

Report the Review:

• Choose a reason for flagging the review (e.g., spam, inappropriate content, conflict of interest, etc.).
• After selecting the appropriate reason, follow the prompts to submit your flag.

My Business Remove a Review Using Google Maps

Open the My Business App

• On the My Business app, select customers, then reviews.

Access Reviews

• Click on more, then select the review that you want to report. Click on three small vertical dots next to the review. Select report review from the options and finally choose the valid reason for reporting. 

This approach puts all the power in the hands of Google. There is no guarantee that Google will delete the review. Additionally, there isn’t a specific timeline when they will act on the review and take it down. 

In order to have the most success with this approach, ask that other people also report the review to get Google to pay attention to it and delete it.

If requests to flag the review for removal prove futile, you can apply for a formal request to have the review taken down. This is a legal process and works if the subject matter is slanderous or defamatory. This is done using Google’s Content Removal Tool and each complaint is responded to separately in line with Google’s protocol.

Another measure one can take is to contact Google My Business on Twitter profile and DM their customer support with your issue.

Step 2: Responding to the Reviewer: Requesting an Edit or Deletion

As soon as you notice a negative review, open a line of communication using email and give reasons why you want the review edited or deleted. Empathize with the author of the review to assess their frustration with your business. Assure them that the problem will be fixed, then work diligently to rectify it. Once the issue has been resolved, politely ask the author to delete or edit the review. 

Be patient with this approach and do not pressurize the customer to act. How you interact also defines your personal reputation as an employee.

Step 3:Suppressing Negative Google Reviews

The tactic of choosing to suppress the online review without necessarily deleting it has proven to be a more successful methodology for success as it wields back control into your hands.

The first step when you spot a negative review is to authenticate the review. This involves assessing whether the review is genuine or spammy or fake, as it would be the case of mistaken identity where the review has no relation to your business. It is possible that competitors are using trolls to sabotage your business. There are certain things that you can check for to verify a review. These are initially whether the author of the comment or rating has left reviews elsewhere. The second is whether their profile comes with a photo. The third is to check for records of the buyer actually engaging with your product. If they tick ‘no’ on all checkboxes, then you are probably dealing with a spam account.  Follow the steps listed above to remove fake Google reviews. Once you have certified that the review is genuine, this is what you need to do;

The initial steps in managing a reputation crisis are paramount. In this case, remain calm and get into a proper headspace to prepare you to objectively handle the situation. Do not compound the scenario with negative emotions. Justly, you are feeling upset about the negative things that are being said about your company. However, if you react out of anger, it makes the situation worse by making you seem unprofessional. It might also leave your customers with a bad taste in your mouth at your inability to handle feedback on your product or service. Even if it will temporarily make you feel good, do not react negatively as it will put your online reputation at risk in the long run.

Moreover, if your listing only had five-star reviews, it would raise skepticism about the authenticity of your product. A negative review is not the end of the world.

Respond with a level head to assess and fix the problem. A record of follow-up on the comments section is sure to boost a positive perception of your brand online as one that prioritizes their customer’s needs and grows from feedback. This could influence other disgruntled consumers to change or take down their negative reviews.

Strategies to Boost Average Google Rating

Boosting your Google rating average is important for the reputation management for lawyers, doctors or any business. You only need four to five ratings for them to show up on a search engine results page. Google uses the most current ratings. 

Ask Satisfied Customers to Leave a Review

Rally up customers who have positive things to say to leave comments about their satisfaction. Send them a short email or text after their last interaction with you. Follow up with gentle reminders if they do not respond while emphasizing, how their feedback can help other customers. A consistent stream of new positive comments is likely to outweigh previous negative comments. Amplify your top-rated review on your website or social media pages which tells customers about your great product. Incorporate a strategy for asking for reviews using feedback forms, SMS, and social media channels. If they are satisfied with your product or service, ask them to leave a good online rating.

Avoid Buying Fake Reviews

As tempting as it may seem, do not buy online reviews as they will quickly be flagged by Google’s algorithm as spam and deleted.

Automated Review Tracking

Instead, develop a methodology that will help you stay on top of your Google reviews. This can be through the use of tracking software that gives you updates about the ratings on your listing, or by outsourcing reputation management experts to do the work for you. Responding in a timely fashion – preferably within a 24-hour window shows that you are a caring business owner who is vigilant about their customer’s concerns. With this strategy, you can turn the frowns on your buyers into smiles.

FAQ

How to remove Google reviews?

Ans: First of all, keep in mind that removing a Google review is only possible if it violates its review policy. Therefore, before taking any step to delete the Google review, read its policy. If it violates any of its policies, then flag and report the review. Find the specific review that you want to delete on your business profile. Click on three vertical dots on the review, select report or flag, and write the reasons for reporting.

Can you remove the Google review?

Removing Google reviews is not possible directly. However, you can report or flag it as inappropriate. If your request has been unsuccessful, you can also dispute the review.

Can businesses remove Google reviews? 

Unfortunately, businesses cannot remove reviews directly. However, they can flag or report a review if it violates Google’s review policy, such as if it is fake, spam, or contains personal or illegal content.

How to remove Google reviews from a business?

To remove a Google review from your business, you can’t delete it straight away. You can report or flag it if it violates the review policy. Once you report it, the request is reviewed and handled based on the case

How to remove the Google review I posted?

To remove a Google review you have posted, log into your Google Account and go to Google Maps. Click on the three horizontal lines in the top left corner to open the menu, then select “Your Contributions” from the available options. Proceed with editing or deleting from there.