Can I delete a review on Google? Yes, you can delete a review on Google if the review is fake, off topic, misleading, hateful, explicit, or written by someone who isn’t your customer.
Find out exactly how to delete a Google review if someone has left a review for your business that you think might violate Google’s policies. You can delete all of the following kinds of reviews that violate Google’s review policies:
- Fake reviews
- Off-topic reviews
- Misleading reviews
- Hateful reviews
- Reviews with bad language
- Reviews from non-customers
How do I remove a negative review on Google? You can remove a negative review on Google by flagging it as inappropriate, but only if it violates one of Google’s review policies.
What can I do if Google won’t remove a negative review? The best way to handle a negative review is to drown it out with lots of positive reviews. Check out our “3 Keys to Success” with Google reviews to find out exactly how to do this.
Related questions:
- How long does it take for Google to remove a review?
- Are fake Google reviews illegal?
- How do you get good Google reviews?
Fake reviews
Fake reviews are a strict violation of Google’s review policies, and Google will delete a review that it determines to be fake.
Sometimes a competitor will hire someone to leave a lot of negative reviews on a competing business’ Google profile, just to bring down the competitor’s star rating.
This is highly unethical and Google won’t stand for it.
Other times, desperate business owners pay for people to leave fake reviews about their own business to boost their star rating.
This is a very dangerous game. These business owners can suddenly find most of their reviews deleted unexpectedly, including legitimate reviews that were mistaken as the same as all the fake reviews.
If you’re tempted to hire someone to write fake reviews, we would strongly advise against it and recommend you check out our article with more information on fake Google reviews. There are much better (and cheaper) options for getting perfectly legitimate reviews from real customers that boost your Google star rating.
How do you remove a fake Google review? Follow the instructions in our guide on how to delete a Google review, making sure you cite as much evidence as you can to prove that the review is fake.
Off-topic reviews
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]You can delete a review on Google if it is deemed to be “off topic.”
An off-topic review is any review that doesn’t describe a specific experience that one of your customers had with your business.
If a reviewer rambles on about the state of affairs in the world today and how your business is the root of all evil… but the reviewer doesn’t mention their specific customer experience with your business… then that’s an off-topic review.
Misleading reviews
You can delete a review on Google if it deliberately attempts to deceive or mislead anyone who reads it.
You can also delete a review if it is misleading simply because it’s promotional. For example, if the reviewer left the review just to promote his own business or products, then that’s misleading, and a violation of Google’s policies.
Hateful reviews
You can delete a review on Google if it’s sufficiently hateful.
Google considers it a violation of review policies if the reviewer incites hatred or discrimination toward a particular person or any group of people.
Google also considers a review to be sufficiently hateful for removal if the reviewer threatens, bullies, or harrasses someone, including your employees or other customers.
But a reviewer doesn’t have to directly threaten violence to run afoul of Google’s policies. Any reviewer who simply “promotes” or even “depicts” violence may find their reviews deleted from Google.
And even if a review is not violent in nature, it’s still considered hateful and a violation of Google’s review policies if it is in any way “illegal.”
For example, you can delete a review on Google if it includes illegal content such as copyrighted content.
And Google will also delete a review if it so much as discusses illegal products, services, or acts.
Reviews with bad language
You can delete a review on Google if it includes sexually explicit language.
Google is a “family site” for everyone of all ages, after all.
A review can also get deleted by Google for any sort of language that might be considered profane, obscene, or otherwise offensive.
Reviews from non-customers
You can delete a review on Google if it was not written by one of your customers.
Even if the review was written by your customer’s upset mom, that’s a violation of Google’s policies, because the customer’s mom only has secondhand information about the customer experience.
Only your actual customers have true “customer experiences” that can be shared in a Google review.
Can employees leave Google reviews? No, employees cannot leave google reviews without violating Google’s policies. Only customers may leave Google reviews according to Google’s policies.
Try our Google Review Management Software which is designed to help you manage your online reputation and reviews on Google My Business.
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