How long does it take for Google to remove a review? It can take several days for Google to remove a review that has been flagged as inappropriate.
However, if Google doesn’t remove a review after you have flagged it, you can still take additional steps to get the review removed.
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The key to removing a Google review is to show Google that the review violates Google’s review policies.
You begin that process by flagging a review for removal.
How do I flag a Google review for removal? To flag a Google review for removal:
- Log into Google My Business
- Click “Reviews” to view your reviews
- Click the 3-dot menu for the review you want to remove
- Click “Flag as inappropriate”
How many flags does it take to remove a Google review? It only takes 1 flag to remove a Google review as long as you give Google enough evidence that the review violates Google’s policies.
Google removes reviews based on whether they violate policy, not based on the number of times a review gets flagged as inappropriate.
If Google still hasn’t removed the review a week or so after you’ve flagged it as inappropriate, escalate the matter to Google’s support team.
Make sure you tell the support team the specific language in the review that violates a policy, and which specific policy it violates. This will significantly improve your chances of getting the Google review removed.
It may take Google support up to 24 hours to respond, so be patient.
If Google’s support team refuses the remove the review, don’t despair. All is not lost. You still have a few options left.
First, if you think the reviewer violated the law in some way (such as committing libel or copyright infringement) then you can still get the review removed if you engage a lawyer. Google is very good about removing any content that a judge has officially ruled against.
Of course lawyers can get pretty expensive.
So if you don’t want to pay for legal help, you still have one more arrow in your quiver: You can try to minimize the damage of the review by responding appropriately to it.
First see if you can reach out to the customer to solve their problems. Then after improving the customer’s experience, ask if they’ll update their review (presumably to a kinder, gentler review with an extra star or two added).
If you can’t improve the customer’s experience, then your final fallback is to respond to the review in a way that shows all future customers how well you behave in a crisis.
Write a response that demonstrates that you’re sympathetic to your customers’ needs and that you go above and beyond to help your customers when they’re dissatisfied. You may not win over the reviewer, but you may win over dozens or even hundreds of future prospects who read your response to the reviewer.
The one last thing you can do to handle a negative review is to drown out bad reviews with good reviews. To do this, check out the chapter on the “3 Keys to Success” with Google reviews in our ultimate guide to Google reviews.
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