Can You Remove a Google Review? What Owners Can and Can't Do

Can You Remove a Google Review?

Not yourself, if it's a customer's review of your business. A business owner can report a Google review that breaks one of Google's content policies, and Google decides whether it comes down. The only person who can delete a review outright is the person who wrote it.

That leaves two kinds of bad review, and they need different responses. One breaks a rule: it's fake, it's from someone with a stake in your business, or it's abusive. Report it. The other is a real customer who had a bad experience, or remembers it differently than you do. Google says not to report a review just because you disagree with it, so that one stays, and your reply is what the next customer reads.

BMo Ventures tells business owners to sort a bad review into one of those two groups before doing anything else. It saves days of waiting on a report that was never going to work.

Which Reviews Will Google Remove?

Google removes reviews that break its policy for content on Maps. The ones business owners run into most:

What isn't on the list matters as much. A one-star review from a real customer, a review you think is unfair, or one that describes a visit differently than you remember it doesn't break a rule. Google's help page says it doesn't get involved in disagreements between businesses and their customers.

How to Remove a Google Review That Breaks the Rules

To remove a Google review that breaks a rule, you report it and Google decides. Before you report anything, take a screenshot of the review with its date showing. If it comes down, or it's part of a pattern, you'll want the record.

1. 1

   Open your Business Profile

   Sign in to the Google account that manages your profile and search for your business name on Google.

2. 2

   Go to your reviews

   Select Read reviews and find the one you want to report.

3. 3

   Select Report beside the review

   Pick the reason that matches the rule it breaks. Choose the most specific one, not the first one that seems close.

4. 4

   Send the report

   Select Send report. You can follow it from there in Google's Reviews Management Tool.

You can also start a report from the Reviews Management Tool itself: choose your business, then Report a new review for removal. It's the same report, and the tool is where you'll check on it later.

What Happens After You Report It

Google says it typically takes several days to look at a report. You'll see one of three statuses in the Reviews Management Tool:

• Decision pending. Google hasn't reviewed it yet.
• Report reviewed - no policy violation. Google looked and decided the review stays.
• Escalated - check your email for updates. You appealed, and the final decision comes by email.

If Google finds no violation and you disagree, you can appeal once, and one appeal can cover up to ten reviews. Use it for the review you're sure about, and say exactly which rule it breaks. If the review does break a rule, it comes down from Maps and Search. If it doesn't, it stays up, and there's no second appeal.

What to Do When the Review Stays Up

Reply to it. A reply sits right under the review, it shows your business name rather than yours, and the reviewer gets a notice that you answered. Google checks every reply against its content policies before it goes up, and sends back any reply that breaks them for you to edit.

When we look at a local business's profile, one of the gaps we find most often is reviews nobody has answered, good or bad. A bad review with no reply reads as if nobody's listening. A bad review with a calm, specific reply reads as a business that cares.

When one of our clients gets a negative review, we don't advise arguing it out in the thread. We reply once: acknowledge that the customer is frustrated, without admitting fault in public, and give them a direct way to reach the business, like an email address, so the rest of the conversation happens in private instead of in front of every future customer.

• Write for the next customer, not the reviewer. People reading your reviews want to see how you handle a problem.
• Keep it short. Thank them, acknowledge the frustration, and point them to a direct contact.
• Move the details to email or the phone. Google suggests the same when a situation is complicated.
• Never share their private information or argue the facts in public.

The turnarounds we've seen come from that private conversation, not from the public reply. Usually it's a misunderstanding cleared up, or a problem made right. When it goes well, we ask the customer whether they'd update their review to show it was resolved. It doesn't always work, but when it does, it's worth it, so we do it every time.

Keep the fix and the ask separate. A refund, a redo or a discount should never depend on the customer changing their review. Google bans offering anything in exchange for revising or removing a review, and that includes making it part of the deal.

The rest of the answer is more reviews. Google ties the number of reviews and your rating to how prominent your profile is in local results, and says a mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy to customers. Ask every customer, the same way every time, and one bad review becomes one of many.

Asking, replying and reporting are part of the review system in our Local Search setup. On every monthly plan, we watch for new reviews, reply to them, and report the ones that break Google's rules.

What Never to Do About a Bad Review

• Don't pay anyone to make it go away. Paying the reviewer breaks Google's rules, and Google decides every removal itself, whoever files the report.
• Don't answer with fake reviews. Posting reviews yourself, or asking staff and family to, breaks Google's rules. Under the FTC's rule on consumer reviews, fake reviews are also an unfair practice, and courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations.
• Don't threaten the reviewer. The FTC's rule names an unfounded legal threat, intimidation or a public false accusation used to get a review removed as an unfair practice.
• Don't report every bad review. Google asks owners not to, and you only get one appeal. Save it for the one you're sure about.

If Someone Is Using Bad Reviews to Extort You

Some businesses get a sudden run of one- and two-star reviews, followed by a message offering to remove them for a payment. Google calls this a serious policy violation and has a separate report for it.

• Don't pay or reply to them

  Google warns that paying doesn't guarantee the reviews come down and can invite more attempts.

• Save the evidence now

  Screenshot the messages and the reviews with dates, times and the sender's contact details, and note when the reviews started.

• Use Google's extortion report form

  It's linked from Google's help page on review extortion scams. Google investigates and tells you the result, though it won't share the details of what it found.

Common Questions