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How to Get Rid of Google Reviews (And When You Should)
Regrettably, not all Google reviews are positive. But when should you delete negative reviews, and how do you do it?
Consider the last time you went in search of an Italian restaurant in a new city. You are unfamiliar with the area and have no personal recommendations. You probably open your phone, search for [italian food near me], and find several restaurants.
Do you go with the first restaurant that appears?
The answer is most likely no.
Instead, you’ll probably look up customer reviews and choose a restaurant where previous customers had a good time. You’re also in good company.
Consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 98 percent of cases. Furthermore, 81% of consumers use Google as their primary business review platform to help them make purchasing decisions. Customers can control the content they post in their reviews, but businesses cannot.
Good reviews are not a guarantee, and even if your company provides excellent customer service, one dissatisfied customer may result in a negative review.
Businesses, on the other hand, must consistently monitor their Google reviews and ensure that spammy reviews are deleted as soon as possible.
In this post, we’ll discuss when and if you should delete Google reviews, what to do if you can’t delete negative reviews, and what steps your company must take to flag a review for removal.
When Is It Time To Delete A Google Review?
Not every negative review about your company is eligible for removal.
If a customer genuinely had a bad experience with your company and expressed their dissatisfaction in the form of a review, you cannot ask Google to remove the review.
Google will instead only remove a review if it violates Google’s policies. Fortunately for businesses, Google takes its review removal process seriously, and there are a variety of content types that it considers inappropriate.
Here are a few examples of reviews that should be deleted.
Civil Discourse
According to Google,
“We do not allow users to post content that harasses other people or businesses or encourages others to harass.”
It will also not tolerate hate speech or offensive content in reviews. Offensive content may include “clearly and deliberately provocative content.”
Google will also remove reviews that contain personally identifiable information, such as credit card numbers, medical records, and so on.
Content that is misleading
If the content is not based on real-world experience or does not accurately represent your location or product, it is considered deceptive.
Impersonation, misinformation, misrepresentation, or fake engagement can also be considered deceptive by Google.
Mature Material
Google will remove mature derogatory content that contains profanity, is sexually explicit, uses adult themes, or includes violence or gore.
Regulated, risky, and illegal
Google may remove content with calls to action to products or services that may be subject to local legal restrictions, as well as content that promotes dangerous activities. This includes inappropriate content that a child should not be exposed to.
Quality of Information
As previously stated, review content should be “based on your experience or questions about experiences at a specific location,” according to Google’s content policy. It does not allow political content, general rants, information about COVID-19, and other things.
Advertising a product, service, or a specific business in a review is also prohibited. In short, if your company receives negative feedback, it is not automatically removed. To submit a request for removal, your online reviews must include one of the factors listed above.
If your review content contains any of the above, you should request that Google remove the review.
What Exactly Is A Google Review?
It may appear to be simple. However, with so many online review directories available, it’s best to define what constitutes a Google review.
A Google review can help your company highlight what current customers think of your brand and what prospective customers can expect. These reviews appear in Google Search and Maps on your Google Business Profile.
Google reviews employ a star rating system, with customers able to leave ratings ranging from one to five stars.
A five-star review indicates that a customer was extremely satisfied with their experience with your brand. A one-star rating, on the other hand, indicates that a customer had a negative experience with your company.
To view reviews on a Google Business Profile, click on the star rating or the blue hyperlink with the number of reviews received by the business. Following that, you’ll see a breakdown of the number of ratings per star and the top keywords used in reviews, followed by all of the reviews left for that location. Reviews can be sorted by most relevant, newest, highest rating, and lowest rating.
Can You Remove A Google Review By Yourself?
Businesses cannot delete reviews from their Google Business Profile. This prevents businesses from deleting negative reviews based on bad experiences. To have a review removed, the person who wrote it can delete it, or a business can request that Google remove an inappropriate review.
Businesses can report a review to Google Maps or Google Search for removal.
Here are the procedures for both.
How to Flag Google Maps Review
- On your computer, launch Google Maps.
- Look for your Google Business Profile.
- Locate the review you want to mark.
- More, mark as inappropriate.
How to Flag a Google Search Review
- Go to Google on your computer.
- Look for your Google Business Profile.
- Go to Google Reviews.
- Locate the review you want to mark.
- More information, report review Then, choose the type of violation to report.
How Do You Mark A Review In Your Account?
- Sign in to your computer to manage your Google Business Profile.
- Select the review you want to report on.
- For a single company: Navigate to the Google Business Profile you want to manage. Click Reviews in the menu on the left.
- For a variety of businesses: Click Manage reviews on the left menu. Then, using the drop-down menu, select a location group.
- Click more, then flag as inappropriate, on the review you want to flag.
Google takes its own review safeguards. It will automatically detect spam and fake reviews and remove them on its own.
According to Google,
“These measures help to improve people’s Google experiences and ensure that the reviews they see are genuine, relevant, and useful.”
When you flag a review for removal on your Google Business Profile, Google notes that it may take several days for the review to be removed. It’s also worth noting for hotel brands that you can’t flag third-party hotel reviews, even if policy violations occur in the context of the review.
What Should I Do While I Await Google To Remove A Review?
Your customer service team must respond to all reviews, whether they are positive or negative. Responding to reviews demonstrates to others that you care about your customers’ experiences and want to provide the best possible experience.
Create a thoughtful response to every review you receive, especially negative customer reviews where you have the opportunity to reshape a customer’s perception of your company and respond as soon as possible. This holds true even while you wait for Google to remove spam reviews.
Conclusion
Your Google Business Profile serves as your company’s digital storefront. It also provides an opportunity to directly share customer feedback through reviews.
You do, however, want genuine reviews to appear on your profile. As a result, you can (and should) flag any reviews that violate Google’s review policies in order to maintain a strong overall review profile.
Take action on reviews that meet the above criteria to prevent them from appearing when a prospective customer searches for your brand on Google Maps and Search.
About the author
PAUL SMITH - For over 20 years I have worked with businesses, enterprises and brands in Australia, NZ, UK and US to drive digital marketing growth using organic and paid traffic strategies. No fluff or BS, just straight-forward return on investment.
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