How to Delete a Google Review

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Negative Google reviews can adversely affect your business, including driving away potential customers, impacting your reputation, and lowering your business’ search engine rankings. 

Fortunately, it is possible to remove negative reviews and sanitize your business image. 

And negative reviews don’t necessarily have to affect your business. There are also ways to use negative reviews to your advantage.

The Top Online Reputation Management Companies for Deleting Google Reviews

We recommend enlisting the help of a professional reputation management company to help you remove negative Google reviews. Here are the best ones for our purposes:

You can read our full reviews of each reputation management company here.

5 Steps to Delete a Google Review

You have options as far as deleting Google reviews. Admittedly, some of these steps work better than others. But you can also use a combination of the steps to see which one works. 

  1. Delete Your Own Reviews (Optional)
  2. Use an Online Reputation Management Company (WebiMax)
  3. Request the Author to Delete the Review
  4. Flag Fake or Inappropriate Reviews
  5. Get More Positive Reviews

The Easy Parts of Deleting a Google Review

Some parts of deleting a Google review are fairly straightforward.

For instance, Google will consider removing reviews that infringe on its review policies. For example, taking down a negative review by a disgruntled employee shouldn’t be difficult, because it is against Google’s review policies for employees to post reviews of their place of work. 

Similarly, Google may consider deleting negative reviews from your direct competitors. The conflict of interest in these types of reviews is strong grounds for asking Google to delete the review.

Lastly, you can hire an online reputation management company to delete the Google review. You’ll only need to provide the necessary information and pay the agreed-upon fee. Then, a dedicated expert will take charge of the removal process.

The Difficult Parts of Deleting a Google Review

Things are more complicated for business owners who want to delete Google reviews on their business pages. Naturally, review sites like Google, TripAdvisor, and Yelp endeavor to aggregate honest and unbiased reviews.

For this reason, businesses cannot delete reviews of themselves on these sites. There’s no delete button to get rid of the unfavorable review. You’ll need to contact someone who can delete the review, such as a Google site administrator.

Additionally, disputes between business owners and clients are difficult to resolve. You may be right in asking Google to delete a review you know to be false. But it is often difficult or impossible for an external arbitrator to determine who is right.

Finally, Google doesn’t delete third-party reviews. For example, Google cannot delete reviews from TripAdvisor on your business page. You’ll need to contact the third party directly.

Now that you know what you’re up against, here’s how to delete a Google review, step-by-step.

Step 1 – Delete Your Own Review (Optional)

This step applies if you want to delete a Google Business Profile review you wrote. Whatever your reasons for deleting, it only takes a couple of seconds.

Delete the Review

To delete a review you wrote about a business:

  • Open Google Maps on your computer.
  • Click Menu at the top left of your screen.
  • Click Your contributions.
  • Click More next to the review you want to delete.
  • Click Delete review.
Example of a review in Google Maps with red arrow pointing to "Delete review"

It’s still worth going through this step, even if the review isn’t yours. You may want to ask your customers to delete a negative review. So knowing the steps is helpful just in case you need to walk them through the process.

Edit the Review

Deleting a review isn’t the only option. You can also edit it to reflect your current thoughts and feelings. For example, the business owner might have made amends, or the issue is no longer relevant.

You’ll simply follow the same steps as deleting the review, except you’ll click Edit review instead.

Step 2 – Use an Online Reputation Management Company (WebiMax)

The simplest way to delete a Google review is to enlist the help of a professional. Online reputation management companies specialize in cleaning up your online image, including deleting unfavorable reviews.

WebiMax home page

Choose Your Reputation Management Company 

WebiMax is a top choice for several reasons. Its services are affordable. Plus, you won’t get locked into a long-term contract. You’ll only need to pay on a month-to-month basis.

WebiMax offers a host of online reputation management services. But, we’ll focus on its online review management service. The company takes a human-centric approach. So you’ll be assigned a digital marketing expert to help you with your problem.

You can sign up for WebiMax by visiting the official website.

Get Your Free Review Report

Next, WebiMax offers a free review report on demand. This is a perfect opportunity to find out if other reviews require attention. You may be surprised at how much negative press is out there about your business. Additionally, you’ll receive a free review action plan and quote for the job.

WebiMax uses various strategies to delete Google reviews. The specific approach depends on your circumstances. For instance, the company has a team of lawyers if you need to file legal notice to compel Google to delete the review.

Alternatively, the company’s digital marketing team may discover that the review breaks Google’s policies. In this case, the company will follow up with Google to remove the review.

Finally, WebiMax can also suppress negative reviews. This process essentially involves generating authentic positive reviews to counter the negative. This method works when there are no legal or policy grounds for deleting the review.

Whatever the case, you’ll receive a detailed proposal for what the company will do to get rid of the upsetting review. Simply fill in your details in the required fields and click BOOK MY FREE DEMO to get started.

Webimax form to request a free demo and price quote with fields for Website URL, Contact Name, Email, and Phone Number

Let WebiMax Manage Your Reviews

You might also consider also letting WebiMax handle your online reviews going forward. Of course, you can decide this once you have a full report of your online reviews.

To this end, WebiMax offers a comprehensive list of services, including:

  • Providing a unified dashboard to manage all your online reviews.
  • Directing unhappy customers to give you feedback directly, rather than Google.
  • Automating review requests for happy customers.
  • Notify your business about negative reviews instantly.

Again, WebiMax offers pocket-friendly reputation management services. It’s easy to see why hiring a professional company to handle your online image guarantees a return on your investment.

Step 3 – Request the Author to Delete the Review

Some customers may be willing to redact or edit a negative review if you ask nicely. For example, the customer might have had time to cool off or may have changed their views based on your actions. Either way, consider asking them to delete the review.

Reply to the Review

Contacting the reviewer out of the blue may aggravate the issue. The best first step is to reply to the review before reaching out to the author with a removal request.

Start by assessing the review. Make sure you understand the exact complaint before responding. Try to be empathetic and see things from the customer’s perspective.

Keep your response brief. Own up to the complaint or at least empathize with the customer. Also, apologize for the experience and offer a solution to the problem, such as a refund or replacing a faulty product.

Try to respond to all feedback within 24 hours, where possible. A quick response shows that you care about your customers. You’ll also have a chance of persuading the reviewer when the experience is still fresh in their mind.

It’s also worth creating a review response template. It will make it easier to reply to reviews quickly and maintain consistency in your responses. Lastly, update the template based on your reply’s successes and failures.

Example of Google review response template with dropdown options

Request the Removal

Offer to resolve the matter privately once the customer responds to your feedback. You can now get into the details of what you’ll do to make amends and prevent the same incident from happening again.

Most reviewers will have warmed up by this point. This is especially true if you successfully resolve their issue or address the complaint. Then, politely ask them to remove or edit the review to make it more positive.

Step 4 – Flag Fake or Inappropriate Reviews

Not all competitors are above shady business practices. For example, it’s not unheard of for unscrupulous business owners to post fake reviews on competitors’ Google Business Profile. Similarly, some customers may be aggressive, rude, or offensive in their complaints.

Fortunately, Google is sensitive to these types of scenarios. The platform readily deletes reviews that break its policy and terms. So you only need to flag the review and wait for Google to take it down.

Assess the Review

It’s good practice to assess all negative reviews for credibility. You can check the reviewer’s name against your customer database to verify if you’re dealing with a real customer. If so, their profile should match the data in your records.

You can also view the author’s review history to check for inconsistent patterns that may indicate a fake review. For example, a generic review with no details about the experience might be fake. On the other hand, genuine customers tend to be specific about their experience, whether positive or negative.

Additionally, check for red flags in the reviewer’s profile. Fake profiles typically don’t have a consistent review history and have generic avatars or profile names. You’ll generally feel that you’re not dealing with a real person. 

You may also want to consider replying to the fake review. It can take time before Google finally removes it from your profile. Meanwhile, potential customers may think it’s real.

It’s best to remain professional in your reply. First, mention that you don’t seem to find the customer in your records. Then, again, offer to address the complaint. This strategy will help buy time while you flag and hopefully get Google to remove the review.

Flag the Review

Start by going through Google’s policy to identify potential violations in the review. You can also get Google to remove a  “real” review if it violates the policy.

Google's policy for Prohibited and Restricted Contact

For example, Google may delete the review if it’s a personal rant from a disgruntled ex-employee or family member. Similarly, Google also deletes offensive, profane, or obscene reviews. The same goes for harassing, intimidating, bullying, or threatening content.

To flag the review:

  • Search your Business Profile on Google Maps. Alternatively, sign in to your Business Profile.
  • Click Google Reviews. 
  • Click More next to the review you want to report.
  • Click Report review.
  • Choose the reason for reporting the review and click Flag as inappropriate.
Example of a Google Review with red arrow pointing to "Flag as inappropriate"

It may take several days before Google finally removes the content. You’ll receive an automated email confirming that Google received your removal request and is assessing it.

Google also has a spam protection feature. It automatically identifies and removes spam reviews and content. So you might not need to do anything. But it’s always a good idea to flag all spam reviews just in case Google’s spam detectors miss them.

Step 5 – Get More Positive Reviews  

A handful of negative reviews may work in your favor. Many customers may think it suspicious if you don’t have a single negative review on your Business Profile. But you don’t want too many, and it helps even more if you have a lot of positive reviews to counter the few negative ones. So a great way to blunt the effects of negative reviews is by increasing the amount of positive feedback you have.

Meet Your Customer’s Expectations

It might sound obvious, but meeting customer expectations is the best way to increase your positive reviews. This is because happy customers are more likely to share their positive experiences. It’s also a good way of attracting new customers.

Again, it helps if you know how to leave a Google review. Some customers may not be familiar with the process and may require your guidance. Consider also having a link to your Google Business Profile on your website to make it easier for people to leave a review.

Ask Customers to Leave a Review

There are several ways to ask customers to leave a Google review. For example, you can do this after you complete a job, through email, or when you send a bill. Many customers won’t be inclined to leave a review if you don’t ask.

Alternatively, you can use a professional service like WebiMax to boost your positive reviews. A digital marketing expert will help you create a custom action plan to increase your online reviews, including your Business Profile. Alternatively, you can use software to automate review requests via email or text.

WebiMax uses a combination of these methods to increase your online reviews. You’ll also get a unified dashboard to manage all your online reviews when you sign up for the service.


Source: quicksprout

How to Delete a Google Review