How To Delete Google Reviews?

Reviews are essential to convince potential customers and make them consider your brand.

They can make or break your business. Brands, local business owners, or service providers ask you to review their business online.

Google is one of the most significant search engines; bad reviews are a pain.

Bad reviews are not always bad, but a few reviews are misleading, fake, or written in an attempt to damage your brand!

Not to mention, only receiving positive experience reviews is impossible. There is always going to be a conflict of interest, and hence dealing with negative reviews is the only way out.

Furthermore, a business that showcases positive reviews only is witnessed with skepticism.

Unfortunately, the ideal solution is to delete a Google review if you have received such. Removing negative reviews is difficult, but some tricks will help you achieve your objective.

Removing Google Reviews Posted By Others

Consumers rely majorly on reviews when considering different brands to buy a product or service.

Almost 79% of online shoppers base their decision plainly on online reviews.

The sole reason behind it is that, whether negative or positive, google reviews help maintain the authenticity of a business.

Google needs to provide a more straightforward way to delete reviews which is unwanted or harmful to your business.

Google Maps app allows the removal of spam reviews that violate its content policy.

The platform lists several categories of reviews that violate its guidelines, and if the review falls under these, consider your request accepted.

That said, it will be removed if a review is determined to be a fake review.

Off-Topic posts staged as reviews.
Spam content is posted as a review only to sabotage a brand's online reputation.
Sexually explicit or inappropriate content.
Illegal content.
Harassment.
Terroristic.
Profane or obscene.
Impersonation.

All such reviews need to be deleted. You will have to appeal to the platform for deleting Google reviews.

Remove Reviews That Violate Google's Guidelines

If you suspect a certain review violates Google's guidelines, report the review to the customer service team.

Google will first confirm the legitimacy of the review and then decide on an action for your request.

Here Is the Step-by-step guide to flag inappropriate reviews.

Go to your business profile on Google.
On the top left side, you will find a "reviews" option, click on that.
Select the option that says "fake review."
Click on the three dots on the screen in the right corner.
Choose the "Flag as inappropriate" option.

After this, the platform will receive a review removal request and gauge the review on Google My Business.

Alternatively, if you want to contact a Google representative for the review, follow the other way around.

You will find a "Support" option in your Google business profile.
This option will enable you to talk with a Google representative through chat, email, or phone number.

Please note that the review of your business will not be removed if it is a genuine experience posted by a real user.

Only the fake Google reviews and the negative ones that contain offensive information, and damages the reputation of a business needs to be removed.

Otherwise, positive reviews with high star reviews need to stay.

Google is clever enough to find out the genuineness of a review. That said, there are times when a review is not authentic, contains explicit content from an unhappy customer, but Google doesn't remove it. Such negative google reviews stay.

The next step is to open Google Maps to try and get the review removed.

Recommendations To Remove Google Reviews

As stated, Google doesn't have the option to delete reviews. You will have to take a different approach to get the authentic reviews (as identified by Google) deleted.

This helps maintain an impressive image in front of potential customers.

The best way to tackle this is to address the reviewer and get the review deleted or fixed.

Jokes apart, let's start with a few things you can do to handle the unwanted Google account reviews posted on your business listing.

Don't React Negatively

We understand that you feel like lashing out at the customer who left a fake review.

Unfortunately, you cannot do this, so you must tackle things patiently and calmly.

First thing, do not post a negative reply to the review received. Handling the review negatively will make your business appear unprofessional.

Post a positive reply, so the situation doesn't get worse. Go with the flow as there is always going to be a conflict of interest. Remember that bad reviews are not an end.

You can still save your brand with better reputation management handling. A mix of bad and good reviews will make your business appear genuine.

Consider Contacting Google Support

Even after you have flagged the unwanted review and responded to it, there is no guarantee that the review will be removed.

You can reach out to the support team and ask them to delete the offending review from your business profile.

Another step is to directly contact Google's customer support from your Google business account for online reputation.

The following steps will help you contact the team.

Navigate to the "Help" section of your Google Business profile.
At the bottom of the page, you will find a small "Contact" option to help you reach the team.
In the search box, type "Customer Reviews," and then you need to click on the "Remove Review" option.
Keep clicking on the "Next" option thereafter until you reach Step 3. Then you will be directed to the page where you can choose a contact preference to connect to the support team.
The form needs to be filled and then click "Submit." As per the time frame, a Google representative will reach out to you shortly.

When contacted by the support team, the business owner should be ready with all defending answers to prove their position is right, and the online review is offensive.

Tell them why you believe the review violates the policy of Google and that it should be removed from your Business Profile.

Alternatives To Removing A Review

Suppose you could not convince the Google representative to remove the review from your business profile, per Google's review policy.

What to do next? You should carry out a few steps so that the review gets suppressed on the search engine and you have more good and positive reviews.

Downplay Unwanted Review

Unwanted or harmful reviews are not the end. They will be part of your business when handled correctly and with the correct spirit.

As stated above, respond to all your reviews, positive or negative. Explain the situation so that the reader knows what went wrong and whether it was the fault of your business.

Your respectful response to the review will prove the integrity of your business.

Collect More Reviews

To downgrade the unwanted review, you will need more reviews on top. This will help reduce the impact of the negative review.

Furthermore, the unwanted review will be pushed down, thereby improving the overall star rating of your business on Google.

All in all, the conclusion is that you will need help to remove yourself from the small business profile. You will have to write it to Google stating the reason why the review violates the policies.

Reaching out to Google may help you eliminate all hateful and nasty comments received as a part of the customer experience.

It all depends on Google, and it depends on which reviews to remove and which ones to keep.

Keep on checking other review sites such as Yelp, along with Google to see if there are some negative reviews or fake content about your brand on those platforms.

Final Thoughts

Don't let deceptive Google business reviews take away all your peace for the day.

Every company desires to receive good reviews. However, a few customers may be unhappy with your business service and will write a review about it.

Some will add a fake review on purpose. However, your brand’s image will stay intact with the right reputation management.