Can I delete a negative Google review myself?

No. Only the person who wrote a review can delete it. As a business owner you can flag a review that violates Google's review policies, and Google will remove it if it agrees the review is inappropriate.

What happens after I flag a fake review?

Google reviews the flag against its policies and notifies you once it decides whether to remove the review. For false, slanderous reviews you can additionally file Google's legal removal request form, ideally after consulting your legal counsel.

Can genuine negative reviews be removed from Google?

No. Reviews that do not violate Google's policies stay up even if flagged. The effective route is to respond promptly, fix the customer's problem, and politely request a re-evaluation; customers often update their review once the issue is resolved.

When should I hire an online reputation consultant?

When the situation is getting out of hand: coordinated fake reviews, repeated flag rejections, or a volume of negativity you cannot manage alone. A professional service both rectifies the current damage and helps rebuild your reputation afterwards.

Ultimate Guide to Remove Negative Reviews from Google

Can negative reviews be removed from Google? Yes, but only when they violate Google's review policies. A fake, spammy, or slanderous review can be flagged and taken down; a genuine negative review cannot be deleted, but it can be resolved, and the customer who wrote it will often update it once you fix their problem. This guide covers both paths in detail: how to identify and report fake reviews, and how to turn genuine ones into repaired relationships.

Why do Google reviews matter so much for your business?

These days almost everyone relies on what others have to say about a product before actually buying it. Think about the last time you bought something or picked a restaurant because other people spoke highly of it. You were influenced by reviews, and so are your customers. The more positive reviews a product gathers, the more likely people are to buy it. A survey conducted by My Testimonial Engine found that:

85% of customers read online reviews for a business
72% of customers will not take action before they read some reviews

The same research also found that:

32% of customers visit the business's website after reading positive reviews
93% of customers spend more than 1 minute reading these reviews

So it becomes crucial for your business to gather as many genuine positive reviews as you can. But with positive reviews come negative reviews, and that is where the panic starts. Left unanswered, negative reviews can hurt a business badly enough to push it to the verge of shutting down. Below are the best ways to tackle and handle them.

Negative reviews come in two types, and the right response depends on which one you are facing:

Fake negative reviews
Genuine negative reviews

What is a fake negative review?

Every business wants enough positive reviews to overshadow the negative ones, so it is genuinely maddening to find a false review from someone who was never a customer. The good news: fake reviews have recognisable patterns. A review is likely fake when it is:

Full of slander and false claims
Riddled with grammatical errors
Posted under a fake or throwaway name
From a person you have never done business with
Carrying illegal, inappropriate, or offensive content
Irrelevant to your business entirely
Written by someone with a conflict of interest, such as a competitor

How do you remove fake negative reviews from Google?

When a review breaks Google's policies, you can get it removed. The essential thing to know first: you cannot delete the review yourself. What you can do is flag it, and Google will remove it if it finds the review inappropriate or in violation of its review policies. Follow these steps:

Go to your Google My Business profile
Click the link on the tool showing your number of reviews
Find the review you believe is fake, click the flag icon beside the comment, and select "Flag as inappropriate"
Wait for Google to review the flag; it will notify you when it decides whether to remove the review

If the review is false and full of slander, you can also fill out Google's form for a legal removal request. This route is for extreme situations and carries high requirements, so consult your legal counsel before proceeding down this path.

You can also use Google Maps to flag inappropriate negative reviews:

Open Google Maps and search for your business
Under the star rating you will see the numerated count of reviews; click on it
Find the review you want to remove
Click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the review and choose "Flag as inappropriate"

How do you handle genuine negative reviews?

Genuine negative reviews are valid customer feedback and do not violate any Google review policy. They cannot be flagged away, and even if you flag them, Google will not remove them. What you can do is manage them well enough that they stop hurting you, and often get updated by the customer. Here is how.

Respond to the review, and be prompt

According to Hosting Tribunal, more than 4 negative reviews about a company or product can decrease sales by 70%. Addressing unhappy customers quickly, and apologising sincerely, is therefore not optional. A prompt response shows that you value their opinion and care about the customer. A customer is very likely to remove a negative review once their problem is resolved. Stay polite and mature in your response; that alone can win over an angry customer.

Make an effort to solve the problem

Sometimes a response is not enough. If you keep receiving negative reviews about the same issue, chances are the problem is on your end, and what you need to change is the way you do things. Yes, it is stressful and can take real work, but it is worth it. The customer wants their problem solved, and if you have the capacity to rectify your mistakes, give it your 100%. It will help you restore the relationship with the customer.

Request a re-evaluation

When you have done all of the above and remedied the issue, you can politely ask the customer to update their review. Do not be pushy about it. In most cases the customer changes the review on their own once you show undivided attention to their issue.

Learn from the experience

Every negative review can teach you something and improve your business over time. Acting on this feedback lowers the chances of getting negative reviews in the future. To understand exactly what you should improve, get in touch with your customers and ask for their opinion directly.

Hire online reputation consultants

If the situation is getting out of hand and you are unsure what to do or how to do it, do not worry. There are plenty of Online Reputation Management Services ready to help you through the crisis. These services not only rectify your current reputation, they also help you improve your business's reputation after the crisis is resolved.

Conclusion

No business is perfect, and there will always be flaws. Treat those flaws as areas for improvement, and treat reviews as live feedback on how your business is performing. Work on them and they will carry you toward your ultimate goal. Accept more feedback in the form of reviews and encourage every customer to leave one; a push notification sent some time after the transaction works well. Reviews will come in both positive and negative, but it is the negative ones that improve your business, not the positive ones. Treat every negative review as an opportunity to improve your product.