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Type “remove Google review” into your Google search bar, and the search engine will return an astronomical 4.6 BILLION results! Clearly, bad customer reviews are on the minds of local business owners and operators.\nEvery business owner dreads receiving a negative online review from a customer. It’s a justifiable fear, since close to 9 in 10 consumers trust online reviews as highly as recommendations from friends and family, and one negative review can cost your business 30 customers. So, once a customer publishes a negative review on a site like Google, Facebook, or Yelp, what can you do to fix it?\nIt’s generally very difficult to remove bad reviews from a third-party site like Yelp or Google. You need to be able to:\nShow the site managers that the review violates the site’s terms of service by being “inappropriate” — a subjective area that relies on a judgment call.\nProve it has been written by a competitor or otherwise fabricated.\nConvince the person who wrote the review to take it down.\nPursuing any of these strategies can mean a long, difficult road with uncertain outcomes. Ultimately, you don’t have complete control over whether a posted review stays or goes.\nIf you can’t remove the negative review, what’s your recourse when negative feedback pops up and hurts your business? In this case, the best defense is a good offense. Here are some proactive steps you can take to protect yourself and mitigate the damage done by a negative review:\nClaim your business listings\n \non review sites like Yelp and Google\nBy claiming your business’s listings on review sites, you empower yourself as the owner to contact the site manager to request removal of the review, and to respond to reviews directly.\nClick for our easy how-to articles:\nHow to claim your Google My Business profile\nHow to claim your business listing on Yelp\nCreate and claim your Facebook business page\nClaim your TripAdvisor listing\nGet your business listed on OpenTable\nHow to claim your Foursquare business profile\nRefer to our \nfree business listings\n article for many more!\nRespond to negative reviews\nSince it’s rare for an online review site to agree to take down a negative review, the next best thing is to acknowledge the customer’s experience by posting a response. This is an important step, since studies show 56%-70% of complaining customers will use a business again if their concern is resolved. Keep your tone empathetic and avoid getting defensive — this can actually be an opportunity to generate more sales. By engaging with customers and resolving their concerns, you can generate repeat business, which can increase revenue by 47%.\nRead our complete article on \nhow to respond to bad reviews\n for more.\nGet more positive reviews from your best customers\nGetting more online reviews is one of the most important things you can do to attract customers and increase sales. First, it helps customers find your business online because review content on business rating sites accounts for 10.3% of your local search engine ranking. Second, research from Cornell University professors found that simply encouraging online reviews can improve a business’s online ratings—with one-star gains translating to 39% more revenue—and each additional review you receive increases revenue by .49%.\nRead our article on \nhow to get more reviews\n for more.


Can you remove negative reviews from sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp?

In this article:\nWhich Google reviews can be removed\nHow to flag Google reviews for removal\nHow to remove fake Google reviews\nHow to improve your online reputation and get more good Google reviews\nA bad Google review of your business can leave you feeling helpless, frustrated, and even angry. And who can blame you? You’ve worked hard to build your business’s reputation. And with 9 in 10 consumers saying they trust online reviews as highly as recommendations from friends and family, Google reviews make a real impact on revenue for local businesses.\nWhen a business owner ends up facing harsh feedback online, the first question many of them ask is: “How do I remove Google reviews?” or “Can I turn off Google reviews for my business?” After all, if someone spray painted “Don’t shop here” on the front of your business, you’d do whatever it took to scrub, sandblast, or paint over it as soon as possible.\nsarcastic young woman giving thumbs down for removing google review\n\nIt’s an understandable reaction, but unfortunately removing negative Google reviews isn’t quite as straightforward as rolling up your sleeves and grabbing a fresh bucket of paint to take care of some unsightly graffiti.\nLet’s start with the most simple question:\nIs it possible to remove Google reviews?\nIt’s complicated.\nOccasionally, it’s possible to remove Google reviews, but only in instances where you can definitively prove that the review in question violates \nGoogle’s review policies\n. We’ll go into detail about what that means in a moment, but first let’s be clear about the kind of reviews that \ndon’t\n violate Google’s terms of service.\nIt is not possible to remove Google reviews simply because they’re negative, unfair, or even if you feel the customer is totally misrepresenting their experience.\nbeautiful young women leaving an unkind online review for remove google reviews\n\nIf the review is from someone who actually patronized your business and is sharing their perspective, then chances are that review is there to stay. And if that’s your situation, then your best bet is to engage the customer in good faith and respond to the bad review.\nUsing a good reputation management solution is excellent way to manage all your reviews in one place, saving you time while helping you stay on top of your online reputation. Software makes it easy to respond to your reviews and encourage more reviews from your best customers.\nPlus, new research shows that negative reviews aren’t necessarily as harmful as you might think. Businesses with between 10 and 25% negative reviews make the most money!\nYou might also like: \nHow to respond to negative reviews\n\nWhat types of Google reviews can be removed?\nWhile you can’t remove Google reviews just because they’re negative in tone, Google will remove reviews they determine have violated their terms of service as outlined in \nGoogle’s review policies\n.\nLet’s take a look at the primary types of reviews that Google prohibits:\nFake Google reviews, false reviews, or manipulative reviews:\nSpam reviews (content posted multiple times from different accounts), conflicts of interest (reviewing your own business), impersonations (representing the views of someone other than yourself).\nblack gloved hand leaving fake review on laptop for remove google review\n\nMisleading Google reviews or inaccurate reviews:\nReviews or photos that clearly represent a different business or location.\nOff-topic reviews:\nContent not at all related to a customer’s experience patronizing the business in question.\nRestricted, illegal, derogatory, or explicit content:\nPhotos, content, or links to restricted, dangerous or illegal activities. This also includes threatening or discriminatory language.\nHow to flag and remove Google reviews that violate the terms of service\nIf you’re sure that a review of your business violates Google’s terms of service, your final step is to flag the report for Google’s review. You can do this a few different ways.\nFlag a Google review from your Google My Business account\nSign in to \nGoogle My Business\nIf you have more than one listing, select the location you’d like to manage\nSelect \nReviews\n from the menu
\n(Image)\n\nFind the review you’d like to flag and click the three dots in the corner\n(Image)\n\nClick \nFlag as inappropriate\n(Image)\n\nFlag a Google review in Google Maps:\nSearch for your business on Google Maps\nSelect your location and scroll to the \nReview summary\nClick the \nReviews\n link under your average rating
\n(Image)\n\nScroll to the review in question and click the 3 dots in the top corner
\n(Image)\n\nClick \nFlag as inappropriate\n(Image)\n\nComplete the form that appears and click \nSubmit\nIt can take several days for Google to evaluate the review, so you’ll need to be patient. But you should eventually receive a response from Google about the status of the flagged review and a decision about whether or not they’ll remove the Google review.\nTake reviews seriously, but don't freak out about a bad one\nIt’s helpful to know that Google does have safeguards in place to protect you from the most egregious type of online behavior. But it’s important to keep in mind that, with rare and unfortunate exceptions, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to remove Google reviews from your listing most of the time.\nNo matter how harsh a review might be, it’s important to think of it less as graffiti sprayed across the front of your store and more like digital word of mouth.\nangry young hispanic woman with megaphone making thumbs down gesture for remove google review\n\nIf you were to overhear someone in your neighborhood complaining about your business, even if you could paint over or delete that person’s unkind words, it wouldn’t really solve anything. It’s the same with trying to remove Google reviews.\nWe always recommend that you treat your Google reviews like you would an in-person complaint. Maintain the high ground, and follow our guidelines for \nhow to respond to negative reviews\n, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can turn the conversation around.\nThe most cost-effective way for small businesses to improve their online reputation is to encourage genuine reviews from customers. When you get a more accurate, positive picture of your business, you start attracting more new customers and improve your star rating.

62 articles found in “Reviews”

Can you remove negative reviews from sites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp?

How to remove Google reviews

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