How to Delete a Google Review in 2024: Step by Step Guide

Introduction to deleting a google review

Google reviews constitute an important part of any business’s brand reputation strategy as it is these reviews that act as a bridge between businesses and potential customers. 

When a person searches for a particular product or service, the first thing they do is read through the reviews that other people have left for the business. 

40%+ searches on google are local searches, with voice searches gaining popularity. This number is expected to keep growing in the times ahead. 

While positive reviews help build trust with potential customers, negative reviews give them an idea of the areas where the business lacks and is improving upon. But sometimes people do leave negative reviews about businesses, which may not be true. 

Sometimes these fake google reviews can be written by competitors to tarnish a business’s reputation OR can be a result of an honest mistake due to similarity in business names, whatever the reason, negative google reviews do pose a risk to your business. So how do you delete Google reviews that pose such a risk?

Google reviews are important because they help increase your search ranking, bring in more customers and pose your business in a positive light. Did you know that businesses that generate more google reviews witness an 80 percent surge in their annual revenue? As a business, how do you ensure that negative reviews don’t affect that surge? 

Can you delete google reviews? If yes, then what is the process for the same? What if Google doesn’t delete a google review? Scroll further down, and you’ll get your answers! 

Can you delete a google review? 

Deleting a Google review isn’t as simple as deleting a comment on your Instagram photo. You don’t get presented with an option to delete a google review. As a third-party site, only Google has the authority to remove reviews that people leave on it. Apart from that, there are two other options:

• Either the customer, who has posted the review, can remove it
• You can flag the review as inappropriate 

What kind of google reviews can be deleted? (with examples) 

The unfortunate part here is that you cannot simply ‘delete’ a review. If you have identified a review that is fraudulent or malicious what you can do is flag that review as inappropriate. This will prompt Google to review it. The review will be removed by google if it falls under any one of these categories: 

1. Spam and fake content that is posted to manipulate ratings. This includes posting multiple times, including from different accounts.
2. Off-topic posts that are general in nature, such as political commentary or personal rants.
3. Promoting actions be taken or items purchased that fail to comply with local legal regulations. Such restricted content includes promoting alcohol, gambling, guns, pharmaceuticals, adult services, and more. 
4. Illegal or depict illegal activity, such as copyrighted content, endangered animal products, graphic violence, human trafficking, etc.
5. Terrorist in nature.
6. Sexually explicit or in any way sexually exploits children.
7. Offensive, obscene, or profane.
8. Dangerous, considered harassment or intimidating, or incite hatred.
9. Impersonating others or having false representation.
10. Dishonest or biased. This includes posting reviews of your own business (or having a current or former employee do it for you) and trying to manipulate a competitor’s ratings.

What types of reviews are eligible for removal? Well, to give you some context, here are a couple of examples. 

1. A customer using offensive language to describe bad customer service
2. A fake review posted by a competitor that lacks any specific details 
3. A review that is posted on the wrong listing and has nothing to do with the business 
4. A fake review, positive/negative posted to adjust the ranking of a business 

How to delete a google review that might pose your business in a bad light? 

There are two main ways to reach out to google if you want to report a review. You can do that either by logging into your GMB account or contacting google business support. We’re going to explain both methods here. 

If you receive a negative review on your business page, here are the steps you need to follow to get the review deleted. 

Step-1: Login to your Google account. 
Step-2: Open business.google.com
Step-3: Select the ‘reviews’ option on the left navigation. You will see all your reviews under that option. 
Step-4: Go to the three dots on the right side of the review that you wish to flag. 
Step-5: Click on that icon and select ‘mark as inappropriate’. 
Step-6: Select the reason for flagging that particular review and hit ‘submit’.

That’s it! You’re done. Now all you need to do is sit back and wait for Google’s response. 

How to contact small business support?

Google reviews for your small business is what app store ratings are for a mobile app. Just the way bad ratings can result in the downfall of an app, similarly, negative reviews can have a negative impact on your business.

Remember, it’s good to have a mix of both negative and positive reviews to help users understand that you are a genuine business and so are the reviews.

It’s good to learn that there is no “delete feature” to delete a google review but in this article, we talk about what you can do to get a google review deleted.

Here’s how you can contact business support: 

Step-1: Sign into your Google account
Step-2: Navigate to https://support.google.com/business/gethelp
Step-3: Select the business from the dropdown menu
Step-4: You’ll be presented with a list. Select ‘remove reviews’
Step-5: Click on ‘next steps’
Step-6: Select the preferred contact option 

And, you’re done.

While we are not sure about the exact time Google would take to respond to your issue, it will surely get back to you in a few weeks, with an email addressing the ticket. Just make sure that you keep a screenshot of the review handy so that you can refer to it when you get a response. 

Another quicker method to get in touch with Google Business Support is through social channels like Twitter. Here is their Twitter account @GoogleMyBiz. You can always tweet to them and someone will get in touch either via a tweet or may ask you to DM them for more details.

While you wait for Google to address your request, let’s look at how you can downplay negative reviews. 

Respond to a genuine negative google review

As a rule of thumb, remember not to respond to a genuine negative review immediately. You don’t want to handle anger with anger. When you see a negative review, wait for 24 hours to let it sink in and head back to your team to understand their side of the story. Once you have both sides of the story, call the customer personally and apologize. 90% of the time, customers feel bad and either remove the google review or change the rating when a business owner calls them personally.

If the review is still not removed, respond to the review. Here you are not responding to the customer but to your potential customers. This helps them understand you care about your business and take each review seriously.

Things to keep in mind while responding to a review:

• Apologize and be respectful
• Never ask them to delete the review
• Offer them a free service or a discount in return/ask them to reevaluate your service

Not sure how to respond to a negative review? Follow these simple steps:

Step-1: Sign in to your google my business listing and select the location (if you own multiple locations) and the review you need to respond to.
Step-2: Select the review, and click reply next to the review you would like to reply to.
Step-3: Type in your response and click ‘Submit’
Step-4: How to remove a google review

Disadvantages of flagging Google reviews 

While flagging Google reviews is the right thing to do, it certainly isn’t the most efficient. Google might take days to review your request and you’ll still not know whether Google will delete the review. Will the review be taken down? If yes, when? If not, what are the steps ahead? This brings us to the disadvantages of flagging Google reviews. Here’s what you need to consider: 

• Waiting for Google to delete your review can take a lot of time, which means that you can lose out on a lot of customers. 
• Google believes in providing users with unbiased feedback, which is why it will not delete a review just because it is negative. 

How do you deal with the review if Google does not delete it? 

68% of people trust a brand more when it has a mix of good and bad reviews. (Trust Pilot, 2018). 

The best way to go about dealing with negative reviews is to respond to them. Some stats that will help you understand this better: 

1. Consumers find that businesses that respond to reviews are 1.7x more trustworthy than those who don’t (Google, 2019) 
2. Not responding to reviews can increase your customer churn by 15%
3. 53% of customers expect their reviews to be responded to within an hour (Edelman digital, 2018)

How do you handle google reviews you want to delete? 

Well, here are some strategies that you can implement:

• Respond! 

Whenever you receive a negative google review about your business, responding to it is the best way out there. Understand what triggered the negative review? Was it a mistake made by your team? Was it a miscommunication? Discuss internally. Once you figure out the reason, respond to the customer. Start by apologizing, and then move your way towards asking the customer what went wrong. If it is a genuine customer, he will definitely explain the issue and will be desperate for a solution. Addressing the issue at hand and taking measures to resolve the issue proactively is what counts. Once the issue is taken care of, your customer might even delete the review himself! 

• Request the customer to delete the review 

While some customers do remove their reviews after their issues are resolved, some might choose to leave the review for the reference of future customers. They might think that the negative review would pose a great example of customer service. In such a case, you can ask the customer to delete the review. You can send a personalized text or email to the customer and ask them politely if they would consider removing the review. 

• Look for signs of authenticity

While most of the google reviews are written by customers who have availed services from you, some people find it better to talk trash about your business to bring you down. How do they do it? By leaving negative reviews. So, you need to look out for those fake google reviews. Remember that fake reviews lack details. For example, if a review just says ‘terrible service’, there are chances that it can be fake, as it doesn’t mention what the customer didn’t particularly like about the service. You can always flag reviews that look suspicious to you. 

• Be proactive in identifying issues posed by the customers 

There can be many issues that propel customers to write negative reviews. For instance, a customer might be happy with one particular capability you offer, and might not like another capability. Or, he might be happy with your products, but might not like the customer support that you offer. Try to recognize the issues that most people complain about, and make sure to take necessary action. Doing so might even get that customer to avail service from you again! 

• Follow up with past customers 

Did you know that people do not consider reviews older than three months while making their purchase decisions? What if the maximum positive reviews that you have are more than three months old? Chances are that they might not consider doing business with you at all! In that case, you can do two things: 

• Ask your existing customers to leave reviews 
• Follow up with your past customers and ask if they could update their responses 

Not only these ways will help you understand the authenticity of the reviews posted about your business but will also open doors for you to build customer relationships. When you receive negative reviews about your business, instead of panicking and running away from the situation, it is important to address the elephant in the room, identify gaps in your service, and make sure to provide good customer service, irrespective of the nature of the review. 

How to delete a google review you wrote? 

• How to delete a google review from your browser

It’s possible that you rethink a review that you wrote for a business some time ago. Is there a way to delete this review? Yes, there is. Follow these steps to delete a review you wrote:  

Step-1: Go to maps.google.com.

Step-2: Click the Menu button (three stacked lines in the top left corner of the screen).

Step-3: Click “Your Contributions,” then go to “Reviews.”

Step-4: Click the three dots next to the review you want to delete, and then select “Delete Review.”

• How to delete a google review from your Google maps app  

Step-1: Open Google Maps App
Step-2: Go to the bottom of the screen, and select ‘contribute’ from the menu
Step-3: At the top of the screen, click on ‘view your profile’
Step-4: Scroll down and look for the relevant review
Step-5: Click on three horizontal dots (the ‘more’ icon)
Step-6: Click ‘edit’ or ‘delete’, whichever you prefer  

Grow your google reviews by 10X by using Emitrr

If you are a small business, trying to get a hold of a larger customer base, you need to amp up your review game. Since 90 percent of customers refer to google reviews before making a purchase decision, it is imperative that your business appeals to them. For the same, you need to generate more Google reviews.

With your existing customers, you can send automated review requests by choosing from a range of available templates and even decide on the cadence of sending out those requests. You can also manage reviews from all your platforms on one single dashboard. Not only that, but you can even make use of metrics to understand how your business is doing. Get insights into aspects like the number of review requests sent, and the overall rating on different platforms across different locations, and on an hourly, monthly, or yearly basis. Are you looking forward to revamping customer engagement for your business? Then Emitrr is all you need! Book a demo to see how you can benefit from the capabilities. 

FAQs

Conclusion

In short, it is possible to remove a google review but not directly by clicking the delete or remove button. By now, you will have a great understanding of how to delete a Google review by following the steps shared above. Remove a Google review that is bad for your business or let customers know about negative reviews by responding to them.