Are you Wondering How to Delete Google Reviews?
For many businesses, their Google listing is their calling card. Every good review is a testament to the quality of their services. But, a bad review can disrupt business and derail every company’s marketing campaign.
In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know on how to delete your Google reviews. We’ll also cover the importance of having good reviews on Google Maps and what you need to do to counter every negative review on your listing.
Importance of Google Reviews
Before going over the steps on how to delete reviews on Google, let’s take a moment to discuss the importance of having a great reputation on the world’s most popular search engine.
The Google search engine and the Google Maps app are used by millions of people on a daily basis. A large portion of these users performs business-related searches as part of their quest to find new products and services.
Your Google Maps rating and other third-party review sites represent your digital reputation. Have a good rating and customers will flock to your business looking for your expertise. Build a negative reputation online and your bottom line will likely suffer the consequences.
Can You Erase a Google Review?
Before going into the nitty gritty on how to delete bad reviews on Google, let’s take a moment to clear up a major misconception.
Yes, it’s possible to ask for the deletion of a Google review from your business profile. However, reviews are only deleted when they violate Google’s usage policy. The search engine does not attempt to resolve, understand, or otherwise get involved with disputes between businesses and their reviewers.
So unless there are one or various policy violations like offensive language, Google will not edit or delete a review.
How to Delete a Google Review
Now, let’s go over the steps on how to delete bad Google reviews, assuming that these violate the search engine’s policy by including elements like sexually explicit materials and other inappropriate content.
Note that these steps need to be followed on an Android device.
- One your Google Maps app.
- Open your business profile by clicking on your picture in the top-right corner.
- Tap on reviews and find the offending review
- To remove reviews, click on the three dots (usually top left corner) and click report review
- To flag the user, click on the same dots and click on report profile
As long as the negative review broke Google’s terms, it will be removed in a few days. In addition to deleting negative reviews, Google may also suspend the user account depending on the severity of the issue.
Different Ways to Handle Google Reviews
Learning how to delete Google business reviews is essential. But, it doesn’t help when a customer leaves a negative review that adhered to Google’s policy.
Having a poor review can reduce the number of calls you get from prospective customers, even if you’re at the top of search results.
Here are a few steps you can take to manage bad reviews and minimize their impact on potential customers.
Reply to the Customer
Google takes customer experiences very seriously. If your customer didn’t leave offensive content, the first thing you should do is reply to the comment and try to understand what occurred.
In a lot of instances, reviewers simply want a business to take responsibility. Writing a reply on Google is a great way to let users know you understand the issue.
Ask Reviewers to Delete Bad Reviews
Learning how to delete negative reviews on Google may be more about building relationships with your audience than contacting the search engine.
This is because customers can proactively erase the individual reviews they leave on every business listing. Thus, they have the power to sway your digital reputation.
Sometimes, undoing a bad Google review is simple. You just have to reach out to the customers that leave reviews, make them feel better, and ask them to erase or update their feedback.
Resolve Customer’s Problems
Having reviews removed is tough, so your best bet may be to resolve your customer’s problem and change the poor Google review into positive feedback.
For this to work, you need to engage the user and create a positive experience for this individual.
The Google review itself should have everything you need to know why the user is not pleased. If the reviewer didn’t leave a comment or if the information quality is not the best, you should reach out and make the reviewer understand you want to make things right.
Avoid asking about getting the review removed beforehand as this will make your effort seem illegitimate.
Follow Up with Customers
After solving the issue, you can follow up with the customer. This is a good chance to ask about getting reviews removed, with the argument that you only want legitimate information shared with other customers.
Users will only accept the review removal request once you solve the issue, so it’s essential to take care of that beforehand.
Contact Third-Party Reviewers
If you’re researching how to delete negative Google reviews because you got a bad third-party review, the same rules apply to individual reviewers.
So, you’ll need to contact the original platform to get third-party hotel reviews and similar feedback reviewed, rather than Google itself.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) – Google Reviews
Do you have a Google review you want to get rid of? Here are some FAQs that may help you out.
Can Google Reviews be removed by the reviewer?
Each user can remove Google reviews that this person has written. Likewise, reviewers can also adjust their feedback in order to reflect their change in experience.
Where can I see all my Google Reviews?
You can see every Google review if you open Google Maps and access your Google business profile. Here, you can see every positive review as well as each poor review you have amassed over time.
Where can I leave a review for a Company?
If you want to leave a review for a company (like our SEO Company Seattle) you can do so by accessing Google Maps. Note that you shouldn’t leave reviews on your own business, although you should encourage customers and everyone else who has experience with your business to write reviews sharing their thoughts.
Conclusion
A one, two, or three-star review on Google can be deleted only when it has deceptive content or materials that can otherwise hinder the customer’s experience. In other words, if the review content adheres to all the rules, it can easily ruin your online reputation.
We hope that the tips above help you manage negative feedback on your business profile. If you need help creating a strategy to boost the five-star review metrics on your listing, get in touch with Fannit today.
