When and how to remove Google reviews
Nowadays, when choosing a place to have dinner, to stay, or simply a store to buy certain products or services, users have moved from word of mouth to search for reviews. Reviews work as recommendations between users, being comments and opinions that people leave after having made a purchase and that can inspire trust or distrust in users.
Despite this, nowadays it is also common to find false reviews or those that fail to comply with Google's policies that negatively affect the image of companies. And that, in addition, can imply a reduction in its sales. Therefore, below we will talk about how to remove Google reviews in cases where it is considered necessary.
What are Google reviews?
Today, a person has the possibility of leaving an opinion or review about a product or a brand on different platforms, from social networks to search engines. However, Google reviews are directly integrated into the Google search engine, as well as its commercial tools and applications.
This means that the reviews that a person leaves on Google regarding a brand, service, or product, will appear in the different Google services where said brand appears.
Ways to remove Google reviews
For cases in which it is considered necessary, it must be taken into account that the Internet giant does not offer the possibility of removing Google reviews. However, there are two options that you can go to for this. On the one hand, the person who posted the opinion can be requested to remove it, and on the other hand, the company can mark the comment as inappropriate. This last case works as an alarm to tell Google that the review is false or that it does not comply with its policies.
Steps to flag a review as inappropriate
If what you want is to remove a Google review by flagging it as inappropriate, the first thing to do is open Google Maps and locate the business. Then, the review will be searched on the reviews page. Once located, you must click on the three vertical points that are observed to the right of the comment, selecting the option "Mark as inappropriate".
When you do that, you need to fill out a short problem report, providing your email address so Google can follow up. Generally, this is a slow process and there is no guarantee that the review will actually be removed, as Google may or may not decide in favor of it. And furthermore, even if Google decides to remove the review, exact timeframes for when this will happen cannot be determined.
Another way to eliminate false or negative reviews is with the support of a digital reputation agency. At 202 Digital Reputation, we are specialists in eliminating, modifying, and de-indexing negative, false information or personal data that may appear on different platforms.
How to manage reviews without removing them?
Finally, in case you are not sure about removing Google reviews, it is important to know how to manage them to reduce the negative impact they may have on the company's reputation. In this sense, the keys to managing reviews properly without deleting them are:
- Respond to all reviews.
- Solve customer problems to change their opinion.
- Request the deletion of the review by the customer in case the problem has been resolved.
