Google My Business is a powerful tool to expand the online presence of a local company or business. However, sometimes you may find yourself in situations where you receive negative reviews and unfavorable reviews on your profile. Therefore, it is very important to know if you can delete reviews from Google My Business.

There are some steps you can take to solve the problem of negative reviews and improve the reputation of your business. Here we will tell you how you can delete Google My Business reviews and explain what options you have to manage your profile on the platform.

Why monitor Google My Business reviews for your business?

Reviews can influence the purchasing decision of your potential customers. Hence, negative reviews can take away many sales from you.

But it’s not all about sales … keeping an eye on reviews can help you identify areas where you need to improve customer service or the product you offer. If a customer leaves a negative review, reviewing it will give you an idea of ​​what’s going wrong with your business, allowing you to take steps to fix any problems.

However, a profile full of negative reviews can ruin any business. It is likely that you have some weak point in your market strategy, or your competition is deliberately acting against you.

Can you delete Google reviews?

I know you’re looking for a quick answer to the question of whether it is possible to remove negative reviews from Google My Business. I tell you that the direct answer is yes.

However, removing Google reviews can be quite a difficult and controversial task. Although you can report reviews that violate Google policies, the truth is that these reports usually do not result in results and ultimately, Google is the one who decides whether or not they are removed.

In general, Google reviews are intended as an open and public platform for users to express their opinions and evaluate products and/or services, so, in principle, Google is not very willing to remove reviews unless they clearly violate their policies.

One way you can remove reviews is by disputing the review through Google My Business, but this process can be a bit cumbersome and doesn’t always result in removal of the review. Another option is to respond to the review publicly and politely, request that the review be removed or that a perceived unfair or inaccurate complaint be clarified.

You can also search with the name of the account from which the review was made and try to find that person through their social networks and contact them. This is what works best for our clients.

How do you know if a negative review is fake?

On many occasions, competitors often carry out discredit campaigns, promoting negative comments and ratings on your Google My Business profile. Ideally, you should identify these fake reviews so you can ask Google to remove them.

If the review appears to be exaggerating the negative aspects while ignoring the positive, or if it uses overly negative or extreme language, it may be false or malicious. Additionally, if the review appears to be written similarly to other fake or suspicious reviews, it may be an additional indication that it is not authentic.

However, every day those who leave fake reviews become more specialized in creating convincing texts and arguments.

The option we like the most is to analyze the profile of the person writing the review. By clicking on the user you can see the history of reviews they have written and see if they are all of the same style. There are many platforms for buying reviews (positive and negative) and the profiles they use usually have a large number of written opinions. Which may make us think that they are purchased?

How to delete a Google review via Google My Business

The most appropriate method for removing a review that is causing you problems is through Google My Business itself. I show you step by step how to file the review claim in question:

• Go to the Google My Business page and log in with the account in which you manage the business listing.
• Select the “Reviews” tab from the left menu.
• Find the review you want to delete and select the “See all” option to view all reviews.
• Depending on the version of Google My Business you are using, you must select the “Three dots” located next to the review you want to delete.
• Click on the “Report a review” option in the drop-down menu.
• Select the reason why you want to report the review.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the complaint and review reporting process.
• After a few days you can receive a response to your complaint regarding the review. Everything will depend on the considerations that Google has in this regard.

Conclusions on removing negative reviews on Google My Business

Removing negative reviews from your Google My Business profile is not an easy task, as Google will not remove them unless their policies are violated. However, it is worth trying for the sake of your business’s reputation.