You are an enthusiastic entrepreneur and running your business with the best intentions. Your business profile on Google My Business listings looks good. Suddenly out of the blue, you get a bad and irrelevant review. It could be anything from people trolling or rivals just trying to put your business down. What can you do to fix your online reputation? Let’s go over google my business reviews and find the best solution on how you can successfully remove bad or unwanted google reviews.
Reviews are basically your customers and clients speaking good or bad about your services. These in turn inform future customers about your services. They also help you improve your business through suggestions. Reviews outline the reputation of your business and bad reviews can impact your business in a huge way. It is not often that the reviews you’ll get will be a 100% authentic. Sometimes trolls can also give the worst reviews and this will affect your business. It might cost you many willing customers and clients. People often wonder if you can remove these irrelevant and negative reviews. There is definitely a way but it might be a bit lengthy. Let us begin to unravel the steps on how to remove google my business reviews.
Technically it isn’t that easy to just delete. It ‘s not like you can just right click and delete. Google reviews are handled by the Google team who make sure to keep things fair. Its not like you can just delete a review which you don’t like. In such a world, bad reviews would be non existent. To make things fair, google has come up with a list of violations which decides the legitimacy of a google review. If a review violates any of these, it can be removed by the google team after inspection and evaluation. Let’s take a look at some of the review violations which qualifies a review for removal.
Google takes tough measures to make sure their reviews are legitimate. This is done by enforcing rules for reviews. If violated, it could result in the deletion of the review and in most cases might also lead to legal action being taken against the one posting the review
Fake reviews constantly posted to spam and change ratings. It can be traced to a “trend” of people constantly posting bad reviews. Google can easily remove them and restore the reputation of your business.
Based reviews made to bring down a competitor’s ratings. This can be done to soften up competition in the digital market and Google knows it’s not exactly the right way GMB operates.
Irrelevant and troll reviews are often seen as a violation. They can be removed upon reporting.
Promotional reviews promote products or services that are deemed illegal in the region. This often brings down the business and might put them at risk. Such offenses can be taken to court if serious.
Reviews containing profanity or offensive language are strictly forbidden in google reviews for obvious reasons. They will be removed immediately.
Threats or intimidations to businesses in reviews incited out of hate or discrimination are frowned upon by Google. It is imperative to keep the digital listings decent and fair for everyone.
Reviews with fake or false identities are considered a violation since a review needs to be from a legitimate source. Impersonations can usually result in the person being taken to court if reported by the individual being impersonated.
Posting copyrighted or illegal content as reviews is strictly against Google’s standards. It can be removed if reported by the community or the owner of the business.
Sexually explicit language in reviews is bound to be marked or flagged for removal.
With all these violations in mind you can make up a mental picture of what stands as an illegitimate review set for removal. Let’s imagine a scenario where you’ve got a bad review or a set of bad reviews. This has already left a mark on your reputation in listings. First you have to evaluate of the review violates any rules or if it is not fair to your business.
If the posted review is relevant and about your business, you will need to respond accordingly. You will need to make sure you are verified as the owner of the business. Once verified, you can log in and navigate to the review section. Click on the review and click respond. Be courteous and professional and make sure no heated arguments start. If you can negotiate well, the person posting that review might remove it himself.
If you notice the review goes against the rules set by google, you will need to flag it. Flagging reviews help the google staff take a good look into it. If the review goes against their community standards then you can rest assured. The Google staff will proceed to remove that review in a matter of time and you’ve had accomplished your goal in deleting that review.
If you accidentally or purposely leave a review which you think needs to be removed, there is a simple solution for that. You will need to log in from the account you left the review from. Once logged in, navigate to your review. Once there, you can simply click on your review and delete it yourself. Only you can remove the review left by you.
If you’re responding to a review left by an angry or unsatisfied customer, or someone who might be prejudiced towards your establishment, you will need to respond in a way which sways their opinion.
You have to establish a professional but authoritative approach. Respond as the owner of the business who is willing to make changes to improve.
You will need to avoid escalation and deescalate the situation if things get out of hand. Your approach needs to be friendly and not defensive
Lastly, you must be courteous towards all reviews that you respond to. Sometimes it just takes friendly persuasion to sway the mind.
Conclusion
After all this, there is no need to be afraid of bad reviews for your business. Google my business has made things fair for everyone with their violation policies. Negative reviews can also be a chance for you to represent yourself and you can’t just let such an opportunity go. There is always a way to remove bad reviews but only if it violates the rules making GMB a fair place to represent and grow your business.
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