How to Remove Negative Google Reviews

1RemoveNegative-(1).jpg

As an attorney in the digital historic period, managing your google reviews is essential to the success of your practice.

A steady stream of glowing reviews will constitute credibility, heave visibility, and give prospects the conviction they demand to attain out to you. Negative reviews, on the other manus, can practice serious harm to how the public views your business. Even a single review can often be plenty to frighten prospects away.

Plus, having likewise many negative reviews may go on your Google My Concern listing or Google Local Service ads from showing up in search results.

And then, if you've received a negative review, can you remove information technology? While at that place isn't an pick to automatically remove a review, you can flag a review for removal. Google volition then assess your asking and make a last conclusion.

Hither'due south what you need to know.

How to Request Removal of a Negative Review on Google

RemoveNegative1-(1).jpg

First, it'due south worth noting that Google won't remove a review just because information technology paints your do in a bad low-cal. Google only removes reviews that violate their policies. They list ten reasons for removing reviews:

  • Spam and fake content
  • Off-topic content
  • Restricted content
  • Illegal content
  • Terrorist content
  • Sexually explicit content
  • Offensive content
  • Dangerous and derogatory content
  • Impersonation
  • Conflict of involvement

If a review meets at least one of those criteria, y'all can flag it for removal. Here'south how:

  1. Sign into your Google account
  2. Navigate to the reviews section of your Google My Business organisation contour or Google Maps listing
  3. Locate the specific review
  4. Click the three dots to the correct of the review
  5. Select "Flag as inappropriate" from the dropdown menu
  6. In the window that appears, select how the review violates Google's policies
  7. Click the bluish "Submit" button

You can likewise use the new Google My Business review management tool to flag problematic reviews. For this method, y'all should:

  1. Log into your Google My Business business relationship
  2. Visit Google's "Manage Your Reviews" page
  3. Choose which business concern or office location the review was left for (you may simply have one, of course)
  4. Select "Study a new review for takedown" and click "Continue"
  5. Find the review you lot want to remove and click the "Report a problem" link on the correct hand side

But with either method, you'll ultimately exist at the mercy of Google's support team. Information technology may take several days for them to evaluate your request, and even and then, they rarely remove reviews.

Withal, in that location are steps yous can accept to make it more likely that Google will delete the review. Let's talk over those at present.

How to Improve the Likelihood That a Review Will Be Removed

RemoveNegative2.jpg

Don't Wait

Google has never explicitly stated that they're more likely to consider removing a recent review than an old one. All the same, in that location'southward no doubt that Google places a greater emphasis on newer reviews in another ways. It stands to reason that they also pay more attention to removal requests when the review is contempo.

Regardless, don't await besides long to flag a negative review. The longer information technology'south at that place, the more damage information technology will do.

Remove Any Replies

If y'all've already left a answer, make sure to delete information technology earlier flagging the review. Google is less likely to remove a review if at that place are comments attached.

Call In Some Backup

RemoveNegative3.jpg

To increase your chances of getting Google's attending, send multiple reports for the same review. If you have multiple Google accounts nether your command, employ them all. (This doesn't violate any policies.)

You tin can too enlist your colleagues, staff, or even family to flag the review also. The more than accounts that submit a written report, the better.

Broaden Your Offense

Sometimes, a review will violate more one of Google'south policies. For instance, information technology may exist sexually explicit and off-topic at the same fourth dimension. If that'southward the example, you can send a separate report for each violation. This will make it more likely that Google will prioritize your asking and take definitive action.

Accept a Fallback Plan

No affair how yous become well-nigh flagging a review, Google may still leave it in place. Their user support is hardly reliable in this regard. If Google doesn't respond to your request—or apartment out denies it—you'll need to deal with the review some other way.

Your first instinct may be to lash out at the unfair or offensive review, only that will only make a bad state of affairs worse. Naught says unprofessional similar losing your temper and calling people names.

Instead, remain civil. If the reviewer has whatsoever actual complaints about your business organization, answer them honestly using courteous language. Demonstrate that you lot take their concerns seriously. If there are any misunderstandings involved, do your best to explain what happened.

You might even invite them to contact you directly. If you're able to reach an understanding with them, there's a good run a risk that they'll accept the review down themselves.

Just ultimately, the best fashion to deal with negative reviews is to drown them out with positive ones. Adding several new positive reviews will button a negative review downwards, making it less attainable to coincidental visitors. And while a negative rating will ding your average star rating, new v-star reviews will chop-chop ameliorate your average. Thus, by attracting more than glowing reviews for your practice, you won't take to worry as much about the impact of a few nasty comments here or there.

Also keep in mind that most people don't expect that all reviews for a business will exist perfect and, in fact, wonder when they are!

Don't Let Negative Reviews Hurt Your Online Reputation

RemoveNegative4.jpg
For many attorneys and law firms, the occasional bad review is just a part of life on the internet. That doesn't hateful it has to permanently tarnish your reputation, though. By taking the right steps, you may be able to get your negative reviews deleted altogether. If that doesn't work, you can at least minimize the harm.

Of course, maintaining an effective online presence takes time and energy. As a busy professional, you may not have much of either to spare. If you'd rather allow someone else bargain with the headaches, we'd be happy to lend a hand.

At Let America Know, we give trial attorneys beyond the nation the support they need to kick their internet marketing strategies into overdrive. Simply go in bear on with united states of america, and we'll make sure you get the most out of your social media profiles and electronic mail campaigns.

Click here to check out our done-for-y'all social media program for legal professionals.