What are Google review violations? (2023)

What are Google review violations?

Reviews are automatically processed to detect inappropriate content like fake reviews and spam. We may take down reviews that are flagged in order to comply with Google policies or legal obligations.

What Happens If You Get Google Reviews Too Quicky? Honestly? Don't worry about it. As long as you're not paying for reviews, pushing customers to leave reviews on one of your devices, or pushing customers to leave reviews while still connected to your WiFi, you'll be perfectly fine.

Click “Flag as inappropriate,” using the flag icon on the bottom right of the review. Google will assess your request. If necessary, Google will remove the review from your listing.

If a review contains “obscene, profane or offensive language,” Google will remove it, even if it is an otherwise legitimate review. That means if the language is offensive, it doesn't matter if the negative review is fake or real—it's a violation. Google employees use their discretion to decide what crosses the line.

Edit or delete your review

On your computer, open Google Maps. Reviews. Select Edit review or Delete review and follow the on-screen steps.

It's illegal to buy Google reviews

And if the reviewer doesn't tell the world that you paid for the review, then the FTC considers that an “undisclosed paid endorsement.” You risk tens of thousands of dollars in FTC fines (or more) if you pay to buy Google reviews.

Can you see who looks at your Google reviews?

To see your overall review stats, go to Your contributions on Google Maps for Android or iOS. Then, tap REVIEWS. At the top of the screen, you'll see how many people have liked and viewed all of your reviews. You can also see likes and views on each individual review.

Google calculates a 5 star rating as the average of all reviews rounded to 0.1 stars. So 20 reviews averaging 4.15 stars would show a 4.2 star rating.

The review process can take a few business days, so be patient. If Google finds that the review violates their policies, the review will be deleted within three days. If you don't have any luck on the first attempt, you can escalate the issue and contact Google My Business directly.

It only takes 1 flag to remove a Google review as long as you give Google enough evidence that the review violates Google's policies. Google removes reviews based on whether they violate policy, not based on the number of times a review gets flagged as inappropriate.

Welcome to the Google My Business community. Google cannot not verify content of a review to make sure it is true or false, but if you believe that a review violates Google policies, then you can flag it as such. These reports are kept private and you will not see any reply.

What happens after you report a Google review? Once you report a review based on the above options you will see a confirmation similar to what you see below (example) and you need to wait for a few days (it can be 1 day up to 7 days) to hear back from Google's review team.

Once a review has been flagged as inappropriate, its removal can take from a few days to a few weeks. An exact timeline cannot be estimated as no one knows how many other removal requests are queued in front of yours. Or, whether Google will even consider that your review violates any particular guideline.

In most cases, missing reviews were removed for policy violations like spam or inappropriate content. We do not reinstate reviews that were removed for policy violations. These removal measures help make sure that reviews on Google properties are relevant, helpful, and trustworthy.

How do you ask a customer to remove negative reviews?

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to resolve this issue! We want to again apologize for any inconvenience our mistake might have caused. Your review is really valuable to our business, and we would be grateful if you can please consider updating the review to reflect your most recent experience with our business.

Deleting your Google account will also not prevent bad reviews: Once it's been created, a business profile continues to appear in search results. By deleting your account you're only losing control over it. Your only chance, then, is to change or delete the unfavorable review.

As per Google's policy, only real customers can write reviews. The following ways of getting reviews is prohibited: Asking an employee or friend to write a review on your behalf. Paying someone to write a review for you.

To edit or delete your own Google review:

In the top left, click the Menu button (three lines). Click “Your contributions” and then select “Reviews.” Click the three dots next to the review you want to edit or delete. Select the desired action.

Fortunately, GMB users and customers alike don't have to jump through hoops to edit Google reviews. As long as they are logged in to their Google profile, they can edit their review or response on Google Search or Maps.