First, decide if it can be removed
Google says only reviews that break its policies can be removed. A review that is harsh, unfair or simply wrong about your service is not grounds for a report. For those, reply politely and move on. Our guide on replying to a negative review has wording you can adapt.
How to report
From your Business Profile:
- Go to your Business Profile and select Read reviews.
- Click the report icon next to the review.
- Choose a reason, such as spam or profanity.
- Select Send report.
There is also a Reviews Management Tool where you can pick your business, report a review and follow its status.
What happens next
Google says an evaluation typically takes several days. In the tool, a report can show as Decision pending, Report reviewed with no policy violation, or Escalated, in which case you should check your email. You cannot remove a review yourself. If Google finds a violation, the review disappears from Maps and Search.
If Google declines
When the status says no policy violation, you can send a one-time appeal. You get one appeal per review, and you can appeal up to 10 reviews at once. Add a clear, factual reason, for example that the reviewer was never a customer, with any records that support it.
Special cases
- If you are being threatened with negative reviews unless you pay, that is an extortion scam, and Google has a separate reporting process for it.
- To report a user's profile, use the Google Maps app.
- Google notes that automated spam detection can occasionally remove legitimate reviews; if that happens to you, contact Google support.
What not to do
Do not offer a customer a refund or discount to change or delete a review. Google's content policy prohibits incentives for reviews, including to remove a negative one. Do not write fake positive reviews to push down a bad one either. The honest way to improve a rating is to serve the next customer well, ask every customer the allowed way, and reply to each review. Over a few months the single unfair review stops mattering as much, because it is one voice among many genuine ones.
Check your latest reviews for any that clearly break the rules.
How this post was made: an AI drafted it from the official pages listed under Sources, every figure was checked against those pages, and the Reveaxa team approved it before it was published. Our own advice is marked as such. If a source changes, we update the post and its date.
Reveaxa guide reference: RVX-B-report-a-fake-or-policy-breaking-google-review