Types of Negative Reviews Google Will Possibly Remove

 Posted on March 29,2018 in Reputation Management

If you own a business, you may have received a less-than-ideal review on your Google My Business page. There are many cases where Google will not remove a negative review, as it may not fall under any of the categories in their Prohibited and Restricted Content guidelines. However, OVC Lawyer Marketing has found there to be a number of instances where Google will be more likely to intervene and remove a review:

Spam and Fake Content

Reviews that refer to incorrect details about a business may be considered fake content. For example, a user may leave the same one-star review for multiple office locations of your law firm. Because it is unlikely that a client received the same experience at more than one of your offices, Google may remove the review from all but one of the locations.

Another example of fake content would be if a user left a negative review referencing an incorrect business name or an employee that does not work there. Once it is proven that your law firm does not employ anyone by that name, the process to potentially remove the review would begin.

Hate Speech

If your law firm received a negative review that went into detail regarding someone’s religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, or appearance, this may be considered hate speech. Such posts may fall under the category of Harassment and Bullying within Google’s guidelines, and Google may intervene and remove the post.

Offensive Content

Reviews may fit into this category if they include the use of obscene or profane language. Once this is reported, Google may begin removing these reviews from your Google My Business page. Until a review is removed, Google may take action to blur any offensive words out, so they are not able to be read by others.

Conflict of Interest

If a competing law firm posts negative content on your business page to manipulate your ratings, this may be seen as a conflict of interest, and Google could take action to remove this post.

It is important to keep in mind that whenever a person leaves a review, other users, as well as Google, can see all reviews they have posted under their specific username and ID. Google uses this to see how credible both the user and their reviews are, and this could be a contributing factor in whether or not their post is removed from your page. 

If your Google My Business page has experienced reviews that may fall within Google’s Prohibited and Restricted Content guidelines, contact OVC, INC. at 630-635-8000. We have years of experience monitoring our clients’ reviews, and we can help you contact Google directly to have reviews removed when they violate these guidelines.