If you run a business, there’s an ominous feeling you may be familiar with: When you see the E-mail subject line indicating that a new review has been left on your Google Business profile. Depending on the quality of review this can either turn into elation at a five star review, or the sinking dread at the sight of a one star review.
Even if you have overwhelmingly positive reviews on the Internet’s most prominent public forum, it can be a frustrating, exhausting and demoralizing experience to see a negative review featured prominently as the most recent review. It hits especially hard if it’s a particularly generic complaint or somebody upset that their food took 16 minutes to arrive rather than the promised 15. You’ll often get the impression that the reviewer was just having a bad day and your business ended up in their crosshairs for whatever reason.
I’ve already discussed extensively how it’s a really, really bad idea to bite back, get defensive, or tell off the reviewer with every bit of profanity you can think of. The short version is that this always makes the business owner returning fire look bad, and more importantly, it validates the negative review even if it’s completely false.
Even if business owners elect to avoid this impulse, there’s another approach that’s often mulled over: Can I just get the reviews removed?
The short answer is no, Google does not permit the blanket removal of any reviews. Google makes it clear that while you can report and even remove reviews that violate Google’s policies (such as reviews being completely irrelevant or displaying inappropriate or unsafe content), not all reviews fall under this category:
You can report any review, but only those that violate Google policies are eligible for removal. Flagged reviews that violate our content policies are removed and will no longer show on Maps and Search.
Do not report a review just because you disagree with it or dislike it. Google doesn’t get involved in conflict between businesses and customers. Negative reviews can highlight areas for improvement and aren’t always a sign of poor service.
I’ve successfully had reviews that explicitly violate Google’s policies removed; for example, one grocery store client had a one star review blatantly saying that it was for not stocking their product. This is a very cut and dry case but even in cases of violation, removals aren’t always guaranteed.
All of this is context for the E-mails you’ll likely receive from “SEO” or “online reputation” companies who propose a simple solution: Claiming to remove the reviews for you.
Given everything I’ve just described, you’ve probably already noticed that these companies are selling you something that they do not have the ability to provide.
So what’s going on here?
When these companies claim that they can “remove negative reviews” that phrase is doing very heavy lifting and they often carefully explain specifics in FAQs sections that they hope business owners won’t notice. This is because they have a number of tactics that anyone can employ – including the business owner:
They report the review…just like anyone else can, including you.
The most obvious tactic of these companies to simply report the review, claim it’s irrelevant or that it violates Google’s policies, and keep their fingers crossed. That’s it.
In which case you’ve just paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars on something that you can go do yourself right now if you were so inclined.
They orchestrate mass-flagging campaigns.
This is the dangerous one. Google, as is the case with many tech companies, is heavily overseen by bots when it comes to moderation. It’s rare for a human to look at any given case, especially given companies at the scale of Google. We certainly see the results of it on YouTube, where it’s historically been common for controversial videos to be subject to takedown attempts via mass flagging campaigns by detractors.
Some companies employ large numbers of freelancers through websites like Upwork or Fiverr to employ similar mass flagging campaigns on targeted reviews in an attempt trigger automated moderation systems to get a review taken down even if it doesn’t violate Google review policies.
The problem is that Google takes abuse of this system far more seriously than it does on YouTube, which is why mass purchasing positive Google reviews is very likely to get your profile penalized.
Google is similarly wise to mass flagging attempts. In many cases the end result isn’t getting the review removed – it gets your Google Business profile suspended for terms of service violations. So yes, it does “remove” the negative review, but in the worst possible way.
They Generate Positive Reviews to Bury the Bad Ones
This is the only “legitimate” tactic employed by these companies, and even then, it’s risky when you’re employing external companies to do it. Encouraging more satisfied customers to leave positive reviews is a legitimate tactic that I strongly encourage through links to your Google Business profile and QR codes at physical locations, and it’s something almost every business should do.
The problem is that these companies often employ their network of freelancers in the Middle East and Asia to leave generic “Wow, amazing business!” comments, usually with painfully obvious paper trails. The reviews will often by left by “David James” or “John Clark” and reviews will be spread across multiple states and even countries.
Not only does this put you at risk of your Google Business profile being suspended, the Federal Trade Commission recently announced an official rule that will combat fake reviews and testimonials by prohibiting them, and even allowing the agency to seek civil penalties against violators.
In this case, not only do you risk running afoul of Google but there’s a non-zero chance that this could draw the ire of a government agency if abused substantially. One irate person complaining after a bad day is never worth this. Which is why, in most cases…
They’re Just Bluffing
It’s not uncommon for these sorts of “reputation management companies” to simply take your money, do some barebones “reporting”, issue some “reputational” reports and hope that you feel better knowing that “something is being done by professionals.”
It’s essentially the equivalent of selling literal digital snake oil.
Which ties into the bigger problem with these companies: They create a false sense of control. Business owners are falsely led to believe that bad reviews can simply be erased, reputation online can quickly be “scrubbed” or that there’s an easy shortcut. There isn’t, and these companies are either severely ignorant and uninformed about the service they’re providing, or they’re knowingly providing false information.
The truth is, even in an Internet-enabled instant gratification era, that there are not and have never been shortcuts. Responding to negative reviews professionally, building more positive reviews from real customers, and reporting reviews that very clearly violate Google policies (not because they angered you) is still the way to do this legitimately without risking your credibility or the outright suspension of your Google Business profile.
As someone who has run a business supporting other small businesses for more than ten years, I get it. Basic psychology tells us that if a hundred people shake your hand, and one person spits in your face, you remember the spit vividly. That’s why Google Reviews are so deeply personal, especially when you’ve poured blood, sweat and tears into a business. It feels like an attack on you, but the truth is, these people probably just irritably left a bad review and went about their day.
You don’t owe them damage to your reputation or especially putting your business at risk, and snake oil “reputation” vendors especially don’t deserve your hard-earned money by offering you solutions to a problem that they can’t actually fix.
There’s also an uncomfortable reality that comes with running a business: When you put yourself out there publicly, you are opening the door to public feedback both positive and negative.
That’s the nature of doing business in a world where customers can share their experiences instantly and visibly. Can the feedback be unfair? Absolutely. Will some of it feel completely outrageously unreasonable? No question. It’s frustrating, but that’s the territory. If you can get to a place where you’re able to handle even the unreasonable feedback professionally, you’ll find yourself with a lot more power. Especially when, in 99% of cases, it will just sink through your positive reviews and nobody will even notice.
So the next time you get one of these E-mails from “reputation companies”, recognize them for what they are: People trying to extract money from you in a moment of understandable frustration, based on something they can’t even provide. Ignore it, move on, and focus on what actually works.