Removing a Google Review Based on Legal Grounds

In today'south online globe, failing to remove a false Google review can place your business name and reputation at serious risk. Fake Google reviews can lead to negative publicity, loss of potential customers, decreased profits, and other consequences.

Businesses tin can remove imitation Google reviews in four means:

1. Ask the original author to remove the negative review,
2. Flag the negative review to Google for Terms of Service violations,
3. Pursue legal activity against the person who posted the review, and
4. Use online reputation management and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to eternalize your concern'southward reputation.

If your business has recently been hit with a bad review, practice not worry. Whether it is a disgruntled client, competitor, a vengeful former employee, or an anonymous online troll, negative reviews happen to every business organisation at some point. What is important is that you lot follow the best practices of how to respond to bad reviews and arrange to get them removed every bit speedily equally possible.

At Minc Law, we have worked with hundreds of businesses to remove negative and fake online reviews from consumer review websites. When it comes to removing faux Google reviews, nosotros know what works and what does non. Below, nosotros cover four proven methods to remove fake Google reviews that actually work.

Identifying Fake Google Reviews

The get-go step in removing faux and negative reviews is learning how to identify them. Below, we cover the types of individuals who ordinarily leave fake reviews, why they practise, and how you tin can spot them.

Who is Ordinarily Behind Fake Google Reviews?

The purpose of fake Google reviews is to manipulate coincidental readers into assertive a certain viewpoint about the business concern in question that is faux. Many individuals can be motivated to leave simulated reviews, such equally:

• Competitors in your industry,
• Actual consumers who had a negative feel, or
• 3rd-parties who are attempting to exact revenge or accept an unrelated grudge against the business organisation possessor.

Why Do People Get out Faux Reviews on Google?

There are two chief types of fake reviews on Google:

1. A fake review where the reviewer was not an actual client and posted a review that does not reflect a genuine marketplace interaction, and
2. A fake review where the reviewer was in fact a real customer only posted a review with malicious intent or an ulterior motive.

The showtime type of fake Google review typically falls into one of two categories: (ane) the review was written by a competitor or ex-employee, with the purpose of taking your business'southward reputation downwards a notch, or (2) the review was written by a tertiary-party who for some reason has a grudge against your business organization. Maybe the reviewer did not like how you advertise your business, maybe a friend or family member of the reviewer previously engaged your business, or maybe the reviewer was merely trying to gain an edge in an otherwise competitive business landscape.

The second blazon of fake Google review typically occurs where a real customer did experience a genuine marketplace interaction with your business organisation but described a situation in their review that does not match up with what actually took identify – often with malicious intent in mind. This can accept the class of a reviewer creating multiple online aliases and accounts, pretending an interaction was worse than it was, and describing interactions that never actually happened.

This 2nd type of fake review is generally posted in two cardinal situations: (1) for purposes of extorting your business, or (2) when you are simply flat out dealing with a malicious person and you did non do anything wrong.

How Can You Place a Fake Google Review?

As a business, it is imperative that yous pay close attention to your online presence and accept a good idea of which reviews are real and which are completely fabricated. What makes a review suspicious varies from case to example, so the all-time advice is to trust your intuition.

Learning to spot a fake review takes some practice, but the methods are relatively simple.

First, compare the review to your business records and customer database. Can y'all friction match the username, transaction, or negative experience to any record you have on file? If the review does non seem to reverberate a existent experience at your function, it is the offset cerise flag.

Then, have a closer await at the reviewer's account itself.

• Was the profile created on the same mean solar day equally the review?
• Has the reviewer made any other reviews as well the review of your business organization?
• Is the username or profile photo suspicious (such equally a play on words or a photo taken from a stock photo site)?

If it looks like an account was created on the same day as (or for the purposes of) writing the review anonymously, it could be a sign of a fake review.

Minc Constabulary Tip: Sometimes fake reviewers use stock images as their contour pictures. Y'all can conduct a reverse paradigm search on Google. Simply upload, elevate and drop, or search Google Images with a URL to find out where the flick came from.

Suspicious timing could be some other indicator of fake reviews. They may start popping upwards at regular intervals, or perchance your business suddenly goes from a majority of five-star ratings to an influx of negative reviews.

The timing of private reviews can also be revealing; was the review published at a fourth dimension of day when your customers are probable comatose? If and then, the review may have been published as a professional hit job hired from overseas in some other time zone.

Finally, the language of reviews could reveal inauthenticity. Perhaps the review uses:

• Poor grammar,
• Inflammatory rhetoric,
• Inaccurate descriptions of your service or product, and/or
• Direct or indirect promotions of your competitor(due south).

If whatsoever of these apply to the review'due south language, information technology could be fake.

How False Google Reviews Can Impact Your Concern

Google reviews increase your business'southward visibility and contribute to a positive business reputation. Below, we discuss how positive Google reviews improve your local SEO ranking—and how big of an affect imitation Google reviews tin have on your business.

How Practice Google Reviews Help With Your Local SEO Ranking?

When an individual is looking for a business nearby—like a restaurant or an machine shop, for instance—they typically open Google and blazon "[business type] near me." Google then uses a complex combination of the user's location, search history, and local business organization data to suggest businesses to the user.

Claiming and updating your business'due south Google My Business profile tin help your business rank improve in Google'south search algorithm. And responding professionally to Google reviews about your business concern also shows Google (and potential customers) that you value feedback.

Because of the nature of the algorithm, positive reviews about your business contribute to the quality of your Google search rankings.

How Big of a Problem Are Imitation Google Reviews For Business Owners?

About everyone consults reviews earlier using a business organisation. In fact, roughly 90% of worldwide consumers prefer to read reviews before buying a product. And 79% of consumers trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation.

But there are a lot of review platforms out there—how does Google stack up when consumers are searching out online reviews?

The respond: Google is extremely pop. Information technology is the well-nigh-used review platform, with 59% of consumers using information technology to read reviews. The importance of online reviews (and Google reviews), and the outcome they can have on a business'due south success and longevity, cannot be overstated.

And then if your concern is being bombarded with fake Google reviews, it is safety to say that you lot are facing a pregnant problem.

How Can Faux Google Reviews Damage Your Business'south Reputation?

The consequences of fake negative Google reviews may seem straightforward at first; they hurt web users' opinions of your business organisation.

However, the ways a faux review tin damage your business vary. We list 5 common ways below.

1. Decreased Pes Traffic & Customers

If consumers read negative reviews almost your business, they usually do non know whether the review is simulated or non. Their opinion of your business organisation will be affected by these negative reviews—and in turn, you will see fewer new customers deciding to have a run a risk on your company.

2. Loss Of Reputation in the Public Heart

With enough negative reviews, the full general sentiment about your business worsens. Potential customers and the full general public can lose trust in your company's product, service, and even integrity.

iii. Loss of Advertising & Sponsorships

With your loss of public reputation, your company may lose advertisers or sponsors as well. Other companies volition not desire to invest in a company that is seeing fewer sales and interactions with potential customers, since the render on investment (ROI) would most probable be much less than they would prefer.

4. Reviewers May Experience More than Comfy Leaving Negative Reviews of the Business

As they say, one time it rains, it pours—and unfortunately, this adage holds truthful when it comes to reviews. Once a negative review or two is published, other reviewers may feel inclined to pile on and add their own negative feel—embellished or not.

5. Lower Employee Morale & Difficulty Retaining Quality Employees & Talent

It stands to reason that if your business is seeing less customer traffic and experiencing negative public opinion, your employees volition have less pride in their place of employment. It may even become difficult to rent and retain top talent if they encounter questionable reviews most your company online.

6. Damaged Ceo Reputation

Today, a CEO'due south reputation is directly related to the visitor's image every bit a whole—and concern leaders are increasingly held under a microscope.

Negative reviews revealing or fabricating a misstep by a high-profile CEO can result in loss of revenue, public blowback, and a damaged brand image.

7. Decreased Bottom Line & Having to Close the Business organization'southward Doors for Practiced

With the loss of sales, foot traffic, and advertising deals, a business organisation that has been bombarded by fake negative reviews faces the real run a risk of losing plenty revenue to go bankrupt or out of business organization entirely.

How to Remove Imitation Google Reviews & Damaging Content

If a reviewer is determined to leave a fake Google review for your business, they may use one of several methods. For instance, they may:

• Mail service equally multiple people and post multiple reviews;
• Leave a one-star review with no text;
• Post statements that are blatantly faux; or
• Leave a review fabricated up of mixed substantive truths and falsities.

Any class the review takes, you accept options to fight dorsum. Below, nosotros comprehend the four ways strategies you can use to remove imitation reviews.

What Steps Can You Have to Remove Fake Google Reviews?

Bold the situation involves a real client of your business, the all-time solution in most situations should hopefully exist obvious: client service. A happy customer never leaves a bad Google review, after all.

But if reaching out to the reviewer personally does non work, you tin also try flagging and reporting the review to Google. We comprehend both options in more than detail below.

Pick #i: Take Original Writer Remove the Review

According to a ReviewTrackers' study, roughly 52% of customers wait to hear back from a business organization within vii days after posting their review. Therefore, as a general rule, businesses should answer to a review within 24-48 hours of posting.

Commonly, the reason a person posts a complaint online is that they want their voice to exist heard. Sometimes letting the person know that their complaints accept been heard and the trouble is beingness addressed is all that is needed.

It is important to also offer solutions. Is the client just seeking an apology? What almost a refund? Asking the customer what volition resolve the situation is important.

If possible, we recommend opting for a phone call rather than a written message. Turning an impersonal situation into a personal 1 helps assure consumers their complaints are being taken seriously. If a telephone call is non possible, you should still offer a directly line of communication (eastward.g., video message, text, or a directly bulletin over social media).

Withal, in nearly cases, we normally advise clients that responding to a negative review on the review site where it was posted should exist a measure of last resort. This action should be reserved for extremely harmful reviews or ones that you are sure there is no other mode to remove or resolve.

Responding to a review in the wrong way tin do more damage than practiced—not to mention bring more unwanted and unnecessary attending to the review. Responding to a review tin also encourage more bad reviews and decrease the chances that the website will remove the review for a term of service violation.

And finally, a bad response tin put yous in hot water legally if you lot say the wrong thing. Responses can exist especially troublesome for professionals such as doctors and lawyers, who take strict confidentiality obligations.

Go on in listen that if you are a medical professional, you may not be able to publicly respond to the author without violating the Wellness Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or other professional person privilege obligations. For further data, nosotros recommend reading chaser Andrew Stebbins' article explaining how medical providers can reply to negative medical reviews.

Google Review Removal Tip: Google's Contributed Content Policy prohibits the offering or acceptance of coin in substitution for reviews. Make sure not to cantankerous over into this territory by offering customers money to post skillful reviews.

Option #2: Flag and Report the Review

Flagging a fake Google review is the first stride towards having Google remove imitation online reviews. Think of it as sending a signal to Google to alarm them, "Hey! Something is non quite right here. Please come have a look!"

But before pulling the trigger, always brand sure you check Google's review guidelines beginning to determine what Google considers an inappropriate review. Google's policies prohibit the post-obit types of reviews:

• Spam and false content;
• Off-topic content (such every bit posts unrelated to the location or business in question);
• Restricted content (such as links or contact information for where consumers can buy illegal goods or services)
• Illegal, sexually explicit, and/or terrorist content;
• Offensive and obscene language and gestures;
• Dangerous and derogatory content (such as harassment or threats of physical violence/harm);
• Brand impersonations (such as trademark infringement, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices by other businesses); and
• Conflicts of involvement (such as reviews written past the business organization's owner, current or erstwhile employees, or competitors).

Once yous accept identified an appropriate violation, the adjacent pace is to flag the review. Local business owners and companies tin can flag reviews in two dissimilar ways: by flagging the review via Google Maps or through managing one's Google My Business reviews. We comprehend each pick below.

Flag Fake Google Reviews in Google Maps or Your Google My Business'south Review Profile

To flag a defamatory or fake review about your business, merely Google your business or visit Google Maps to find your business organization listing. Then:

• Find the review in question that you lot want to flag,
• Locate the flag or 3 vertical dots adjacent to a review,
• Click the flag or three dots, and
• Flag the review as inappropriate.

After flagging the review as inappropriate, you will exist directed to a page to 'Report a policy violation.' There, yous can place the nature of the violation, fill out your email address, and submit the request.

After flagging the review as inappropriate and selecting which Google policy it violates, you lot will receive a follow-up email letting y'all know they are looking into it.

In our experience, we take generally found that this method of flagging reviews only has success in the most obvious of cases. Nonetheless, if you lot wish to remove Google reviews in a comprehensive mode, information technology is important to exercise all of your options that tin can potentially atomic number 82 to removal.

Flag the Review From Within Your Google My Business Business relationship

If you are a business organization owner, yous can also flag Google reviews through your Google My Business Account. In our experience, reporting reviews through your Google My Business account has historically proven more constructive than the flagging option in a higher place. All y'all demand to do is:

• Log in to your Google My Business business relationship,
• Open the location yous'd similar to manage (for companies and businesses with more than one location),
• Select 'Reviews' from the menu bar,
• Identify the faux review in question, and
• Click the 3 vertical dots and flag the review every bit inappropriate.

Later on flagging a review, the review in question will be escalated to a Google Business review team of specialists to exist analyzed. Flagged reviews are NOT assessed or analyzed by artificial intelligence or auto-observe filters.

Google'southward review flagging process normally takes 72 hours earlier any activeness is taken regarding the review. You will also receive an email confirming this.

As opposed to flagging a Google review via Google Maps or a business's public review profile, we have generally found that most people take better success rates having reviews removed through this method.

Just always remember, removing Google reviews is a process—i in which patience is truly a virtue.

Contact Google Pocket-sized Business Support Directly

In a perfect world, every negative and fake online review would exist removed immediately later on beingness flagged, and every legitimate review would remain online. Just this dream is far from the reality of Google's review policy and removal landscape.

Should your flagging of a negative or imitation online review get unnoticed or unanswered, information technology is fourth dimension to contact Google Small Business Support directly by telephone or email to discuss it with them further.

To report faux or malicious reviews to Google directly (via your concern profile), do the following:

• Login to your Google My Business account,
• Click on 'Reviews' in your menu bar,
• Locate the 'Support' bar on the left side of the folio (a pop-upwardly Support bar volition appear),
• Select 'Need More Assist', so 'Client Reviews and Photos,'
• Select 'Review Removal Bug' and then 'Contact Support,'
• Select your method of contact – either email or phone,
• Fill out your contact data,
• Paste the text of the inappropriate and simulated online review and select 'Automatically include a screenshot,' and
• Include the Google Maps link of the review.

You volition generally hear back from Google inside 24 to 48 hours or sooner. Y'all will and then take the opportunity to speak with a back up specialist and make your instance.

However, your call will probable be with the same department that already decided the review should remain online. So it is essential that you lot come prepared with strong documentation and evidence.

Because of the delicacy of this chore, we recommend hiring an experienced cyberspace defamation attorney to help you, as they tin can help identify the correct procedure for reporting reviews, meliorate sift through relevant content policy guidelines, and explain why the review in question is false and why they violate Google's review policies.

Documentation & Preservation of Evidence is Essential For Making Sure a Review is Removed

Throughout this procedure, make sure to document all prove that is relevant to the review you are seeking to take removed. In our feel, Google does not preserve copies of reviews.

Keep an extremely detailed log of the communication you had with the client, the flagging of the review, reporting, and disputing process. This fashion, you will be able to check up on and dispute the review with certainty.

Documenting testify is also important if you somewhen have legal activity. When it comes to preserving testify of the reviews themselves, we suggest taking the below 3 steps:

Footstep 1: Locate the Google review

Footstep 2: Click on the account holder'south proper noun

Step 3: Screenshot and Copy the URL

Make sure to timestamp all screenshots and compile all evidence into a chronological timeline. Preservation and documentation of testify are essential for filing a defamation lawsuit.

Google Review Reporting Tip: In today'southward 24-hour interval and age, Twitter is used for about everything. Google is no different. Tweeting at Google Small Business Support ( @GoogleSmallBiz ) is also an constructive mode to get their attention and escalate the matter and review in question.

How Do You Bargain With Fake Google Reviews If Google Refuses to Remove Them?

If Google will non work with you, your last options are to pursue litigation or implement a comprehensive online reputation management strategy.

Pursue Legal Action

Filing a defamation lawsuit over a review is a serious decision that should just be sought as a last resort after you have wearied other options.

Merely whether the fake reviewer is known or anonymous, pursuing litigation (such every bit a John Doe lawsuit) can be an constructive tool to have a negative review removed. Nearly of the time, legal disputes involving fake and defamatory reviews are resolved without ever having to go to trial.

Even so, there are certain risks and issues involved with pursuing legal action that must be advisedly weighed and considered. At that place is always a chance it will be a contentious lawsuit, where a plethora of defamation defenses may be asserted, the prove is picked apart, and principled stances are tested. Not to mention the omnipresent risk of the Streisand Effect.

It is incredibly of import to work with an attorney who has experience with these types of procedures.

Use Online Reputation Management & SEO For Review Removal

In some situations, removing an unwanted review may not be possible—or worth it. Reputation management and SEO campaigns are commonly the final remaining option to accept negative online reviews removed.

• Online reputation direction (ORM) is the procedure or combination of strategies, techniques, and tools that people and businesses can employ to create positive content, acquire positive reviews, and boost their online reputations.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) involves using tools and techniques to make changes to websites and online content to help them rank better on Google. Ideally, any good ORM entrada includes a audio focus on SEO techniques and strategies.

Reputation management drowns out negative reviews past creating positive content and data well-nigh a business. Eventually, the bad review may no longer be visible—finer removing it. This process involves a mix of creating positive and substantive content through ORM, so making sure information technology ranks well in search results using SEO.

Proactively creating a positive reputation for your business concern name online is the first line of defense against bad reviews. It also makes the chore of getting bad reviews removed easier when they do happen because information technology makes your business look more credible.

For farther information on online reputation management, we recommend reading our article explaining mutual online reputation management costs.

When Can Y'all Sue Someone For a Fake Google Review?

Mostly, you can sue for a false Google review when it rises to the legal definition of defamation, extortion, or harassment. If yous accept a valid defamation claim, you have the pick to file a lawsuit against the defamer.

To sue for a bad review, the review must exist:

• Defamatory or legally actionable;
• Trying to harass or extort your visitor; or
• In violation of a review platform's Terms of Service.

You cannot sue the review platform for a faux Google review considering they are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Instead, your all-time option is generally to sue the reviewer and/or poster themselves.

Can Yous Sue Over a Wordless One-Star Faux Google Review?

In nearly cases, one-star reviews are considered expressions of opinion. Simply not always. Since defamation must contain a imitation statement of fact, a wordless review is mostly non actionable every bit defamation per se, and would have to accept into business relationship other external facts that make the review actionable. These types of claims are referred to equally defamation per quod or implied defamation. However, whether yous can sue for a one-star review is dependent on many specific factors.

If your business organization experiences a series of seemingly connected 1-star reviews, for example, yous may be able to sue the poster.

What Can You Exercise About Negative Simulated Google Reviews Posted By a Competing Business?

If you accept reason to believe the fake Google review in question was posted past an manufacture competitor, you can endeavour sending them a cease and desist letter of the alphabet. If that does non work, yous may exist able to file a defamation lawsuit against them if there are numerous causes of action, such as:

• Fake advertizing claims
• Injurious falsehood (business organisation disparagement)
• Unfair/deceptive trade practices

What is Considered Online Defamation?

Online defamation, also known equally "net defamation," refers to a false statement published on the internet. In order to be considered defamation, it must have been published with at least a level of negligible intent and damaged its subject's reputation.

In the case of online reviews, they may enter into the realm of online defamation if they use false statements of facts to cause damage to their target company's reputation and/or business.

We Tin Help Yous Remove Fake Google Concern Reviews & Damaging Content

If you are in business long enough, you are likely to encounter fake online reviews. It is only the proper name of the game. How you respond to fake reviews and approach their removal is what will separate your business from competitors and enable your business organisation to stand the exam of time in your industry.

While at that place are steps that you tin take to protect your business confronting fake Google reviews, we do Non recommend clients going at this alone. Reporting fake and negative online reviews to Google should be done with the assistance of experienced internet attorneys who have proven success removing fake Google concern reviews and comprehensive knowledge of Google's content policies and guidelines.

★★★★★

"Very Happy, removed origin postal service and google search resultes as advertised."

A, May 21, 2021

At Minc Constabulary, our practice is defended to removing fake online reviews and other defamatory internet content. We know what it takes to not only remove fake online reviews—just put an end to the online attacks for skillful and assist your business concern put its best digital footprint frontwards.

If you are prepare to speak with an internet defamation attorney, yous tin can reach the Minc Law team by calling u.s.a. at (216) 373-7706, or past contacting the states via Chat, email, or our online contact course.

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Source: https://www.minclaw.com/how-to-remove-and-report-fake-google-reviews/

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