How To Remove Negative Google Reviews in 2026

Wondering how to remove Google reviews in 2026? Learn more in our guide below. 

“Can a business remove Google reviews?” is a question we hear often. The answer: You cannot delete Google reviews yourself, but you can report policy-violating reviews, and Google may remove them.

And why are so many people preoccupied with how to remove Google reviews? To answer this question, let’s look at things from a user’s perspective.

You get that morning coffee at the office, drink the first sip, and notice the rich flavor. As you continue to enjoy it, you ask yourself, “What makes that brand of coffee so great?”

You open Google, run a quick search, and there it is — the name of the company.

You can also see its location on Google Maps and, below, customer reviews. (P.S. Those reviews include positive reviews, fake reviews, and spammy reviews.)

Today, it’s simply you searching for a random coffee business. But tomorrow, someone might Google your business listing. 

Your Digital Reputation Matters

Review platforms and online comments are something we all need to accept as part of life in our tech-based world. No one can escape them, and there’s no way you can prevent customers from sharing their experiences online.

Dealing with fraudulent or negative feedback coming from angry and unhappy customers is hard to take for anyone, though.

Luckily, while it’s not easy to remove negative Google reviews, there are ways to get around bad reviews and save your business’s reputation.

Whether you’re struggling with a competitor’s fake negative Google reviews about your business, slander coming from former employees, or actual negative client reviews, this post will prove helpful.

Key Takeaways

• You cannot self-delete a Google review of your business.
• Google only removes reviews that violate its content policies.
• You can report reviews through your Google Business Profile or the Reviews Management Tool.
• Decisions regarding review removals usually take several days to a few weeks.
• If Google declines your request, you can submit a one-time appeal.
• To counter legitimate negative reviews, suppress them with more recent positive content.

Can Google Reviews Be Removed?

Yes, but only Google can remove a review, and only when it breaks Google policy. A business cannot delete reviews on its own profile.

Of course, when you realize that you have a harmful negative review or several negative comments about you or your business online, your first thought is, “How do I remove reviews like this ASAP?”

So, if you can’t remove the negative Google review yourself, what should you do?

Here at NetReputation, the first step we take when looking to remove negative Google reviews is to identify your brand’s top search phrases. This is where you’re appearing in search engine listings.

Once we have this information, we can start measuring important details such as positive search results, owned websites, similar profiles, and negative content, like fake Google reviews. All of this can affect your brand’s online reputation. 

This information will guide us to the appropriate response to the Google review: pursue Google review removal, respond, or suppress.

Is It Possible to Delete a Google Review?

A reviewer can delete a review they personally wrote. (See the FAQ section for self-delete steps). However, a business owner cannot delete someone else’s review.

However, Google does provide a way to report poor reviews that may be removed under certain circumstances. In other words, while you can’t delete a Google review yourself, Google has the power to delete Google reviews depending on the situation.

Keep in mind, Google does not remove a review simply because the business disagrees with it or believes it is untrue. The review has to meet certain criteria for removal.

Which Google Reviews Will Google Actually Remove?

A review may be eligible for removal if it falls under one of Google’s policy-violation categories:

• Spam/fake/bot content: A review not based on a real experience
• Duplicates: Multiple reviews from one person about the same experience
• Offensive/hateful/harassing content: A review that is dehumanizing, belittling, or threatening
• Competitor reviews/conflict of interest: Reviews posted by competitors to influence customers
• Wrong business: A review that was posted to the incorrect listing
• Wrong location: Reviews for a different business location
• Employee reviews: A review posted by a current or former employee
• Irrelevant: Reviews that are off-topic, such as rants about unrelated issues
• Inappropriate/unrelated images: Uploaded images that do not pertain to the business

If you discover a review that meets these criteria, you can report it to Google. Removal requests are far more likely to be granted when you can show a clear policy breach. For example, a review was clearly meant for a different business, or it is a duplicate review from the same account.

Keep in mind that Google does not verify transaction records, and a display name need not be a real name. This means arguments such as “this person was never our customer” or “the review is a lie” rarely succeed on their own.

Note also that a review naming a public-facing professional (doctor, dentist, lawyer, contractor, etc.) is no longer an automatic violation the way naming a non-public employee can be. This practice is per the Google policy update in 2025, current at the time of this writing.

Additionally, regarding fake reviews, it’s important to note that the FTC issued a final rule in August 2024 targeting fake and AI-generated reviews and testimonials. This ruling raises the stakes for paid or fabricated reviews.

If you determine that a bad review falls under one of the categories above, use the following steps that walk you through how to remove Google reviews.

How To Remove a Google Review From Your Business Profile

Short of deleting Google reviews, which isn’t possible at this time, there are ways to get rid of negative reviews that are dragging down your Google Business Profile. This can bring positive reviews to the forefront and elevate your online presence.

1. Report the Negative Google Review

From your Google Business Profile, open Reviews or Manage reviews, find the review, select the three-dot menu, choose Report Review or Flag as Inappropriate, pick the closest policy reason, and submit.1

You can also use Google’s Reviews Management Tool to report a Google review.1 Reviewers in the EEA can also report third-party reviews there.

Save screenshots and the date of your report in case an appeal is needed.

This process will tell Google to check the content and determine if it should be taken down. Google is most likely to delete bad reviews that don’t comply with its review policies and guidelines.

2. Await Google’s Removal Decision

It can take between one week and one month to receive a response from Google about the status of the contested review.1 You can check the status of a report in the Reviews Management Tool, where the status may read “decision pending,” “no policy violation found,” or “escalated.” Note that “no violation found” is not necessarily final, because an appeal may be available.

If Google decides that the negative review does not comply with its policies, the review will be removed. This is the only way to delete reviews from Google.

3. Monitor Your Google Reviews

Since the removal of bad reviews by Google doesn’t happen too often, you need another way to ensure that negative reviews don’t have a huge impact on your reputation.

With advanced online monitoring, you can provide quality customer service and encourage positive Google reviews from happy, loyal customers.

4. Encourage More Positive Reviews

The more positive comments you get, the better. By asking customers to leave reviews and giving them a place where they can go to do so — like providing the link to your Google Business Profile — there’s a higher likelihood that they’ll follow through.

5. Hire Google Review Management Experts

Ready for some great news? When you work with review management experts, you won’t have to stress about handling negative reviews, encouraging positive reviews, or monitoring for brand mentions online.

By partnering with experts, you gain the advantages of consistent reporting, response coverage, and ongoing monitoring at volume. Your management service will respond to reviews and can file removal requests.

Note that no legitimate service can guarantee removal of a Google review, so anyone promising guaranteed deletion for a fee throws up a red flag. However, legitimate reputation management experts can navigate reviews for you and handle the reporting process.

What To Do If Google Won’t Remove the Review

What if you followed the proper procedures to remove negative Google reviews, but the review did not get removed?

You still have options. Apply these effective strategies to try to remove bad Google reviews or to lessen their impact on your business’s reputation.

Appeal Google’s Decision

If a reported review is found to have no policy violation, you may be able to submit a one-time appeal through the Reviews Management Tool. Select the eligible review and submit your appeal.

The outcome of the appeal will arrive by email. The status will be “removed” if it is determined that the review violates policy, or “kept and marked escalated” if it complies with policy.

Note that appeals are reviewed but are not guaranteed to succeed.

Respond to the Review Professionally

For a legitimate negative review that will not be removed, the goal shifts from removal to reassuring future readers. Follow this professional response formula:

• Thank the reviewer.
• Acknowledge the experience without admitting anything you cannot verify.
• Offer a concrete next step.
• Keep it brief and human.
• For suspicious-but-live reviews, state that you cannot find a matching record and invite the person to make contact, without accusations.

Suppress the Review with Stronger Content

When removal is not possible, you can focus on suppression instead. What’s the difference? While removal involves deleting the review at the source, suppression involves providing positive and authoritative content to outrank it.

To suppress negative search results, offer a steady collection of recent positive reviews and broader search content that provides results beyond the review itself.

Great Google Reviews Improve Your Brand Image

Most of the time, satisfied clients won’t have any problem with leaving good reviews for you.

A steady stream of recent, authentic positive reviews is the most durable protection against the occasional negative one. Positive Google business profile reviews improve how the profile reads to new customers and enhance your online presence.

This means your job is to offer impeccable products or services and improve the customer experience so each customer wants to leave a positive review instead of a negative review.

And when your business listing reflects positive reviews, others are bound to take notice.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take Google to remove a review?

The response typically ranges from several days to a few weeks. You can track the status of your request in the Reviews Management Tool.

Can you pay to remove a Google review?

If you’re wondering how much does it cost to remove Google reviews, the answer is that only Google removes them. You cannot pay to remove bad Google reviews. Policy-based reporting is the only legitimate path to remove negative Google reviews.

Can I delete a Google review I wrote myself?

Yes. To delete your own review, open Google Maps or your Google account contributions, find your review, select the three-dot or pencil menu, and choose delete or edit.4

Can you turn off Google reviews for your business?

No. Google does not let businesses disable reviews on their profile. Instead, to lessen the impact of negative reviews, you can report the review to Google, respond to the reviewer, or suppress the review with positive content.

Will Google remove a review just because it is unfair or untrue?

Reviews are only removed if they violate a Google review policy. “Unfair” is not the same as policy-violating. Legitimate negative feedback usually stays.

How NetReputation Can Help Remove Google Reviews

If you have a personal brand or you’re a business owner, having a good reputation is crucial. You’ll need to leverage how you show up in search results and reduce negative information as much as possible.

At NetReputation, we use various strategies to enhance our clients’ credibility online.

Below are just some of the tactics we‘ve been implementing for years with positive results:

• Removal of internet slander
• Removal of internet defamation
• Google image removal
• Harmful press coverage removal

NetReputation.com advises clients on business reputation management and answers questions on related topics like how to remove a Google review. We help you protect your reputation through review management—reporting policy-violating reviews, responding at scale, and suppressing what cannot be removed.

Contact us at 844-461-3632 to learn more or receive a Free Reputation Analysis.