How to Delete a Google Review (and Report a Fake One)

An unfair, defamatory or competitor-planted review can weigh heavily on your rating. First useful truth: you can’t delete a customer’s review yourself. But you can report it, and Google removes it if it breaks the rules. Here’s how to proceed, and what to do when that isn’t enough.

What you can (and can’t) do

• Delete a review you wrote: yes, from your own Google account.
• Delete a customer’s review: no, directly. You can only report it for review.
• Get a rule-breaking review removed: yes, if Google finds the report justified.

Which reviews Google agrees to remove

Google removes reviews that violate its policies, notably:

• off-topic, false or misleading content (a review from someone who never visited);
• abusive, hateful or defamatory content;
• spam, conflict of interest (a competitor’s review, a paid review);
• personal information or explicit content.

A simply negative but genuine review won’t be removed: you’ll need to reply to it.

Report a review step by step

1. Open your Business Profile and the Reviews section.
2. On the review, click the three dots → “Report review”.
3. Select the reason matching the rule that was broken.
4. For serious cases, follow up via Google’s review management tool and provide factual context.

Processing usually takes a few days to two weeks.

When removal is denied

If Google keeps the review, you still have two levers:

1. Reply publicly, calmly and factually: a good reply reassures more than a perfect score. See our 6 reply examples.
2. Dilute the review by increasing the volume of recent positive reviews — see get more Google reviews.

And reviews tied to wrong information?

A share of negative reviews come from a customer who found a closed door because of wrong hours online. Rather than chasing a removal, it’s better to remove the cause: Horair syncs your hours across Google, Facebook and your website, and centralizes review monitoring so you react fast. Try it for free.