Fake Google reviews: how to report and remove them

What counts as a fake Google review?

Google does not use the phrase "fake review" as a policy name. It uses "fake engagement", and it defines it on its Prohibited and restricted content page. Fake engagement includes:

Content that is not based on a real experience or does not accurately represent the location or product in question.

Reviews or ratings that have been paid for, directly or in kind.

Content that has been posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person.

A second rule catches most of the rest. Google removes content "based on a conflict of interest", and it gives examples: "current or former employment, a contractual or consultory relationship", and "industry competitors, familial relationships".

So a fake review, in Google's terms, is one of four things.

1. Written by someone who never used the business.
2. Paid for by someone.
3. One of several posted by the same person.
4. Written by someone with a stake: staff, ex-staff, a rival or a relative.

Our pages on the fake engagement rule and the conflict of interest rule quote both in full.

What does Google actually remove?

More than fake reviews. Google's policy page lists every banned category, and a review that breaks any one of them can be reported. Our plain-language index of Google's review policies covers each one. These are the ones a business meets most.

What Google does not remove is just as clear. Its report page says: "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." A harsh review from a real customer stays. Our guide to why Google keeps most 1-star reviews covers that side.

What evidence should you gather before you report?

Gather it first. The report itself is a few taps, but the appeal is a form, and it is your one chance to show Google what it cannot see from the text.

For every review:

• A screenshot of the review, with the date and the account name.
• The link to the review. Google's help pages show how to copy it from Maps.
• The reviewer's public profile: how many reviews, of what, and where.

For a review you believe is from a non-customer:

• What in the text does not fit your business: a service you do not offer, a location you do not have, a staff member who does not exist.
• The same wording on other businesses' profiles. Search a full sentence in quotes.

For a wave:

• A dated list of every review in it, with links.
• The event that set it off, if you know it: a news story, a post, a price change.
• Any message that asks for money. That changes the route, as the section on extortion below explains.

For a conflict of interest:

• The tie, from a public source or your own records: a work profile, a leaver's date, a rival's staff page.

One thing to leave out is patient data. Do not send Google a chart, an order history or anything that shows who is or is not your patient. "We have no record of this person" is a statement you can make without proof attached.

Our guide on how to document a fake review was written for Trustpilot, and its method carries over.

How do you report the review?

Google's report page gives two routes. Both are free.

From your Business Profile

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Read reviews.
3. Next to the review, select Report.
4. Select the reason. Google gives "Spam" and "Profanity" as examples.
5. Select Send report.

From the Reviews Management Tool

1. Open the tool and confirm the account that manages the profile.
2. Select your business.
3. Choose to report a new review for removal.
4. Select Report next to the review, and pick the reason in the tab that opens.
5. Submit.

The tool is the better habit, because it is also where the status shows. Anyone can report a review from Google Maps as well, through the menu on the review. The status and the appeal sit in the business's tool.

Choose the reason with care. For a fake review the closest reason is usually spam or a conflict of interest. If a review also contains a phone number or a slur, use that. A breach in the text is easier for a reviewer to see than a pattern behind it. Our guide on using Google's report form well covers the wording.

What happens after you report it?

Google says: "Review evaluation typically takes several days." Its policy overview explains who looks: "a combination of people and machine-learning algorithms".

The Reviews Management Tool shows one of three statuses.

If the review is removed, it no longer shows on Maps or Search. Your star rating follows, but not at once. Google says a changed score can take up to 2 weeks.

What if Google keeps the review?

You appeal, once. In the tool, choose to check the status of reviews you reported, select "Appeal eligible reviews", pick up to 10, and fill in the form. Google emails the result.

The appeal is where most fake review cases are won or lost, for a simple reason. The first report carries almost no detail. The appeal carries yours. A good one does three things.

• Names the policy in Google's own words, such as "content posted from multiple accounts by one person".
• States the facts that show it, in a few plain lines.
• Adds what the first reviewer could not see: the pattern, the tie, the copy on another profile.

A weak appeal repeats that the review is unfair. Our guide to Google review removal appeals has a full walk-through.

What if someone is asking for money?

Then it is not a review problem. It is extortion, and Google treats it that way. Its extortion page describes the pattern: "a sudden increase in 1-star and 2-star reviews", then a demand for money to remove them.

Google's instructions are short.

• "Do not engage with or pay the malicious individuals."
• Do not offer money or services to make it stop.
• Collect screenshots of every message, with dates, times and contact details.
• Collect links to every review in the wave.
• Send it all through Google's merchant extortion report form.

Google says its team investigates and tells you the result. It also says the form is only for cases with a real demand. Reviews that break a policy for other reasons go through the normal report.

Can you remove a fake review any other way?

There are three other ways a review leaves a profile. Only one is in your hands.

• The writer deletes it. People do, sometimes, after a fair reply. You may not pay them to. Google bars any incentive "in exchange for posting any review or revision or removal of a negative review".
• Google's spam systems remove it without a report. That happens to fake reviews and, Google admits, sometimes to real ones.
• A legal route, for content that breaks local law. It is slower and needs a lawyer. See our page on illegal content.

What does not work is burying. Buying a wave of 5-star reviews to push the fake one down breaks the same fake engagement policy. Google can then restrict the profile: no new reviews for a time, existing ones unpublished, or a public warning. The FTC's review rule bans bought reviews too.

Where do we fit?

A clinic with two fake reviews can follow this guide and be done in an evening. We are useful when the numbers are larger, the cases are harder, or nobody on the team has the hours.

We read the whole profile for free and send back two lists: the reviews that break a policy, and the ones that do not. We file the reports and the appeals through Google's own tools, under your Business Profile. You pay $475 to $600 per confirmed removal, by pack size, and nothing for a review that stays. The same pack covers Trustpilot reviews.

Start with the Google review removal page, or send your profile link through the audit request form.

We do this work for clients through our Google review removal service, and the price per removed review is published.