Flagging Fake Reviews

[regl8r]

Has anyone had any success with getting fake reviews taken down with the report a problem flag next to review on Google listings? If so which option did you choose, how long did it take, etc. Appreciate any help.

 

[CodyBaird]

Not once.

But I have heard rumors of people paying lots of micro workers to all report the review.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

I have not tried this tactic yet

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[Colan Nielsen]

Google reviews will only be taken down if they are an egregious violation of the review guidelines. And even in that case, flagging seems to send a report into a deep dark abyss.

In the case of a review that is in clear violation, I would try tweeting https://twitter.com/GoogleSmallBiz

 

[Joe Mink]

Two months ago I achieved my first success in flagging and having a review removed on Google for one of my clients. It was from a former employee and I flagged it as "conflict of interest". It was gone in less than a week.
Since then, the reviewer has changed his name and reposted the exact same review. I flagged it again, but so far it remains live after 3 weeks.

 

[fpforum]

I don't think just one flag will do the trick. I've never had luck when reporting things in the past, but I've become convinced there needs to be multiple complaints before anything gets taken down.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Good point. It will have a better chance of being reviewed, and ultimately removed, if it gets flagged multiple times.

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[James Watt]

I wonder if Google's had to deal with mechanical turk style flagging campaigns before. If it's really the case that flagging multiple times helps, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some strange spam flagging patterns under the hood that Google's had to deal with. I know the Warrior Forum would be all over that if business owners could get negative reviews pulled just by a slow and steady hit of locally based 'this review is spam' flags. I'd be interested in seeing some numbers if anyone's got any personal experience.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I wonder if Google's had to deal with mechanical turk style flagging campaigns before. If it's really the case that flagging multiple times helps, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some strange spam flagging patterns under the hood that Google's had to deal with. I know the Warrior Forum would be all over that if business owners could get negative reviews pulled just by a slow and steady hit of locally based 'this review is spam' flags. I'd be interested in seeing some numbers if anyone's got any personal experience.

James, I think what happens with multiple flags is that it pushes the review further up the line for a manual review. The review would still have to clearly violate the guidelines in order for it to be removed. That's my understanding of the process.

 

[James Watt]

That's what I figured. Either way, I haven't seen many business owners have much luck with getting reviews removed no matter what they do, so the point's kind of moot.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

That's what I figured. Either way, I haven't seen many business owners have much luck with getting reviews removed no matter what they do, so the point's kind of moot.

No kidding. On the rare occasion that we succesfully have a review removed for a client it's an all out celebration here at the office