Removing fake reviews (ratings)

[zigojacko]

Our client receives the occasional fake review (it's just a poor rating, no actual review text is left) yet there is no history of this customer having ever placed an order or booked an appointment or anything.

I just reported it as spam and GMB instantly reviewed it and stated it did not violate any policies.

The reviewer has no other reviews and has no profile picture.

This sort of thing is rife, we see it with loads of businesses - it's probably someone at a local competitor or something.

But anyway, if Google aren't interested, there's nothing we can do about it I'm guessing?

Our client already left a response to the review by the way over a week ago asking them to get in touch as they can't see anything in their system having dealt with the name the review has been left under - and, as expected, no-one has been in touch with them about it.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah, ratings without text are the hardest type of negative review to get rid of because you can't point to anything in the actual review that violates Google's guidelines. I'd just tell your client it's part of doing business these days (unfortunately) and these types of reviews don't even show up on the Google Maps app. They also get pushed to the very bottom of the review list on desktop so they're not super visible.

 

[zigojacko]

Yeah, ratings without text are the hardest type of negative review to get rid of because you can't point to anything in the actual review that violates Google's guidelines. I'd just tell your client it's part of doing business these days (unfortunately) and these types of reviews don't even show up on the Google Maps app. They also get pushed to the very bottom of the review list on desktop so they're not super visible.

Great, yeah, I figured as much - thanks for feeding back Joy