Why this matters more than you think
Reviews do two jobs at once, and both of them decide whether a stranger becomes a customer. They persuade the person reading your page, and they are one of the strongest signals search engines use to work out which local business to show first. A page with real reviews on it outranks and outsells an identical page without them.
What reviews change
- Whether people choose you
- Most people read reviews before spending money somewhere new.
- Where you appear
- Review quantity, quality and freshness all feed local search ranking.
- Stars in search results
- Published once you have three or more reviews.
- What people expect
- Reviews tell you what customers actually notice — usually not what you assumed.
Getting reviews, without breaking the rules
What works
- 1Ask. Most happy customers will leave one and simply never thought of it.
- 2Ask at the right moment — when someone has just said they are pleased, not a week later by email.
- 3Put your page link on receipts, on a card by the till, in your email signature.
- 4Ask everyone, not only the happy ones. Filtering who you ask is itself against the rules.
- 5Reply to the ones you get. It is the single clearest signal that somebody is paying attention.
Answering a bad review
You cannot delete a review of your business, and neither can we on request. What you have instead is a public reply, and used properly it is worth more than the removal would have been. The next customer is not reading the bad review on its own — they are reading how you handled it.
A reply that wins the reader back
- 1Wait until you are not angry. Nothing you write in the first hour will help you.
- 2Thank them for coming in. Even if you think they are wrong.
- 3Answer the specific point. Vague apologies read as insincere.
- 4Say what you have changed, or offer to sort it out directly.
- 5Keep it short and keep it calm. You are writing for everyone who reads it afterwards, not for the reviewer.
Appealing a review
If a review genuinely breaks a rule, use Appeal this review on your page. It goes to a person who checks it against a fixed list of grounds. Bring evidence: an appeal that says “this never happened” gets nowhere, and an appeal that says “I checked every booking and card payment for that fortnight, here is what I searched” gets taken seriously.
1.This person was never a customer
What we check. Has the owner actually checked, and said what they checked? Absence from their records is weak on its own — plenty of real customers pay cash, or come in with somebody else.
What to send us. The dates you have checked, and what you searched — bookings, receipts, order records.
2.It states something as fact that is provably untrue
What we check. Is there a specific checkable claim that is false, rather than an opinion the owner disagrees with? "The food was cold" is an opinion. "They were shut that day" is checkable.
What to send us. Which specific claim, and the evidence it is false. Not that they exaggerated — a checkable statement, like a date you were closed.
3.Abusive, hateful or threatening
What we check. Slurs, threats or harassment. Blunt criticism and strong language are not abuse.
What to send us. Which words. Rudeness is not abuse; slurs and threats are.
4.Not about the goods or service at all
What we check. Is it genuinely about something other than the goods or the service?
What to send us. What it is actually about — politics, a personal dispute, something unrelated.
5.It is about a different business
What we check. Does it describe a different place?
What to send us. Which business it seems to describe, and how you know.
6.Contains someone's private details
What we check. Names, addresses, phone numbers, medical or financial details of a real person.
What to send us. Which details — a home address, phone number, medical or financial information.
7.Written by a competitor or someone connected to one
What we check. Is there real evidence of the connection, or only suspicion?
What to send us. How you know the connection. A hunch is not evidence.
8.They demanded something to change or remove it
What we check. Is there a message demanding money, freebies or a change in return?
What to send us. The message where they asked. Screenshot it before it disappears.
9.Advertising, a scam link, or nonsense
What we check. Links, advertising, or generated nonsense.
What to send us. Anything that helps us see it quickly.
You will get a decision either way, with the reason for it in writing. The review is not hidden while we look at it. Appealing costs you nothing but the time, and a rejected appeal is not held against you.
Common questions
A competitor is leaving fake reviews. What do I do?
Appeal on the ground that they were never a customer, or that there is a conflict of interest, and tell us what you checked and how you know. Patterns across several businesses are something we can see and you cannot, so report every one rather than only the worst.
Can I pay to have a review removed?
No, at any price, and anyone who offers you that service for any platform is selling you a problem rather than a solution.
Someone threatened a bad review unless I gave them a refund.
That is extortion and it is a ground for removal. Screenshot the message before it disappears, then appeal and paste it into the evidence box.
My rating dropped after one bad review. Is that fair?
With few reviews, one has a lot of weight — which is the honest arithmetic rather than a bug. The fix is more genuine reviews, not fewer honest ones.
Can I turn reviews off?
No. A page that accepts only praise tells a customer nothing, and search engines discount ratings from platforms that allow it.