TIP: When Can You Request to Have a Bad Review Taken Down?
When Can You Request to Have a Bad Review Taken Down?
By Ivy Lamb, Manta Webinar Editor – July 15, 2016
If your small business has an online presence, you know negative reviews happen. Claiming your business on sites like Google, Yellow Pages and Manta and encouraging customer feedback is a vital part of any good SEO strategy. But what do you do when you get a nasty review?
In most cases, you won’t be able to have the review removed. You should respond gracefully and move on—a handful of bad reviews won’t hurt your business’ reputation if you’re transparent and work on providing outstanding customer service.
But there are some instances when you can report a review to be removed. It depends on the website, but in many cases if the review contains explicit language, hate speech, spam or promotional content, you can request to have it taken down. Some platforms will also remove “off-topic” reviews that don’t address your business services specifically. Any site that hosts reviews, like Google and Facebook, should have content guidelines posted, so remember to double check a website’s policy if you’re unsure.
To learn more about managing online reviews, attend the free Manta Experts webinar “How to Leverage Online Reviews to Boost Sales.”