Negative Yelp reviews can damage your reputation and impact sales, but if they violate Yelp’s content guidelines, you may be able to get them removed.
Yelp Overview
Yelp stickers can be seen on doors and inside establishments everywhere you go. They usually say “People Love Us on Yelp” or “Rate Us on Yelp” but to some customers, they might as well read, “Complain Here”. It’s been over 20 years since Yelp launched, but reviews on the platform still spark debate. Can you really trust them? Are they all genuine? Or are the businesses with the highest ratings simply run by the most aggressive owners who know how to play the system?
This post explains how every business owner can report and flag fake and negative reviews on Yelp.
How to Navigate and Effectively Handle Negative and Inaccurate Yelp Reviews
- Try to resolve the issue offline. Reach out to the reviewer directly. They might change their mind and either update their review to something more positive or take it down.
- Respond to the review publicly from your Yelp Business Account with an explanation and a proposed resolution. This shows to the public that you care about customer feedback.
- Flag and appeal if the review violates Yelp’s guidelines, you can have it removed.
- If you believe fake reviews are being posted by scammers or competitors, contact Yelp directly for investigation.
How to Report Negative Yelp Reviews
There are several ways to report negative reviews on Yelp that you believe violate its rules or fall under restricted content.
Flag a Review as a User
- You need to be logged in to your Yelp account in order to report reviews
- Click three dots and then “Report Review”
- Select an option why you want to report a review from a drop down menu
- Provide specific details where you can write the explanation, evidence or how it violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines
- Click “Send”
It is not ideal to report a review as a user, and the chances of successfully deleting it are low. Yelp encourages to use business account to flag and report reviews in question.
Report Questionable Reviews with Your Yelp Business Account
- Create Yelp Business Account
- Verify your business
- Go to “Reviews” section and find review in question
- Click three dots and then “Report Review”
- Select the most appropriate option why you want to report a review from a drop down menu
- Provide details where you can write the explanation, evidence or how it violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines
- Click “Send”
If Yelp comes back and decides to keep the review despite your report, you can escalate and appeal for second look:
- Go to Questionable Content page on Yelp
- Provide case number from email reply on review you reported
- Provide detailed comments with clear explanations and evidence as to why the review violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines. The more evidence you provide, the better chance you have of successfully getting it removed.
- Click “Submit” the appeal
Visual Guide How to Report & Remove Negative Yelp Reviews
Response Time Expectations
After submitting your appeal for a questionable review, Yelp moderators will evaluate it and respond shortly, usually within a few business days.
When waiting on review appeal, patience is a key when it comes to Yelp. The network still uses manual review and making too many requests can appear spammy.
Types of Yelp Reviews You Can Flag and Report
Yelp has strict rules for reviews about local businesses, products, and services. If a review doesn’t follow these guidelines, you can flag and appeal to have it removed.
- Reviews should be relevant, real and genuine and focus on real experience as a customer. Customers should avoid discussing unrelated topics like politics, business practices, or personal circumstances.
- Use appropriate language. Threats, harassment, hate speech, or bigotry are not allowed.
- Reviews should be fair and unbiased to avoid conflict of interest. It can’t review your own business, your employer, friends’ or relatives’ businesses, competitors, or businesses in networking group. Also, according to Yelp, businesses should never ask customers to write reviews.
- Customers can’t share private information about others. For example, posts with photos or videos of other people without their permission or use their full names without consent are not allowed.
- No promotional content, reviews can’t advertise products or services
- Original content only, no copy-paste content from other sites and networks.
In my experience, when I read reviews, I occasionally come across reviews written for a different business or completely off-topic. These cases of mistaken identity can also be reported and often have a high chance of removal. Pay attention to those.
Check the “Not Currently Recommended” Reviews Section
Yelp automatically filters some reviews into a section labeled “not currently recommended” and it usually found at the bottom of your page (e.g., “5 other reviews that are not currently recommended”). These reviews are often hidden by Yelp because they appear less trustworthy and/or poorly written, some negative reviews can end up there too and users can still expand the section and read them.
You can access these hidden reviews through your Yelp account and report those that violate guidelines, so they don’t appear even in the filtered section.
How to Contact Yelp During a Viral Review Attack
Sometimes businesses can have influx of negative reviews after viral events (like videos or business stand on politics or sensitive topics). Those reviews can crash ratings and overwhelm the business page. If you find yourself in this situation, here what to do:
Log in to your Yelp Business Account and go to the Support Center. For individual reviews, open your Reviews section, click the three dots next to a review, and select “Report Review”. If you are dealing with a larger spike or coordinated attack, use the “Contact Support” or “Questionable Content” form to contact Yelp instead of reporting reviews one by one.
You can also call Yelp business support, the phone number is listed here: https://biz.yelp.com/support-center/
Explain that you’re experiencing a sudden surge of reviews, note that they are from non-customers and off-topic. Explain what viral event, publication, social media post caused the attack.
Often Yelp puts your page on hold and clean reviews that came during those events.
What Are the Chances of Removing a Negative Yelp Review?
Yelp doesn’t share how often they remove reported reviews and there is unclear if this type of data exists. Successful removal depends on factors like why it’s reported, how it breaks Yelp’s rules, and the evidence business provided. Reviews that clearly violate the rules are more likely to come down, but it’s still not guaranteed. Sometimes, it takes multiple tries to remove a review, and businesses can use Yelp’s “second chance” appeal process with the case number from email communication.
Anecdotal stories suggest that it’s easier to appeal reviews posted from accounts without any history, while it’s much harder to remove reviews from long term users with an established history on Yelp. Also, many reviews from newly created accounts will go to the hidden section on Yelp anyway, it’s some sort of “sandbox” until Yelp can verify that it’s a real account and not a one-off account created just to post a single review.
How to Increase Your Chances of Removing Negative Yelp Reviews
- Provide detailed information and evidence, include as much relevant information as possible to show how it violates Yelp’s content guidelines.
- Understand Yelp’s Content Guidelines, familiarize yourself with Yelp’s rules for reviews to better navigate the reporting process and increase your chances of success.
- Choose the right timing, take a moment to gather your thoughts before reporting a negative review. Avoid emotional responses and focus on presenting clear evidence how the review violates Yelp’s Content Guidelines.
Are There Reviews That Can’t Be Removed from Yelp?
Arguably, most reviews are genuine and follow Yelp’s rules and guidelines. These reviews can not be removed, even after multiple appeals. In practice, it’s nearly impossible to get reviews removed when they’re written by long time Yelp users with a long history.
And why try to remove all negative reviews as long as there are no “red flags”? A good negative review offers an opportunity to reply professionally and show customers that you care. According to Yelp’s survey, 90% consumers are likely to overlook a negative review if they see a response from the business.
What Not to Do to Bury Negative Reviews If You Can’t Remove Them
From my own experience, trying way too hard to bury negative Yelp review can backfire. If Yelp suspects you’re posting fake reviews or manipulating feedback, it may restrict your account or filter out suspicious activity. Asking too many customers, especially those who’ve never used Yelp before, to quickly create accounts and leave reviews often leads to those reviews being hidden in the “not currently recommended” section, where they don’t impact your rating.
Instead, aim for genuine feedback. Encourage honest reviews from your real customers, particularly those who already have established Yelp accounts and a history of activity on the platform.
Can a Successfully Removed Negative Yelp Review Reappear?
Yes, a removed Yelp review can reappear in certain situations. For example, if the original reviewer edits and reposts their feedback, Yelp may treat it as a new review and publish it again.
Why Are Reviews That Clearly Violate Yelp’s Content Guidelines Still Approved?
It’s been more than 20 years since Yelp launched, and many still question whether we can trust online reviews there. Clearly, there are several issues with the platform, some can be easily addressed, though sometimes with delays from the network. Others are caused by “bad actors” who find new ways to exploit the system by posting fake reviews to boost their own profiles, sabotage businesses for different reasons, or harm competitors.
According to research, more than 23% of online reviews are fake:
This underscores the importance for businesses to vigilantly monitor their online profiles and reviews.
Can I Completely Remove My Business from Yelp?
You can delete your Yelp business account, but you cannot remove your business listing from Yelp. All the information, customer reviews and ratings will stay, the business will be listed as “unclaimed”.
But leaving “unclaimed” listing pose a threat. There have been cases in the past where scammers, hackers, and people unaffiliated with a business took over the ownership of “unclaimed” Yelp profiles. Therefore, it’s better to claim and own your profile, whether you love it or hate it.
Does Seeking Legal Advice Help Fight Negative Yelp Reviews?
Seeking legal advice to fight Yelp reviews can be an option in certain situations, but it often doesn’t result in the review being removed. Yelp has strict policies regarding free speech and user generated content, and they generally won’t take down reviews unless they violate their content guidelines (e.g., containing hate speech, threats, or personal attacks). Also, Yelp won’t take sides if you take a person who wrote the review to court. However, pursuing legal action can be time consuming, costly, create bad publicity, and unlikely to result in Yelp removing the review.
For example, some cases where business owners took a reviewer to court became viral and reached media attention, like this case that appeared on Good Morning America. As a result, business suffered even more negative reviews and bad publicity.
Reporting Fake Positive Yelp Reviews on Competitors’ Pages
If you notice competitors using fake reviews to boost their own ratings, you can report them on Yelp. Unlike many other platforms, Yelp allows business owners to flag suspicious reviews on any business page including competitors.
To report a review, click the three dots next to it, click “Report Review” and provide a clear explanation of why it appears fake or violates Yelp’s guidelines.
Closing Arguments
Yelp can be super competitive in local markets. I even think it can be very unfair network because some business owners use all kinds of strategies to generate more reviews, call them good salespeople or highly competitive individuals. You all know this type of person who almost “terrorize” local markets with all kind of advertising. Unfortunately, some even resort to unethical practices like posting fake reviews or sabotaging competitors. This requires other businesses to keep up with positive reviews and monitor their Yelp profiles frequently.
