A bad review costs you customers. The platform removes it only with a solid reason

Customers open your website second. They read your reviews first

I do it myself. Before a meeting with a new supplier I open their Google profile before their website and look mostly at the three worst reviews. I am not an exception. According to the US survey by BrightLocal (Local Consumer Review Survey 2025), 83% of consumers use Google to read reviews and 74% check at least two review sites before deciding.

Michael Luca of Harvard Business School showed what stars do to money back in 2011. One extra star on Yelp brought independent restaurants 5 to 9% higher revenue. The effect did not show up for chains, probably because people know the brand without ratings. A smaller, lesser-known company, which is nearly every company, is the most exposed to one bad review.

The Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University added two findings. A product with five reviews is 270% more likely to be bought than one with none. And willingness to buy peaks at ratings roughly between 4.0 and 4.7 stars. Closer to a perfect five it drops, because such a rating looks too good to be true. One bad review among twenty good ones looks like an honest sample. A single loud one with no reply hurts far more.

It applies to the people you want to hire too. According to Glassdoor, 83% of job seekers are likely to research employer reviews and ratings before they apply. A bad rating costs you candidates you will never see, because they simply do not get in touch.

Anyone can write a Google review. Only Google can remove it

Google is the first and most widely read review wall for most businesses. Anyone with an account can post there, and you cannot delete a review yourself. You can report it, but Google's Business Profile help is clear: you report a review that breaks its content policies, and disagreeing with it is not a reason. The platform does not step into disputes between a business and a customer.

What breaks the policies? Fake and misleading ratings, spam, abuse and harassment, impersonation and a so-called conflict of interest: reviews from competitors, from current or former employees and from people with a personal stake in the company's reputation. Conflict of interest is often the strongest card, because it can be documented. A screenshot of the LinkedIn profile showing the author works for your competitor is enough.

Google reviews a reported review and you see the outcome in the review management tool. If it finds no violation, you can appeal once and add evidence in the appeal. Once. Reporting the same review twenty times is pointless; one report with the right reason and an appeal with evidence and a reference to the specific rule has the better chance.

Picture a guesthouse owner. On Thursday morning they find one star saying “Awful, never again” from someone who never stayed, and after the first coffee they usually know what to do: write a three-paragraph reply. Don't. Everyone else who is deciding about the guesthouse reads that reply. According to BrightLocal, 89% of consumers expect a business to respond to both positive and negative reviews. A good reply has three sentences: thanks for the feedback, the facts without emotion and an offer to resolve it outside the public profile.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Reddit: a post travels faster than a correction

A Google review sits in one place and waits. A post on a social network spreads, collects comments, gets shared into groups and turns into screenshots that outlive the deleted original. Impersonating accounts come on top: a fake profile that poses as your company, offers “your” products or messages your customers.

All four platforms have their own reporting tool and their own rules against impersonation, harassment and false statements. In the European Union the Digital Services Act (DSA, Regulation 2022/2065) has added to that since February 2024. It requires platforms to run a procedure for reporting unlawful content, to tell you, as the person reporting, what was decided and how to appeal, to give the author reasons for a removal and to offer an internal complaint route and out-of-court dispute settlement. So your report does not vanish into a drawer, even though nobody guarantees removal.

Reddit deserves its own paragraph. An anonymous user starts a thread, the community votes it up and Google has for several years given discussions and forums their own block in search results. Overnight a post can reach the first page for a query with your name in it. Volunteers from the community usually moderate it, and your revenue means nothing to them. A moderator can be reasoned with if you arrive with facts and politely. A threatening email from a lawyer only adds fuel to the fire.

AI assistants read the public web too and build answers to questions like “Is company X trustworthy?” from it. What stands on Reddit or in reviews can end up in an answer nobody on your team ever sees. We cover how to monitor that in the piece on GEO for companies.

Glassdoor, TripAdvisor and Trustpilot: this is where people and bookings are decided

Glassdoor works in the opposite direction to customer reviews: employees write it and candidates read it. A company can reply to a review there and report it if it breaks Glassdoor's guidelines. A former employee's mere dissatisfaction is not grounds for removal. And when a company goes after deletion clumsily, it often confirms exactly what the review says.

TripAdvisor handles disputed reviews through the business management centre: a hotel or restaurant files an objection with a reason and supporting material. The content rules decide, so evidence of a breach, for example a review from someone who never visited, weighs more than a sense of injustice.

Trustpilot does not let a company clean up its own profile: it can neither delete nor edit a review. It can report one with a reason, and Trustpilot then usually asks the author to document the experience. Strict rules apply to you as well. Do not write reviews for yourself and do not buy them, or you risk a flag on your profile and the loss of the trust you were trying to earn.

The platform removes what breaks its rules. A court removes what breaks the law

There are always one of two reasons behind a removed review. Either it breaks the platform's rules, and the platform decides that itself. Or it breaks the law, and then the law comes into play. A platform operator is liable for unlawful content once it learns of it and fails to act. In the EU that is now set by Article 6 of the DSA, in Czechia it used to be governed by Act No. 480/2004 Coll. (as explained by Právní prostor). That is why it pays to file reports in writing and with evidence: the platform then demonstrably knows about the problem.

Czech law helps in several situations. False statements that harm a company in competition fall under unfair competition in the Civil Code. Damage to a person's honour or a company's good name falls under protection of personality. GDPR protects personal data of individuals but does not protect companies as legal entities. And since 28 May 2022 the EU Omnibus Directive has banned fake reviews, commissioning them and claiming reviews come from real customers when the company does not verify that. For widespread infringements member states must set the maximum fine at no less than 4% of turnover. The legal route runs through a demand to remove the content, a lawsuit and, for defamation, a criminal complaint. This overview is for orientation; a specific case belongs with a lawyer.

Now the uncomfortable part. Nobody can guarantee the outcome, because a platform or a court decides and both keep their own pace. Anyone who promises a 100% success rate, offers risk-free deletion or claims to pay platform staff is selling a lottery ticket with the word “guarantee” on it. According to warnings circulating among reputation professionals (for example from BlitzMetrics), an honest provider wants to study your case first and takes payment afterwards. Do not buy deletions or positive reviews. It is unlawful and it hurts your own profile most.

When removal is off the table, you are left with a reply, evidence and content

Most reputation problems come down to a sequence of steps you can take right away:

1. Secure the evidence within two days. A screenshot with the date and address, the link, the author's profile and anything that shows they never dealt with you or are tied to a competitor. Do not share customer data publicly.
2. Check whether a real customer wrote it. Go through orders, bookings and emails. If so, trying to delete it is pointless and costs you only time.
3. Reply publicly, factually and briefly. Thanks, the facts and an offer to resolve it outside the profile. Everyone who reads the reply is deciding about you, so write it for them.
4. Report the review once and cite the specific rule. With evidence and a reference to the rule it breaks. Repeated reports with no new arguments do not help.
5. Ask happy customers for a review. With no reward for positive ratings, which platforms forbid. One bad review among thirty good ones looks like ordinary reality.
6. Build content around yourself that wins the search. A company profile, an about page, references, answers to common questions and articles that mention your name in a good context. What Google and AI say about you depends on what stands on the public web.

Monitoring belongs here too: Google Alerts is free, and paid tools such as Brand24 or Mention also watch social networks. The aim is to learn about a problem before your customer does and before your competitor does. We do this as reputation management: audit, reports with evidence, legal steps with a lawyer, replies to reviews and content that strengthens you in search.

Reputation is an account that gets paid in arrears

Most companies start dealing with reputation when a salesperson calls and asks what that review is about. Until then chance runs it. The good news is that the defence is built from dull things: regular collection of genuine reviews, replies within two days and content that tells the truth about you before strangers do.

Reputation is the only account that is paid in arrears. Whoever watches it pays in instalments. Whoever ignores it pays all at once.

Inspiration & sources: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 (2025) · Michael Luca, Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com, Harvard Business School (2011) · Spiegel Research Center, Northwestern University, How Online Reviews Influence Sales (2017) · Glassdoor, The essential employer branding statistics you need to know · Google, Business Profile help: removing reviews · Právní prostor, Jak se bránit proti neoprávněné negativní recenzi (in Czech) · Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Digital Services Act · Directive (EU) 2019/2161 (Omnibus) · BlitzMetrics, How to Handle a Negative Glassdoor Review and Spot the Removal Scam

This ties into what we do: reputation management, PR & public affairs and content & production. We cover the brand that reputation rests on in the piece on how to build a brand.