REMOVE REVIEWS FROM * YELP * GOOGLE * FACEBOOK and MORE
FACEBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS, REVIEWS & STAR RATINGS
The advent of facebook reviews is less than a decade in the making at the time of this writing. Facebook reviews stand out among alternative review sites in that they are not displayed somewhere ambiguous such as a Google review, or one on a website like Yelp. Instead, reviews are displayed directly on your businesses actual page. Yes, the page that you've spend countless hours, possibly ten plus years, and maybe even thousands of dollars in advertising, cultivating in order to give your customers, or potential clients a portal to access information about your business and services.
Seeing that you have received a bad rating on a page you've come to feel is yours, can have a bit of a different sting to it. Having a business page on Facebook.com has essentially become a necessity, and done right, can result in increases in views, leads, and sales. Facebook reviews make up an important part of this equation, as they can drive lots of traffic toward or away from your company.
Google prominently displays reviews and star ratings within their search results. Negative and unfair social media reviews are no exception. You may ask yourself..."How do I remove Facebook reviews?" We will be covering some DIY steps you can take to delete negative reviews from your facebook business page.
No matter how hard you try, if you are in business long enough, it is inevitable that your company will receive reviews you don't agree with. Sometimes these are just outright false or unfair, others may be fake posted by a competitor or disgruntled ex employee. Regardless these unwanted comments and ratings can do real and lasting damage to a business. Knowing your options as to how to remove / delete facebook reviews from your business page is important.
Facebook recommends following up on any review, including and especially negative reviews, with a rebuttal or explanation. This is generally industry standard for rating and review sites. It sounds like the right thing to do...tell your side of the story and hope that it makes everything better. However, there is a somewhat devious side to this advice. Any additional content added to an unwanted review not only brings more attention to the review, but in most instances, actually causes it to rank higher in Facebook, as well as Google search results. Unless there is a very high probability that a response can resolve the underlying issue, and result in the facebook review being redacted, we almost always advise against it.
Facebook also has an option to flag a review, although in general, this will be of little use unless the review violates one of their terms of service. Even then, it is not guaranteed that the review will be scrubbed. Additionally, FB does not have an option to flag reviews with only star ratings. One must assume this is another attempt to get the user to add a rebuttal...not recommended.
From Facebook.com:
You can report Recommendations that don't follow our Community Standards or don't focus on the product or service offered by the business. We'll review your report and may remove Recommendations that don't follow our standards. Recommendations that only include a star rating can't be reported.
If you can't find a Recommendation that you previously saw on the Page, it may have been removed or the person who posted it may have changed the audience for the post.
To report a Recommendation:
- Go to Reviews and click in the top right corner of the post you want to report.
- Select Find support or report recommendation.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
How to Remove Facebook Reviews / Delete Facebook Ratings
There may come a time when you decide to be done with facebook reviews altogether. Some of our clients have been the victims of attacks by competitors or other bad actors, and find that at least taking a sabbatical from fb reviews is in order. Sometimes they choose to make it a permanent change, and others, temporary, until an alternative plan is in place. If removing the option to receive recommendations and reviews altogether sounds like the right course of action, the following will guide you through the process of completely hiding your facebook ratings and reviews.
From Facebook.com:
Turning Recommendations on for your Page lets anyone logged into Facebook publish a Recommendation on your Page, see your Page's rating and see Recommendations shared with Public. Recommendations help customers learn more about your business and may make your Page easier to find in Facebook search. To see your Page's Recommendations, go to your Page and click Recommendations or Reviews in the left column.
Turning Recommendations off will disable Recommendations and remove the rating and Recommendations from your Page. Keep in mind that you can report a Recommendation for removal if it doesn't follow our Community Standards or focus on the product or service offered by the business
To turn Recommendations on or off for your Page:
- From your News Feed, click Pages in the left menu.
- Go to your Page.
- Click Page Settings in the bottom left of your Page.
- Click Templates and Tabs in the left menu.
- Click to the right of Reviews to turn the tab on or off.
Note: If your Page previously had reviews, Recommendations have been automatically turned on for your Page. If you can't find a review, check your Page's Recommendations (you can filter by most recent Recommendations to help you find it). If you still can't find a review or Recommendation, it may have been removed because it didn't follow our Community Standards.
In closing, we understand the frustration of getting an undeserved, unflattering review on facebook, and the immediate desire to do something to have negative rating deleted. Generally we find that if it is grounded in reality, then there is almost always a way to resolve it with the original poster. All legitimate businesses have some sort of negative media out there somewhere, and most consumers know this. However, more and more businesses are finding themselves in untenable situations where a false, unfair, or libelous facebook review is damaging their ability to highlight the positive side to prospective customers, and the options to remove negative reviews and ratings must be considered.
Please feel free to reach out to us if you are having an issue with fb recommendations and reviews. We provide a no obligation scan and report containing all of our options to assist with your specific situation.
