How To Deal With Fake Google Reviews

If you pay attention to your Google Business Profile, you may have had the unfortunate experience of receiving a fake review. Sadly, these can't be totally avoided. Some people just don't like churches and will leave a bad review to mess with you, and sometimes fake reviews are submitted by bots. However, there are a couple of things you can do in response!
 
Instead of ignoring a fake review, we recommend responding from your Google Business Profile instead! You can say something like, "Thank you for leaving us a review. We always appreciate feedback on our services/team/business/product. Unfortunately, we don't have any record of you ever being a customer/visiting/purchasing from us so we would appreciate it if you would remove the misleading review."

This makes it clear to potential customers who might see this 1-star review that you not only are paying attention, but that this review is untrustworthy, or at the very least suspicious. That way, rather than casting doubt on you, your team, your organization/business/church, it puts the doubt on the reviewer and gives you a little more chance that this review won't be a turn-off to potential visitors or customers.

You can also report your review to Google. If you're logged into your Google Business Profile, you can navigate to find the spam review, click the 3 dots on the right and click "Report This Review". There's an option there labeled "Off Topic", that's the one you want! Select that and then click "Send Report" and that will send the request to Google to remove it. They may or may not actually remove the review but the combination of responding to and reporting it are the best way you can respond to a fake review. If you need any more help managing your Google Business Profile, contact us today about our SEO services!