As a local business owner, you can’t delete or remove negative Google reviews, but you can report or flag them as inappropriate. The Google Business service team will evaluate the thoughts and delete them only if they violate Google’s policies. A better (and more prompt) option is to ask the person who wrote it to remove the review.

Google doesn’t allow companies to delete reviews made on their profiles. This restricts companies from removing genuine reviews they received for the quality of the products or services delivered.

Google reviews influence your business’s credibility and reputation. They help tell potential customers or clients how others perceive your brand and its products or services.

Here’s how Google reviews help your business:

• Build Trust. Positive Google reviews are a great trust and credibility-boosting factor for your business. You ask your customers to leave a review or testimonial to share their first-hand experiences with your products or services. Even if the reviews are negative, responding to them in a good way helps build trust.
• Increase Local SEO Efforts & Online Presence. The more positive and diverse Google reviews you have, the better the chances of ranking high on SERPs. They show Google’s search algorithms that people like your business. This improves your rankings on Google, making your business more competitive.
• Convert More Leads. With excellent Google reviews, your business appears on top of search results. Such visibility encourages more clicks and drives organic traffic to your website, resulting in better lead conversion rates.

Citations are online references for businesses. They are mentions of your brand’s address, name, and NAP (phone number) by other companies on their websites. The more mentions your business gets, the greater the local SEO benefits you get. If correctly set up, citations help improve your rankings on local search results.