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It’s an inevitable reaction. Your social monitoring tool has alerted you to some bad reviews of your company. Immediately, you want to know how to remove bad reviews, especially those that seem unfair. After all, the customer didn’t contact you with the complaint or the bad experience. He simply went right to Yelp or social media and blasted you.

The question is, can you remove negative comments yourself? No, unless they are on Internet property that belongs to you – comments on your blog, feedback given to you on your social media platforms, etc.

So, How Do You Remove Bad Reviews on Third Party Sites?

The short answer is, you generally cannot remove negative feedback that appears on the internet property of others. But you do have some options. You can bury them. Here are some sound suggestions for removing bad reviews by burying them.

1. Hire a Reputation Management Firm

Don’t hire one that promises it will get negative feedback removed completely. It’s a promise that cannot be kept. What they can do is launch a large campaign of positive news, reviews, etc. that will push the negative ones down on search engines and on review sites, and will provide and average “star rating” that is much higher. If you are a SERP expert, you can do this yourself, but chances are you do not have the necessary strategic skills. Just remember, these strategies are not getting negative feedback removed, they are simply countering them.

2. Go Directly to the Source

This is one surefire way to remove negative reviews. Contact the writer and start a discussion. How can you right the wrong? What can you offer? If you can sweeten the pot enough in exchange for customers removing bad reviews, then they do indeed get removed. Any writer of a review or comment can remove his/her own content.

3. Use Yelp Terms of Service When You Can

Yelp has a pretty tough and sophisticated algorithm for its own review of reviews. It picks up on what it considers “fake” reviews, especially those that are just way too glowing or way too negative. It also flags reviews that contain lewd or highly objectionable content.

If you find negative pieces on Yelp that may violate its Terms of Service, flag them for review. If they fall outside the parameters of Yelp’s guidelines, administrators will remove negative comments themselves.

Other review sites have similar guidelines too, although Yelp is the most popular outlet for angry, frustrated customers. Most customers do not spend a lot of time researching where to write bad reviews for businesses. They use the well-known ones. If you find bad reviews on other sites, however, check out their guidelines and see if any have been violated.

4. Solicit Positive Feedback from Happy Customers and Make It Easy for Them

You can set up easy ways for customers to provide positive reviews and comments. Send a thank-you email to customers after you know they have received a product. These can be automated. In your signature line, provide a link for the customer to write a review for Google or Yelp, and offer something valuable for them to do so. The loss of revenue for you will be well worth the uptick in ratings.

The Final Word

Unless you are able to successfully flag negative

reviews that violate guidelines; unless you can fix a customer problem and make it worth his while to “pull” a negative review, you cannot remove negative feedback. Your better strategy will be to “bury” the negativity with such an overwhelming amount of positive feedback that potential customers never see it.