A guide on what kind of reviews can be removed from Yelp, and ways to remove them. Online reviews are critical for small businesses, so keeping up with bad comments can be extremely beneficial.

1. PROMO CONTENT
IN REVIEWS
Whether you are attempting to promote your business in a review
or someone tries to leave a review promoting their business on your
Yelp page, marketing copy does not belong in a Yelp review and will
be flagged and removed. If you are looking to highlight the best
features of your business on Yelp, consider alternatively sprucing up
your business profile page by uploading high-quality photos on your
Yelp business account or editing the “From the Business” section
to include more information about your company.
CONFLICTS
OF INTEREST
In that same vein your friends, relatives, or employees should
not be leaving reviews for your business in an attempt to increase
your average review rating or number of reviews.
What Kind
of Reviews Can Be
Removed From Yelp
As a business owner you may have heard all sorts of rumors related to
Yelp and what kind of customer reviews can be removed. Yelp’s Content
Guidelines and Terms of Service however indicate many cases in which
customer reviews can be flagged for removal by business owners.
IRRELEVANT
TO USERS
Yelp will flag content they deem irrelevant including current or
ex-employee rants along with unlikely or irregular customer
experiences. Yelp refers to it simply as “extraordinary circumstances”
giving them some leeway for interpretation.
NON FIRST
PARTY REVIEWS
Yelp’s User Operations team can remove customer
reviews that are written about somebody else’s experience.
(not the users experience)
EXPLICIT OR
OFFENSIVE CONTENT
Yelp’s User Operations team can remove customer reviews containing any
sort of written threat or hate speech. Yelp’s User Terms of Service classify
this under their restrictions to investigate any actions that “threaten, stalk,
harm, or harass others, or promote bigotry or discrimination.”
REVIEWS CONTAINING PRIVATE
FIGURE’S INFORMATION
Yelp requests reviews do not contain other people’s full names
unless a person’s full name is the name of their business. A law
firm’s business name containing someone’s full name would be fine,
however a customer mentioning the owner of a mechanic shop’s
full name could be flagged by Yelp. Yelp also requests users do
not post photos or videos that include other people on their site
without said person’s permission.
PLAGIARISM
Yelp can remove reviews copy and pasted from other sites or
posted previously by another user along with reviews that violate
any form of intellectual property.
HOW TO FLAG CUSTOMER
REVIEWS FOR REMOVAL ON YELP
Once reviewed by their User Operations team, you will
receive an e-mail notification based on the e-mail address used
to claim the Yelp business profile.
1. Log into your Yelp business
account and visit the
Reviews section
2. Locate the flag icon next to
the review in question and
click to report the review
3. You will be asked to selec
the reason you want to
report the review from a
drop down menu
4. Yelp then asks for you to
state in writing how the
specific review violates Yelp’s
content guidelines