How to Remove a Yelp Review: What Yelp Will and Will Not Take Down

Short answer: you cannot delete a Yelp review, and you cannot pay to remove one. You can report it from Yelp for Business. Yelp’s moderators remove reviews that break the Content Guidelines, such as reviews by competitors or staff, second-hand stories, threats and hate speech.

Reviews Yelp will remove

• Conflicts of interest: owners, employees, relatives and competitors.
• Not a personal consumer experience: “my friend told me” or reactions to a news story.
• Inappropriate content: threats, harassment, lewdness or hate speech.
• Privacy breaches: full names, close-up photos or private details of other people.
• Promotional content and reviews posted on the wrong business page.

Reviews Yelp will not remove

Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. If a customer says the food was cold and you say it was hot, the review stays. Yelp also keeps reviews that you simply find unfair, provided they describe a first-hand experience.

How to report a Yelp review

1. Claim your business page at Yelp for Business.
2. Open the Reviews section.
3. Find the review, select the three dots and choose Report Review.
4. Select the reason and describe the violation in plain language.
5. Wait for the moderators’ email. Decisions typically take several days.

“Recommended” and “not recommended” reviews

Yelp’s software decides which reviews to recommend. Reviews it trusts less are moved to a “not currently recommended” section and do not count toward your star rating. You cannot control this, and it affects positive reviews too. Reviews from established Yelp users are recommended more often.

How to reply to a Yelp review

• Private message first. Yelp lets owners message the reviewer directly. One polite message is enough.
• Public comment second. Keep it short, thank them, correct facts without emotion and say what you have changed.
• Never offer freebies for a better rating.

Do not ask for reviews on Yelp

Unlike Google, Yelp discourages businesses from asking customers for reviews. Put a “Find us on Yelp” sign in your shop or a Yelp link on your website instead.

Want it handled for you?

Our Yelp review removal service matches each review to the guideline it breaks and files the report, with a refund if Yelp keeps the review up.

Frequently asked questions