How to leave an anonymous business review in Google

If you have a great online review for a business, but don’t want to give your name or email, then this article is for you. There are many reasons why people might not want their online reviews tied to them; maybe they’re in the military and need to keep their location private, or they’ve had online harassment problems that stem from reviews posted on Google Maps. Whatever the reason, we’ll cover how it’s possible to leave anonymous online reviews using Google!

Google used to allow consumers to leave reviews anonymously, this is until 28th may 2018. They also went as far as deleting ALL previously entered anonymous reviews. So it’s very clear that they do NOT want you to leave a review anonymously.

This is a big change to Google and the online consumer world.

Fortunately, it’s still possible to leave reviews anonymously on google- but you can only do this if you have a ‘Google account’. A Google Account is required for many of their online services so in short; they want your personal info !!!

So basically, we’re back at square one with leaving anonymous online reviews using google- except now we need our own personal information. To summarize: You cannot create an anonymous review without creating a Google account or logging into another existing Google account that has already created a profile !!!!!!

Here are the steps for creating a “review account” with Google

  1. If you have a Google account already, sign out
  2. Open your browser in incognito mode or private browsing mode (this doesn’t hide everything)
  3. Search for the business that you would like to review, hit the review button
  4. Google will ask you to sign in. Create a google account using another email address (or create a temp one using https://temp-mail.org/en/)
  5. Fill in your name or any alias you wish to use
  6. Add a password and confirm
  7. Click next and verify the email with the sent code
  8. Click verify and then write your review

Tips for being anonymous

When creating reviews online always consider how much information about yourself you are giving away with every single word typed on keyboard

It’s important for any online writer to protect his or her own privacy when making content publicly available online. Remember that anything you do online can have consequences in real life. It’s best if people don’t know who they’re talking too! If someone wants to identify themselves without revealing their name, please include some contact information at the bottom of your article so readers can reach out via email or social media

Can a Google Review Be Traced?

No, Google does not have a way to trace online reviews

Many guests are curious about how they can leave online reviews without revealing their name. This is something that many people would like to know and it’s an important question for business owners too

As the owner of a small restaurant in our area I am often asked by my customers if we offer this type of service or what advice I might give them on how to do so online anonymously. For starters, there isn’t anyway for Google Reviews from being traced back to your IP address or account information because all reviewers use pseudonyms when leaving comments

There may be other ways for businesses online reputation management consultants who specialize in handling these types of requests but generally speaking, you should expect that

Can You Block Someone from Leaving a Google Review?

There are internet trolls online looking to hurt companies online. They leave reviews that are either outright lies or they purposely say something bad about your company just so the review will show up on the first page of Google when people search for it!

– It is hard enough running a business these days, and then you have someone showing up online trying to sabotage what you’re doing.

– Some businesses struggle with finding out who left a negative online review while others know exactly who wrote them because the reviewer left their name in the comments box at checkout time!

So how can these nasty reviewers be blocked? Unfortunately you can not block a visitor from leaving a bad review (they may also leave one anonymously). Your only option is to report them for violating Googles guidelines: https://support.google.com/business/thread/14337674/can-i-block-some-one-from-my-business-listing?hl=en

The steps to flag a review as inappropriate are:

  1. On your computer, go to Google.
  2. Find your Business Profile.
  3. Click on Reviews.
  4. Find the review that you’d like to flag.
  5. Point to the star rating.
  6. Click Flag as inappropriate. . Select the type of violation that you want to report.

Guidelines

  • Only flag reviews that violate Google policies.
  • Don’t flag a review just because you disagree with it or don’t like it.
  • Business owners have the opportunity to respond directly to reviews, which means they might be able to answer your concerns quickly on the post itself.
  • Be patient. It can take several days for a review at Google maps to be assessed.

Tip: You can’t flag reviews made by third-parties. To flag an inappropriate review, contact the third-party provider directly. You can click on the reviewer’s name to be redirected to the third-party website. After a review is removed or altered at the third-party site, changes will be reflected on your Google Maps profile

One issue arising from a one-star review with no comment is that it can still be published on Google My Business. As long as the opinion does not violate any policy, you may find yourself in the situation where a business’s Google page displays reviews without commentary. One tactic to use when faced with such an instance is to respond.

We have an article on how to respond to negative reviews which is great follow up reading

Can a Google Review Be Traced?

No, it’s not very likely, and doing so requires a lot of time, effort and resources.

Getting the IP address is relatively easy. This will appear in the Google log files on their services. All websites have a log file of who visited their site, which pages they accessed, etc.

Having an IP address though is pretty useless. It’s anonymous.

We know from the news that it is possible to trace an IP address to a visitor. This is achieved through law enforcement agencies contacting the Internet Service Provider and requesting access to THEIR database, to reveal who had the IP address at the specific time.

The investigation may be further complicated if the person was logged on to a public internet service, for example the local library. The library is unlikely to have details of who logged in to their network at the time that the Google was written.

In short, your google review is unlikely to be traced back to you unless you’ve seriously broken some law that merits the time and effort of government agencies to track you down!