Can you turn off Google reviews for your business?

Can you turn off Google reviews? The honest answer

No. Plenty of owners go looking for the switch, usually after a bad week, and it does not exist. Google Business Profile lets you edit your hours, photos, services and description, but reviews are not part of what you control. That is the same for every business type and every device.

Google's reasoning is that reviews belong to the people who write them. Its Maps help page says: "All reviews are public and anyone can find what you add." If owners could switch reviews off whenever they got a bad one, the ratings would be worthless to the people reading them.

So if you searched "turn off Google reviews for my business", the realistic goal is different: stop the reviews taking over your day, get the rule-breaking ones removed, and make sure one bad review is not the first thing people read.

How to turn off Google review notifications

This is the part you can control. Google groups Business Profile alerts into types, and new reviews sit under "Customer activity", which Google describes as "Alerts when customers leave new reviews or add photos". Alerts can arrive by email, in Search or in Maps.

On a computer

1. Go to your Business Profile (search for your business name while signed in to the Google account that manages it).
2. Select More, then Notifications.
3. Find Customer activity, or whichever notification you want to change.
4. Turn it off.

On a phone

1. Open the Google Maps app.
2. At the bottom right, tap Business.
3. At the top right, tap Notifications, and change the settings you want.

Google adds a caveat: "Even if you turn off some notifications, you may still get important updates from Google." You can also turn off push alerts for the Google Maps app in your phone's own settings if you want a complete break.

Can you hide Google reviews?

Not on Google. There is no way for an owner to hide a review, collapse it or push it down the list. Google decides which reviews show and in what order, and it removes reviews that break its policy. Everything else stays visible to anyone who looks.

Your own website is different, because you choose what goes on it. But since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has banned publishing consumer reviews in a misleading way, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said it is concerned about businesses "moderating out negative reviews" so that the score they display looks better than it is. If you embed Google reviews on your site, show your real overall rating and do not present a hand-picked selection as if it were the full picture.

The same applies to how you ask for reviews. Google's policy bans businesses from trying to "Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". Sending a feedback form first and only passing happy customers on to Google, sometimes called review gating, is a way of hiding reviews before they are written, and it breaks the rule.

When Google turns reviews off: the fake review penalty

There is one situation where reviews do get switched off, and no business wants it. Google's help page on Business Profile restrictions says that when it finds fake or incentivised reviews on a profile, it can:

• Block new reviewsThe profile "will not be able to receive new reviews or ratings" for a set period.
• Unpublish existing reviewsThe reviews and ratings already on the profile are hidden for a set period, which can include the genuine good ones.
• Show a warningThe profile displays "a warning to let consumers know that fake reviews were removed".

Google says it emails the owner before applying a restriction, and the business can appeal. In the UK, this is backed by undertakings Google gave the CMA, announced on 24 January 2025. UK businesses caught boosting their star ratings get "prominent 'warning' alerts" on their profiles, and "their review function deactivated, meaning they cannot receive any new reviews".

So the one way to get Google reviews turned off is to break the fake review rules, and the price is a public label that tells customers you were caught. Our guide to fake reviews law in the UK covers the fines on top.

Workarounds that do not work

Owners who cannot find the off switch often try one of these. Here is what Google's own help pages say happens.

Our guide on whether a business can delete Google reviews goes into the profile options in more detail.

What to do instead of turning reviews off

You cannot switch reviews off, but you can make sure the bad ones that break the rules come down and the fair ones do far less harm.

Report the reviews that break the rules

Fake reviews, reviews from competitors or ex-staff, abuse, threats, personal details and off-topic rants can all be reported for removal. Google warns: "Do not report a review just because you disagree with it or dislike it." So pick the ones with a real policy breach and give evidence. Our free review removal checker tells you which policy a review breaks, and our guide on how to report a Google review covers the steps and the one appeal. If someone is demanding money to stop posting reviews, go straight to what to do about review extortion.

Reply to the rest

A calm reply turns a complaint into proof you listen. Google publishes replies under the review as the business, not under your name, and notifies the customer. Its tips are simple: "Never share the reviewer's private info. Do not attack them personally." Our guide to responding to negative Google reviews has templates you can adapt.

Get more genuine reviews

The fastest way to shrink one bad review is to add more good ones. Google's policy allows businesses to "Solicit or encourage the posting of content that does represent a genuine experience", as long as there is no reward and no attempt to influence the rating. Ask every customer, the same way: a card at the till, a line in your follow-up email, a QR code on the receipt. Our Google rating calculator shows how many five-star reviews you need to reach your target.

Fix the pattern, not just the review

If three reviews in a month mention the same thing, such as late deliveries or a rude phone manner, the reviews are doing you a favour. Fix the cause and say so in your replies. Future customers read the replies as much as the reviews.

Get the rule-breakers handled for you

If you would rather not deal with it yourself, we can get negative Google reviews removed when they break Google's rules or UK law. The check is free, the fee per review is fixed and agreed in writing first, and you only pay if Google removes it. We tell you when a review is genuine and cannot come down.