Report a review that breaks Google's policies

Google will remove a review that breaks its content policy — a fake review, an attack on a staff member, profanity, a competitor’s smear. Liftify does not remove reviews for you; only Google can do that. What Liftify does is spot likely violations, keep the list of them in one place, and track which ones you have reported and what happened. Reporting only applies to Google reviews.

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How a review gets flagged

Liftify’s AI reads new one- and two-star Google reviews that include written comments and flags the ones that look like policy violations. Flagged reviews show a gold banner on the review card reading “Potential Google Content Violation - Please do NOT respond as we submit for removal.” A review card also carries small status pills, so you can see where things stand without opening anything:

• Review: Flagged / Reported / Removed / Dismissed — the state of the review itself.
• Reply: Rejected by Google / Reported / Removed / Dismissed — the state of your reply to that review, which Google moderates separately.

A card can show both at once. The two are independent: Google can reject your reply while leaving the review standing, and vice versa. You can also flag anything yourself:

1. Find the review — on Reviews, or on the task a review opened, where the same review card is shown.
2. Click the small flag button at the top right of the review card (its tooltip reads Flag as a violation).
3. Choose a Category:
   • Low quality information
   • Fake or deceptive
   • Profanity
   • Bullying or harassment
   • Discrimination or hate speech
   • Personal information
4. Add a Reason (optional) — your own note about why, up to 1,000 characters.
5. Click Flag Violation.

The flag button only appears on active Google reviews that aren’t already flagged.

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Report it to Google

Google’s removal request lives in Google’s own support tool. Liftify shows these instructions wherever you are working — click How to report on Google in the flag window, or open the Mark as Reported window from the Violations list. To report on Google:

1. Open this link: https://support.google.com/business/workflow/9945796
2. Login to your gmail account with manager or owner permissions on the GBP
3. Click the dropdown arrow in the search box and then search for the google page
4. Click to load more items if necessary to locate the google page
5. Click the circle to the left of the page you want to report a review for
6. Click Continue
7. Click “Report a new review for removal”
8. Filter by rating or submission date to locate the review you need to report
9. Click Report
10. Select a category
11. Click Submit

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Track it in the Violations list

The Violations list itself is unchanged. It shows the reviewer, the review text, the location, the category, when it was flagged, when it was reported, its status, and its source — Auto for reviews Liftify’s AI flagged, Manual for ones a person flagged. Narrow it with the Status, Category, Source, and Location pills, or the Date Flagged range. Click View Full Violation on any row to open it.

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Mark it as reported

Once you have filed the report with Google, record that in Liftify so it moves out of your to-do pile. From the Violations list:

1. Tick the rows you reported. A toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen.
2. Click Mark as Reported. A window opens with the reminder “Before marking as reported, you must report this in Google” and the instructions above.
3. Click Save.

You will see a confirmation naming how many violations were marked as reported. You can also change one at a time: click the status badge in the STATUS column and pick Flagged, Reported or Dismissed, or open View Full Violation and use the Status dropdown, then Save. Flagged and Reported work in both directions, so a row marked reported by mistake can go back to Flagged. The status badge only becomes a dropdown for people who can change violations, and only on rows that are Flagged or Reported — a Removed row is managed by Liftify and reads as plain text. Inside View Full Violation you can also correct the Category and Reason — click the pencil next to either, make the change, and click Save. The window header links to the location’s Google Business Profile if you want to open it while you work.

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When Google removes the review

You don’t have to do anything. When a reported review stops appearing on Google, Liftify marks it Removed and it moves to the Removed view. The date you reported it is kept. Removed reviews stop counting toward your active review numbers.

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Dismiss something that isn’t a violation

The AI over-flags sometimes. There are now three ways to clear a row you are not going to report — one for a batch, two for a single violation. Several at once. Tick them in the Violations list and click Dismiss in the toolbar. You will be asked to confirm: “Dismiss the selected violation(s)? They’ll be removed from the list.” One from the list. Click the status badge in the STATUS column and pick Dismissed. You are asked to confirm first. One from the review. Open View Full Violation — from the Violations list, or from the gold banner’s View Details on the review card — set Status to Dismissed and click Save. Saving asks “Dismiss this violation? It’ll be removed from the list.” Until now the single-record controls offered only Flagged and Reported, so clearing one false positive meant going back to the list and using the bulk action. Dismissing takes the review off the Violations list and the banner off the review card. The review itself is untouched — it stays in Reviews and you can still reply to it. Violations already in Removed cannot be dismissed. Trying returns: “Removed violations can’t be dismissed — they’re managed automatically.”

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Troubleshooting

There is no flag button on a review. The flag only shows on active Google reviews with no violation on them already. Reviews from any other source — Facebook, Yelp, BBB, HomeAdvisor, Angi — cannot be reported through Liftify; use that site’s own process. If the review is already flagged, look for the banner and View Details instead. I reported it to Google weeks ago and nothing happened. Google decides, and it can decline. Liftify has no way to appeal or resubmit. If the review is causing real harm, Google’s support tool is where to raise it again. A violation disappeared from my list. Either someone dismissed it, or the Status filter is hiding it — clear the filter, and widen the Date Flagged range. A dismissed violation does not come back; there is no view that lists dismissed ones. I can select rows but the Mark as Reported and Dismiss buttons don’t appear. Changing a violation needs the Manage Reviews (respond, AI suggestions, customer matches) permission. Viewing the list only needs review access. Ask whoever manages your Liftify roles. Without it the STATUS badges are plain text rather than dropdowns as well. I can’t find the Violations list any more. It no longer has an entry in the Reviews subnav. Use a bookmark if you have one; otherwise reach a violation through the gold banner’s View Details on the review card, and contact Liftify support if you need the list itself.