# Google's New Review Rules: Five Violations That Delete Reviews

> Google tightened review rules: incentives, selective solicitation, on-premises pressure, dictated content, and naming staff now risk review deletion.

Published: 2026-04-26
URL: https://daniliants.com/insights/google-review-rules-update-local-business/
Tags: google-reviews, local-seo, reputation-management, gbp, review-policy, compliance

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## Summary

Google has tightened review policies for local businesses, threatening review deletion for violations. Key prohibitions: incentives, selective solicitation (asking only happy customers), on-premises pressure, dictating review content, and naming staff members. Reviews remain a core local ranking factor, so compliance now matters more than volume hacks.

## Key Insight

- **Five concrete violations** that can wipe reviews:
  - Offering payments, discounts, free goods/services for reviews
  - Selective solicitation (only asking happy customers) or discouraging negative ones
  - Asking for reviews while customer is on premises
  - Requesting specific content (e.g. "mention we did roof repair")
  - Naming individual staff members ("Kelsey did my nails")
- **Staff-name ban is the sleeper rule**, most service businesses (salons, dentists, contractors) have built whole review playbooks around personal recognition. Existing reviews mentioning staff are now at risk.
- **Selective solicitation rule kills NPS-style filtering**, the "would you recommend us?" pre-screen that routes happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to private feedback is now explicitly non-compliant.
- **The asymmetry**: enforcement is via mass deletion, not warnings. A business optimizing aggressively could lose years of reviews overnight.
- Source is a TikTok agency promo, claims should be cross-checked against Google's official prohibited content policy before acting at scale.