QCan you appeal a Google review decision more than once?

No. When Google decides a review you reported doesn't break its policies, you get one appeal on that review, and once it's denied there's no second one. So the way to handle an appeal of a Google review removal decision is to treat it as your last shot: wait for the first decision, then appeal only with evidence you didn't send the first time.

I went through the Google Business Profile Help Community threads on this. The owners who were stuck had nearly always used their appeal too early, or used it to say the same thing again.

How the review appeal actually works

You report a review, Google checks it, and the result shows in Google's review management tool. If the report is rejected, the tool lets you appeal. That appeal is checked again, and its result is final for that review.

A law firm in Utah went through the whole cycle in a Help Community thread about a review from the opposing party in a case. The reviewer said they were the opposing party in a family law matter and ended by recommending a rival attorney. The firm reported it, appealed four days later, and got back: "we investigated and found that these reviews don't violate our policies." A Product Expert confirmed there's no second appeal on a single denied review.

The other trap is time. Many reports never get a first decision. Plumbers describe fake-review reports frozen at "Decision pending" for months in a thread about reports stuck at Decision pending, a nail salon's appeals sat for months in a thread from a nail salon waiting on appeals, and a moving company had reports pending for over a year in a thread about a review decision pending for a year.

How to appeal a Google review removal decision

1. Don't appeal while the report is still pending. Wait for an actual decision. If you're months into "Decision pending", escalate through the Help Community instead (step 5), not through the appeal.
2. Read the review against Google's policy again. If your first report was "fake" and the review is really a conflict of interest or off-topic, the appeal is where you fix that. I explain how to choose the clause in my guide to report a fake Google review.
3. Add something new. The reviewer's other reviews, proof they work for or promote a competitor, the dates of several 1-stars from the same accounts. An appeal that repeats the report gets the same answer.
4. Keep the appeal to the facts. One clause, a few sentences, the evidence. Leave out the story of how unfair it feels.
5. Post in the Help Community with the case details. Give the review link, your clause, the date of the report and of the appeal. Product Experts can't remove reviews, but they can escalate a report that's clearly stuck.

When the appeal is already used up

An appliance repair company in Portland got retaliatory 1-stars from an out-of-state competitor across several accounts, and by the time it posted in a thread about the one appeal already spent, the appeal was gone. At that point I'd do three things.

• Reply to the review. A short, calm reply is now the only thing you control on that review. Future customers read it, and it's often more persuasive than the review.
• Report new reviews from the same people as a pattern. If the same accounts keep posting, each new review is a new report, and the history is your evidence.
• Outnumber it. One 1-star among a steady run of recent genuine reviews does far less damage than one among a handful.

If the review is defamatory, as opposed to just unfair, that's a question for a lawyer rather than for Google's tools. I don't give legal advice, and I'd never pay anyone who promises to get a review removed after an appeal fails.

What's different for lawyers, movers, plumbers and salons

• Law firms can't reply to a former client the way other businesses can. The ABA's Formal Opinion 496 on responding to online reviews says a negative review doesn't trigger the self-defense exception to confidentiality. That makes the appeal matter more for law firm SEO clients, because the reply option is so limited.
• Movers and plumbers are the ones stuck longest at "Decision pending". For moving company SEO and plumbing SEO clients, I escalate a report after a few weeks rather than using the appeal to jog it along.
• Nail salons tend to get several fake 1-stars at once. Report them together as a pattern before appealing any single one.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes before spending the appeal, it's part of our Google Business Profile management.

• Plumbing
• Appliance Repair
• Moving
• Law Firm
• Nail Salon
• Google Business Profile