I'm Doug Baker, and I built RatingMinder. I'd rather tell you no for free than sell you an appeal that fails.

Reviewed by Doug Baker, founder · Updated September 23, 2026

Some bad Google reviews can be removed. We'll tell you if yours can. Free. The second half matters as much as the first. Most bad reviews have no grounds for removal. When yours have none, I want you to hear it from us before you spend anything. We're not a reputation agency. We don't post reviews, we don't buy reviews, and we don't log into your profile.

Illustration: a street with a small shop under a green awning. The owner stands in the doorway in the shop's green apron, and two men in plain clothes stand beside her, the older one holding a plain sheet of paper. Three people stand on the pavement, each with a one-star review above a phone. The woman in a slate cardigan has a red card labeled Has grounds. To the right, apart from her, a man in a rust coat with a paper bag and an older woman with a cloth bag each have a plain gray card labeled No grounds. Their reviews have no grounds for removal, so nothing is sold for them.

Illustration: two people on the pavement, each posting a one-star review from a phone. At the left, by the green-awning shop, a woman in a slate cardigan; her review card is drawn in red. At the right, apart from her, a man in a rust coat with a paper bag; his review card is drawn in plain gray. Labels: Has grounds, No grounds.

Three one-star reviews on one profile. One has grounds for removal. The other two are real customers with a bad day, and they stay up. No grounds is the answer more often than not, and it costs nothing.

Two one-star reviews. One has grounds for removal. The other is a real customer with a bad day, and it stays up. No grounds is the more common answer, and it costs nothing.

What I believe

Google doesn't care whether a review is fair

Most owners start from the same place. The review is wrong and it's unfair, so Google should take it down. Google doesn't remove reviews on "unfair." It removes them on policy. That means one of Google's written rules, and the review has to break it.

I think that's the right rule, and it cuts both ways. A real customer's bad day is a real review, even when it stings, and it belongs on your profile. A one-star from someone who never had any real experience with your business doesn't belong there. Your reputation should be accurate. Our job is telling you which of your reviews Google's rules say shouldn't be there, and which ones stay.

Why is "no" the most useful answer we give?

It's because Google gives you one appeal per review, ever.

Google's own wording is short:

If you disagree with the decision, you can submit a one-time appeal.

Google's help page on reporting a review, section Report inappropriate reviews with the Reviews Management Tool

Google's help text captured August 4, 2026.

The appeal names a policy, and our read is that the policy named has to match the argument. Get that wrong and you don't get another try.

So an appeal on a review with no grounds does more than lose. It uses up the only appeal that review will ever get. That's why we won't prepare one, even if you ask. About six in ten profiles we analyze have no review with grounds for removal. We say so plainly, with a reply playbook attached. We haven't raised any money, so no investor is pushing us to upsell you.

How the business works

What does it cost?

The analysis is free. We ask for your business name, not your email. If a review has grounds, the appeal is $149 for one review, or $199 for every review with grounds from that analysis. Prices are per Business Profile, and they're printed, so you don't need a sales call to get a quote. Here's every price and what it covers.

The fee is where I stand behind the analysis. If you buy one appeal, the review gets removed, or your fee gets refunded. The $199 covers every review with grounds from that analysis. If Google removes none of these reviews, the $199 is refunded. The appeal fee only, never subscriptions. Here's what the refund covers.

Every appeal comes with 60 days of monitoring, unless you're already paying for Monitoring on that profile. We check your reviews daily and analyze new negative reviews when we find them. After that it's $39 a month unless you stop it. It's month to month, and we don't do retention calls.

How can you check us instead of trusting us?

Removal outcomes get published as they come in, losses included. You can see what the analysis has produced so far, and how we test the analysis against Google's written policies.

Who we are

Two people and no staff

I'm the founder. I decide what the product will and won't do. Every page on this site that explains a Google policy gets read by me before it goes up. Before RatingMinder, I founded several companies over the past 20 years, with multiple exits and venture-capital backing.

Dylan Baker is my co-founder, and my son.

No staff also means no queue. You pay, and we prepare your appeal.

What we won't do

What won't we do?

We won't file anything with Google. You file the appeal from your own profile. Nobody here logs in as you.
We won't promise removal. Google decides. Google doesn't offer "guaranteed removal," so anyone selling it is selling something else.
We won't disparage the person who left the review. The appeal argues the policy and the evidence, and it calls nobody a liar.
We won't prepare an appeal for a review with no grounds. You get the reply playbook instead, free.

Start with the review in front of you

Put in your business name and we'll tell you whether any of your bad reviews has grounds for removal. When there are no grounds, that's the answer. Also free.

Analyze my reviews

Want to ask me something first? Write to us.