Reviews and reputation. Reviewed October 29, 2026
Review response
Also called: Owner response, Reply to reviews
A review response is the public reply a business posts under a review, and replying to every one, including the bad ones, is read by both future customers and Google.
In practice
The reply to a good review is two sentences that mention the job and the city. The reply to a bad one is calm, specific about what happened, and offers a phone call. It is written for the next hundred readers, not for the reviewer.
Never argue, never reveal private details, never use the same paragraph twice.
Related terms
- Review velocityReview velocity is how many new reviews a business earns each month, and a steady flow of recent reviews outweighs a large total that stopped growing two years ago.
- Reputation managementReputation management is the ongoing work of earning reviews, responding to them, fixing listing errors and handling the occasional bad one, across Google and the other sites customers check.
- Google Business ProfileGoogle Business Profile is the free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and in the map pack, with its hours, phone number, reviews, photos and service area.
More reviews and reputation terms
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