RWD - Dec. Newsletter
10+ Google Reviews - Guidelines - Bad Reviews
I write about this subject every 8-10 months, all the way back to 2014, but as a reminder - Google Loves Reviews!

I have also started to see recent articles in the SEO world that refer to Google's emphasis on quality REVIEWS for 2023. If your business has 10+ Google Reviews, then you will receive a bump UP in rankings, ... not 9, but 10+. If you have more reviews than your competitor, you will also receive a bump UP in rankings.  

Google Adds New Prohibitions to Reviews Guidelines 
In an attempt to crack down on manipulating reviews on Google, two new restrictions have been added over the past couple of months. You'll find them under Fake Engagement in the Deceptive Content section in Google's Prohibited and restricted content support document as shown below...
Contributions to Google should accurately represent the location in question. Where contributions distort truth, we (Google) will remove content.  
1. Paying, incentivizing or encouraging the posting of content that does not represent a genuine experience. 
2. Discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers.
MANY PAST ARTICLES on GOOGLE REVIEWS -> 9/21 - Review Cards | 3/20 - Google Reviews | 7/18 - Google Loves Reviews | 6/15 - Importance of Reviews | 11/14 - Web Reviews - What Are these?
Bad Reviews - Whether or not you have the ability to remove reviews on Google is not necessarily a yes or no question. While it is possible to remove a Google review, it’s not as simple as clicking a “Delete Review” button. There are different approaches to removing reviews on Google, and here to the best ways. 

Get more positive reviews and dilute the bad ones - If you have just a few reviews, a negative one can hurt you a lot. Go ahead and be as proactively as possible in asking for reviews of satisfied patients. This is as simple as it gets: more positive reviews strengthens your practice’s image.

If your overall review profile has many positive reviews and only a small percentage of bad ones, then this simply won’t damage you, in most cases. Often, other patients read the review and can tell straight away if the complainer is crazy or unreasonable.
What happens when you receive a bad review? It's an opportunity to reach out and turn someone into a positive customer. Apologize, make a correction / offer and be sincere! If all else fails, make this an incentive to go get 10 more POSITIVE reviews to out weigh this bad one.

Yes, Google has specific rules about Reviews and they can be read here -> Use best practices to get reviews