Can I remove a review I already replied to?

Yes. Replying to a review does not stop a platform from removing it, and you do not need to delete your reply before the review is filed. Google’s Manage customer reviews page says an approved reply “will be publicly posted under the customer’s review.” The reply belongs to that review. When Google removes the review, your reply no longer shows on your profile either, so there is nothing left to clean up.

Replies are common on reviews that came down. We hold a copy of 1,170 Google reviews that Google removed after we filed them, and 36.8% of them had an owner reply (TrustReviews data, October 2026). The profiles belong to businesses that came to a removal company, so they are not a random sample of Google. The Google review data study has the full figures.

A reply still has effects you should know about. The same Google page says Google checks each reply against its content policies before it posts it, and that “the person who wrote the review is notified when you reply.” If the reviewer then changes the review, its date changes to the date of the edit. So a new reply can bring the reviewer back to the review while it is being filed.

Leave an existing reply as it is unless it breaks a rule itself. Edit it if it names the reviewer, gives their personal details, or confirms that they are a patient or client of a confidential service. If you reply again, do not threaten the reviewer. The FTC Consumer Review Rule (16 CFR 465.7) bans groundless legal threats, intimidation and knowingly false accusations used to get a review removed, although it lets a business respond in public. Our guide on how to respond to negative reviews covers what to write.

With us, a reply changes nothing in the process. In the TrustOS portal, every 1-star review is selected by default whether or not you replied, and you choose what we file. We screenshot each review before work starts, our filing team files it with Google under its own policy, and Google decides. You pay for the ones that come down. The steps are in how we remove a Google review.