In this post, I’m going to share how to delete negative reviews from Indeed.com.
I’ll share both DIY strategies you can try, as well as the professional, proprietary method we use for removing bad reviews from your employer page.
I’ve included a number of frequently asked questions related to both the DIY and Pro methods, which include our vast experience with review removal and direct feedback from Indeed support.
- Overview
- DIY: How To Delete Negative Indeed Reviews Yourself
- Pro: How We Delete Negative Indeed Reviews
- Get Started
Overview
Indeed.com is a website that features a searchable job listings database. Job postings on the site come from job boards and other resources from all over the web, along with the listings it receives directly from employers. The intent of the site is to use this extensive database to help employers match with qualified job seekers. The company makes money by charging employers to utilize its advanced job matching resources. The site is free for job seekers.
The downside for companies who have negative reviews on Indeed is that it can hurt your online reputation. If someone Google’s your business or your business + reviews, it’s likely that your Indeed business page will appear. In order to keep attracting quality candidates, you don’t want potential employees seeing a sub-par rating. This is why we offer you this complete guide on how to remove negative reviews yourself.
If your own removal attempts have failed or you’d prefer to pay a professional to handle it all for you, we make it easy. Simply fill out our quote form and we’ll be in touch within 1 business day.
How To Delete Negative Indeed Reviews Yourself
In our Do-It-Yourself guide to deleting reviews, we’ll answer the following questions:
- Can a company delete their own negative reviews on Indeed?
- How do I flag reviews?
- What is the alternative method for flagging reviews?
- What is Indeed’s internal process for handling flagged reviews?
- Are flagged reviews looked at by artificial intelligence or actual humans?
- Can employers pay to get reviews removed on Indeed?
- Does “Indeed Company Pages Premium” allow companies to hide negative reviews?
- Can employers remove their company page on Indeed?
- Can I hire an attorney to sue Indeed to remove bad reviews?
- Can I sue the individual who wrote the review?
- How do I respond to reviews on Indeed?
- Can employers ask employees to post a review on Indeed?
- How should an employer deal with negative 1-star reviews on Indeed?
- Can an employee remove a review they’ve written?
- Can an employee change a review they posted?
Can a company delete their own negative reviews on Indeed?
No. They does not permit employers to remove reviews from their employer profile. Employers may, however, flag reviews that it feels are in violation of their content policies, see steps below. Flagged reviews notify Indeed’s administrative team to take a second look at the review. If they find it to be in violation, it will be removed. If they don’t notice a violation, it will remain on your profile. Note that flagging a review does not cost you anything. Employers may also provide feedback on a review it feels is false, fake, or unfair.
How do I flag reviews?
While companies can’t delete their own negative reviews, you can flag reviews you feel are a violation of their content guidelines, summarized for you below:
Content Violations
Reviews that may be removed using their flagging process include those that:
- Review a product or service your company sells
- Include jargon, symbols, made-up words or somebody else’s words
- Include information that is not public or any personally identifiable information
Photo Violations
Indeed encourages it’s users to upload photos as part of their review. Luckily, there are several ways the content of a photo can violate their guidelines. These include those photos that:
- Include selfies or photos of anyone not employed by the company
- Include marketing materials of your business
- Include logos of other companies not related to your business
- Include sensitive information or are unrelated to your business
They also asks that all photos include captions. Since the photo violations are broad, if the negative review contains a photo, I would flag it, so their content moderators give it another look.
Although most reviews that violate the guidelines above are likely to be removed before they even go “live” on the website, some negative reviews may slip through the cracks. So, there’s a chance that flagging the review could be successful in getting it removed.
To flag a bad review, follow these steps:
- Login to your account. If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to create one in order to flag bad reviews.
- Locate the bad review(s) you want to flag and tick the Report icon. The icon is a flag.
- After reporting the review, you’ll have to select the reason it should be removed from the content violations listed above.
- After you submit your request, you’ll get a “Thank you” from Indeed, but this does not guarantee the bad review will be removed. We’ve found that if they are going to remove a review using these four steps, it usually happens within a week.
- If a week has passed and the negative review still shows, contact Affordable Reputation Management for a no-risk removal. We’ve successfully deleted hundreds of reviews from Indeed – fast. We are here to manage the entire process for you and help bring back the online reputation of your company you’ve worked hard to build.
What is the alternative method for flagging reviews?
Their customer service team provided me with an alternative way of flagging reviews on their website.
- Begin by visiting their Employer Help Center site at: https://indeed.my.site.com/employerSupport1/s/contactsupport?language=en_US
- Above the big “Welcome!” message on the right hand side, click the blue text link that says “Need help with Company Pages?”
- Fill out the form that comes up
- Hit Submit
The contents of the form are sent to them for review and if the review violates guidelines, it will be removed.
Their customer service assured me that this method is just an alternative to the standard flagging method and you won’t get different results. Just pick whichever method you like better.
What is Indeed’s internal process for handling flagged reviews?
As it turns out, the type of flagging method you use matters, if you’re looking for feedback. Here’s what their customer service had to say.
Standard Method
If you use the standard method for flagging reviews, “it gets sent to a user-reported queue that is moderated in 1-2 business days. Using this method, you would not receive any communication regarding the outcome of the investigation.”
Alternative Method
If you use the alternative method for flagging/reporting reviews, “you would receive communication from in 1-2 business days from the team regarding the outcome of the investigation.”
So, both methods get your flagged review in front of human eyes, but with the alternative method, you get feedback. And while that feedback will probably be standard boilerplate like, “We looked at the review you reported and found it did not violate our content guidelines,” you would at least know when someone looked at it. Further, it gives you an email string where you could ask follow up questions.
Both flagging methods get looked at within 2 business days.
It’s doubtful that you’re follow up questions/comments will change the outcome of their decision, but at least there’s a small chance.
Thus, the alternative method would be the one I would use, even though the form is a bit lengthy.
Are flagged reviews looked at by artificial intelligence or actual humans?
Actual humans. Whether you use the standard method or the alternative method for flagging reviews, Indeed customer service told me that humans manually look at all flagged reviews.
This is great news, in my opinion. I know AI is getting pretty advanced, pretty fast, but to me, it feels like a bot would simply be looking for certain trigger words or phrases to see if the review violates their guidelines.
A human, however, could not only seek out certain words or phrases, but there are two other reasons why having a human look at each flagged review is favorable.
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- Intent: A human might pick up reviewer intent, which could be a bit ambiguous for AI to interpret. So, even if the words or phrases aren’t there, a human might rule in favor of taking the review down if the intent is extrapolated and considered a violation.
- Error: Humans make mistakes, machines don’t. I like the idea of human eyes on each review because there’s at least a chance that they read something wrong, hit a wrong button, or maybe they’re sloppy or just having a bad day.
In either case, I feel like we have a better chance of a flagged review being removed because humans are looking at each and every flagged review reported. This again is why you should always try flagging any bad reviews first, before hiring a reputation management company to remove them.
Can employers pay to get reviews removed on Indeed?
No. According to their “Company Pages FAQ,” Indeed will “never delete a review … if it meets guidelines.” Of course, the guidelines are with regard to the content of the review and they do have strict guidelines for this. Chances are that reviews that violate these guidelines get rejected by their content filters before surviving any length of time on the platform, so you wouldn’t have to worry about them.
Does “Indeed Company Pages Premium” allow companies to hide negative reviews?
While it would seem crazy that employers could remove their own reviews on Indeed, there does seem to be some ambiguity with regard to their “Indeed Company Pages Premium” paid package which lists as a feature the ability to “filter employee reviews and ratings.”
I emailed them for clarification on this, asking this question: “Does the Pages Premium package allow an employer to hide certain reviews from the public, such as negative 1-star reviews?”
Their answer was: “The ‘filtering reviews’ feature allows reviews to be filtered by category type such as: Work-Life Balance, Pay & Benefits, Job Security & Advancement, Management and Culture. If there are no reviews that fit the category and/or location, the category buttons will be grayed out.” They further reiterated that the only way an employer can get rid of negative reviews is to flag them or submit a ticket so their support team can check to see if it violates their guidelines.
So, the answer is a firm, “No.” Employers cannot pay Indeed to remove negative reviews.
Can employers remove their company page on Indeed?
No. As part of their policy to provide the “best experience” for its users, they will never remove a company page. And since Indeed will create a company page for you without your approval (it only takes 2 reviews about your company for them to auto-generate a company page), your hands are tied. Your only recourse is to let us go after the negative reviews for you and get as many deleted as we can.
Can I hire an attorney to sue Indeed to remove bad reviews?
Yes, you can. But before you do, you should know that your chances of success are slim. In 1996, the United States put into law the Communications Decency Act, which means that operators of websites are not publishers and are thus not responsible for the content posted by users who contribute content to their website. You can read more about the act here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act
While the law protects free speech, as provided for in the Constitution, it also protects the website itself, and its owners and operators from any legal claims made with regard to the content posted by its users.
Can I sue the individual who wrote the review?
Here again, the answer is yes, especially if it’s a defamation or extortion case. And while Indeed holds all of it’s reviews as anonymous, they may turn over any information it has on the reviewer if it were subpoenaed by a court of law. See #3 under it’s Policies and guidelines.
I’m not a lawyer, so please seek your own counsel for advice. My advice would be to weigh the costs of retaining an attorney against the cost of simply having us remove the review for you. With an attorney, you pay whether the review is removed or not. With us, you only pay after we remove the review. Perhaps you could try our service first, and if we are unsuccessful, then you could seek legal recourse as a last resort?
How do I respond to reviews on Indeed?
Login or create an account if you don’t have one, then go to your employer page. Find the review you’d like to respond to. Take a deep breath! Once you make your response, you won’t be able to change it and it will be there for everyone to see forever.
Click the “Add a comment” button below the review and enter your response. Then click “Add comment” to publish it. I strongly recommend you take a day or two and have someone else at your company, preferably someone in human resources, review your exact comment before you publish it. Nothing will drive away quality team members faster than a business owner or CEO who doesn’t seem to care.
Can employers ask employees to post a review on Indeed?
Absolutely. Unlike other review platforms such as Google, Indeed advocates for employers to solicit reviews from current and former employees as an “effective way to build a positive employer brand.” In fact, it could be very beneficial to your company’s online reputation. But do it with caution. If it were me, I’d only be asking for reviews from those I felt pretty confident were going to share a positive workplace experience.
I would not recommend any type of payment or incentive to employees to get them to post positive reviews. This can backfire bigtime. Your employees have the power of the pen and if they feel threatened or coerced, they might turn that experience into a negative online review before you know it.
How should an employer deal with negative 1-star reviews on Indeed?
This is a big question. And there are multiple ways of addressing it. Consider them in the following order:
#1 Make Company-Wide Changes
The first method I recommend is to read and internalize the review. Is there any truth in it? Does the review reflect a trend you’ve heard from other employees around the office? Does your Human Resources department have records of other employees coming to them with similar complaints? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” it may be you as the employer who needs to make a change.
All of these complaints may reflect a company-wide culture issue that needs addressing. If this is the case and you can handle the issue, you will improve your workplace, while also stemming off future complaints. Plus, the employee who posted the negative review may even decide to change it.
#2 Speak With The Disgruntled Employee
The second piece of advice I want to share is going directly to the employee, if you know who it is. You would do this in the case where #1 above does not apply, i.e., the review is a “1-off” circumstance and does not reflect a systemic problem within your company.
In this instance, I recommend a non-threatening approach. Give the employee a chance to elaborate on their complaint. Listen with concern. Ask gentle, probing questions to get them to open up. Your HR staff will be skilled in this regard.
In many cases, people just want to be heard and even if you can’t solve the problem right there on the spot, some employees will be relieved that you took the time to get involved. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether to mention the bad review. You’ll also have to decide whether or not you ask the employee to change it. This can be delicate. You don’t want to risk them feeling manipulated.
Unless this meeting is a home run, I probably would not ask them to change or remove the review. Instead, I’d address it in my response to the review, described below in #3.
#3 Respond On Your Employer Page
The third option for dealing with negative reviews on Indeed is to respond to them from within your employer’s page. The company encourages engagement between employers and employees as it can help settle disputes in a healthy way. If you’ve followed the guidance on #2 above, then you can respond to the review something like this: “We were concerned to hear this complaint and took time to meet with them, so they could elaborate. Now that we better understand the nature of the situation, we’ve taken steps to ensure it does not happen again.”
If you don’t intend on meeting with the employee, don’t know who the employee is, or if they have left the company, you’ll have to do your best based on the face value of the review content. Try to imagine the person making the complaint sitting right in front of you. Be empathetic and remember everyone can see how you respond.
Here is a generic response that is kind and caring: “I was very concerned when I read this because this is not something we usually hear about here. I am investigating the complaint with HR and senior management and will take the necessary steps to address this employees’ concerns. If you would like to contact me at [leave info on how they can reach you], I would welcome the opportunity to hear more.”
This is just an example to help get you started. Tailor your response as needed, but do take action, no matter how trivial the complaint appears to be. Always be thinking about the future and “What if this happens again?” How does it affect your business?
#4 Flag The Review(s)
The 4th strategy an employer can use is to flag the review for a terms of service violation as described above: How do I flag reviews on Indeed?
#5 Hire Us To Remove The Review(s) For You
The fifth and final option described here is to take matters into your own hands and hire Affordable Reputation Management to remove the bad reviews. We strongly recommend addressing the core complaint first, as advised in steps #1 and #2 above. Failing to fix the problem may result in future bad reviews, further damaging your company’s online reputation. If you do decide to hire us, we will work quickly to provide you with a fast, affordable solution that results in at least half of your negative reviews being permanently removed from Indeed.com.
Can an employee remove a review they’ve written
Yes. Employees can remove their own reviews from by following the steps described here.
Can an employee change a review they posted?
No, Indeed does not allow employees to change or alter reviews after they’ve been posted. If the employee wishes to change their review, they will have to delete it and then post a brand new review.
How We Delete Negative Indeed Reviews
In this section, I’m addressing all of the questions we commonly get with regard to our removal methods, including:
- How exactly do you remove bad reviews from Indeed?
- What is your removal success rate?
- Does the age of the review make a difference?
- Can you only remove 1-star reviews?
- How long does it take to completely remove a review?
- What is the cost to remove one review from Indeed?
- Is there a limit to how many reviews you can remove?
- Do you offer a discount if we’re removing multiple reviews?
- Will your removal process ‘tip off’ employees who’ve written the bad reviews?
- What if the employee re-posts the negative review after it was removed?
- How long do you guarantee the review will be removed?
How exactly do you remove bad reviews from Indeed?
We work with a contractor who specializes in removal of reviews on Indeed. While we don’t know (and haven’t yet figured out ourselves) the exact method by which reviews get removed, we do know it works. Removals are done quietly, meaning no one is notified. All you will notice as the employer is that the negative reviews are gone and your average star rating is improved. It is like the bad reviews were never there.
What is your removal success rate?
We’re able to remove about 50% of all your bad Indeed reviews. You only pay for the reviews we remove. You don’t pay for any reviews we attempt to remove without success.
Does the age of the review make a difference?
No. It doesn’t matter if the bad review was posted last week or over ten years ago. All bad reviews on your employer profile have the same chance of being removed, regardless of when they were posted.
Can you only remove 1-star reviews?
We can remove reviews with any star rating. We even removed a 4-star review for a client once. Most business owners start by removing 1-star reviews, but the star rating does not matter.
How long does it take to completely remove a review?
From the time you authorize us to get started, it takes about three weeks on average to get the reviews deleted.
What is the cost to remove one review from Indeed?
In this 2023 video we made we quoted $500 to remove one review, but please know this could change over time as our contractor costs increase.
Is there a limit to how many reviews you can remove?
No, there is no limit to how many reviews we can delete. Even if you have one hundred or more bad reviews, we can remove as many as you want.
Do you offer a discount if we’re removing multiple reviews?
We are usually able to offer a bulk discount if you have a lot of reviews you want to remove. Please contact us with your situation and let us know how many reviews you want removed, so that we can get you a customized quote.
Will your removal process ‘tip off’ employees who’ve written the bad reviews?
No and this is very important. Some reputation management companies may use a removal process which notifies the review writer when their review is removed. This can cause them to be ‘tipped off,’ and since they were angry when they wrote the review, they may become even angrier. With this, they may attempt to re-post their review on Indeed or turn to other employer platforms like Glassdoor to air their grievances. This causes an even bigger mess.
We protect you against this. Using our proprietary review removal process will not tip off your existing or ex-employees in any way. The removal is done privately, so that only you are aware it is happening.
What if the employee re-posts the negative review after it was removed?
Since Indeed reviews are anonymous, it can be difficult to know if the same exact employee is re-posting their review. However, if the review is re-posted word for word, there’s a good chance it’s the same person. In this case, we will remove it again at a 50% discount. The reason we have to charge is because our contractor who handles the removal charges us. And also, since the reviews are anonymous, there’s no way of knowing for sure the review is being posted by the same person or not.
The good news is that since our removal process ensures that employees are not notified that their review was removed, the odds of them re-posting is very slim. To re-post their bad review, the employee would literally have to be trolling the employer page on a regular basis, checking to see if their review is still there. It’s the only way they would know it was removed. We’ve found that most disgruntled employees feel better after they’ve posted their bad review and having done that, move on, leaving the employer and the experience in the past.
How long do you guarantee the review will be removed?
We guarantee the negative review will be gone for 20 years. Thus far, we’ve removed hundreds of bad Indeed reviews and never had one come back. For all intents and purposes, the removal is permanent.
Get Started
Bad reviews represent a chance for your company to get better. The sentiments expressed in bad reviews probably have some truth to them and the quicker you deal with them, the quicker you’ll head off future 1-star reviews.
Consider making changes to company culture when common threads appear in negative reviews. Doing this can create a sea change in the attitudes of employees toward your business and your business’s online reputation.
When unilateral changes aren’t warranted, address bad reviews with employees one-on-one or by responding with kindness and compassion on your Indeed employer page.
Remember that you can’t please everyone all the time. Even the best companies face internal criticism from time to time. Do your best to mitigate complaints by creating an open and communicative workplace whereby grievances can be heard and addressed before they make it online, where they can hurt your reputation.
And if all else fails, we are here to help you take decisive action by deleting negative reviews on Indeed, permanently.