Can You Edit Your Response To A Review On Google, Facebook Or Yelp?

Yes. Google, Facebook and Yelp all let a business edit or delete its own reply to a review. None of them lets a business edit the customer's review itself. On Google, an edited reply goes through the same policy check as a new one, which usually takes up to 10 minutes but can take up to 30 days.

This guide covers what each platform allows when you edit or delete an owner reply, how to do it, when you should, and what it means if you build reply posting into a product.

Quick answer by platform

• Google Business Profile: edit or delete your reply from the reviews section. You must have a verified profile. Each review has one owner reply. Edits are checked against Google's content policies before they show.
• Facebook: replies to Page recommendations are comments posted as your Page. You can edit or delete them from the comment's menu.
• Yelp: you can edit or remove your public response from your Yelp for Business account. You can't edit or delete the customer's review.

How to edit or delete a reply on Google

According to Google's Business Profile help page on managing reviews:

1. Go to your Business Profile and select Read reviews.
2. Under the reply you want to change, select Edit.
3. Change the text and select Update.

To remove a reply, select the Delete icon instead and confirm.

Things to know:

• Verification is required. Google says you must verify your business before you can reply to reviews.
• Replies are reviewed. Google checks replies against its content policies. Replies usually take up to 10 minutes to review, but sometimes up to 30 days. If a reply isn't approved, you'll be asked to edit it.
• The reviewer is notified when you reply.
• By API: in the Google Business Profile API, the same reply call creates a reply or replaces the existing one, and a separate call deletes it. There is one owner reply per review, so an "edit" is a replacement.

How to edit or delete a reply on Facebook

Facebook calls reviews "recommendations." When your Page replies to one, the reply is a comment posted as the Page.

1. Open your Page and go to the recommendations (reviews) section.
2. Find your reply and open the three-dot menu next to it.
3. Choose Edit to change the text, or Delete to remove it.

Facebook labels edited comments as edited, so readers can see a change was made. Menu names change often, so check your Page if the steps look different.

By API, Meta's Graph API lets an app update a comment by sending new text to the comment's ID, and delete it with a delete request to the same ID. The app needs a Page access token with the right permissions, which Meta reviews before approving.

How to edit or delete a reply on Yelp

Yelp gives business owners two ways to respond: a public response under the review, and a private message to the reviewer. To change a public response:

1. Log in to your Yelp for Business account on the web and open Reviews.
2. Find your response and click the three-dot menu next to it.
3. Choose to edit or delete the response.

Menu labels change, so check your account if the steps look different.

Things to know:

• The review stays. Editing or deleting your response doesn't touch the customer's review. Yelp removes reviews only if they break its content guidelines, or if the reviewer removes them.
• By API, access is limited. Yelp's developer FAQ says public responses can be posted through its Respond to Reviews API, which is only open to official Yelp partners, with up to 20 public responses per day per location and one response per review. Removing a response is not supported by the API; owners do that by logging in to biz.yelp.com.

What you can't do on any platform

• Edit or delete a customer's review. Only the reviewer can change it. If it breaks the platform's rules, you can report it. See what happens when you report a Google review.
• Offer something in return for a changed review. You can ask an unhappy customer to update their review once the problem is solved, but rewards for reviews break platform rules. Many customers will update a review on their own after a good reply; see why consumers change negative reviews.

When should you edit or delete a reply?

Good reasons to edit:

• A wrong name, location, date or detail.
• Out-of-date contact information or policies.
• The issue has been resolved and you want to add a short update.
• The tone was off, for example a defensive reply written in a hurry.

Good reasons to delete:

• The reply was posted on the wrong review or the wrong location.
• The reply disclosed private information. Delete it right away, then post a corrected reply. In healthcare, even confirming someone is a patient can be a privacy problem.
• A duplicate reply.

Should you update a reply after the problem is fixed?

Often, yes. If an unhappy customer got a refund or a repair after your first reply, a short update shows readers the story had a good ending. Keep the original reply's apology and add one line at the end rather than rewriting it.

Example of an edited reply: Hi Carla, thank you for the feedback, and we're sorry the first install didn't go as planned. Update: thanks for working with our team on the replacement. We're glad the new unit is running well.

Don't share details of a settlement or refund in public, and don't edit a reply to make it look like you responded sooner or said something different. If the customer later updates their review, a brief thank you in your reply is enough.

Tips for editing a review reply

1. Stay professional. Don't use an edit to continue an argument.
2. Be accurate. Only state what you know to be true.
3. Address their concern specifically, not with a generic apology.
4. Keep it short. An edit is a chance to tighten the reply, not lengthen it.

For what a good reply looks like in the first place, see how to respond to 1 to 3-star reviews and how to respond to 4 and 5-star reviews.

For platforms: what this means for a reply integration

If your product posts review replies for many businesses (a marketplace, SaaS platform, franchisor or white-label reseller), editing and deleting are where integrations get messy. Plan for:

• Edit as replace. Most sites keep one owner reply per review, so an edit replaces the current text. Store the reply ID and keep earlier versions in your own audit log.
• Moderation delays. On Google, a posted or edited reply can be held for review. Show users a "pending" state rather than assuming it is live.
• Uneven delete support. Some sites let you delete by API; others require the owner to log in, as Yelp's FAQ describes. Your product should tell the user when they need to finish a delete themselves.
• Length limits per site. Validate before posting so a reply isn't rejected after approval.
• Permissions. Posting, editing and deleting usually need the business to authorize your app for each site. Track which locations are connected.
• Duplicate protection. Avoid posting the same text twice, and handle sites that reject a second reply to the same review.

Shout About Us is the review management API for marketplaces and platforms. With the Review Response API, you post a reply with one call and call it again with new text to edit it. Replies are queued and usually post within minutes once the site is connected for posting, and replies can be up to 4,000 characters, with tighter limits on a few sites (OpenTable allows 400 characters, not counting spaces). A separate call removes a reply; where the site allows it, the live reply comes down too, usually within 48 hours, and where it doesn't (some Facebook replies), the response tells you to finish the delete on the site. Details are in the API docs.

For response times and queues, see 9 ways to respond to customer reviews faster. For AI-drafted replies and approval rules, see AI vs template vs human review replies. For the SEO question, see does responding to reviews help SEO.

FAQ

Can you edit a response to a Google review?

Yes. In your Business Profile, go to Read reviews, select Edit under your reply, change it and select Update. Google checks the edited reply against its policies before it shows.

Can you delete a reply to a review?

Yes, on Google, Facebook and Yelp. Deleting your reply doesn't remove the customer's review.

Can a business edit a customer's review?

No. Only the reviewer can edit or delete their review. A business can report a review that breaks the platform's rules.

Can you reply to a review more than once?

On Google, each review has one owner reply, so you edit it instead of adding another. Yelp's API rejects a second public response to the same review.

Does the reviewer see that I edited my reply?

Facebook marks edited comments as edited. Google says the reviewer is notified when you reply; its help page doesn't say whether an edit triggers a new notice.

Building reply posting, editing and removal into your product? See the Review Response API or book a demo.