{"id":399450,"date":"2026-09-16T08:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/google-report-owner-response-business-profile\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T08:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T08:50:29","slug":"google-report-owner-response-business-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/google-report-owner-response-business-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Google adds &#8216;Report owner response&#8217; option for Business Profile reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google Business Profiles now include a &#8220;Report owner response&#8221; option that lets users flag business replies to reviews when those replies cross a line. Reports can cover off-topic content, profanity, bullying, harassment, discrimination, hate speech, or exposed personal information, giving customers a direct way to push back on unprofessional replies.<\/p>\n<h2>What the new reporting option covers<\/h2>\n<p>The new flow appears inside Google Business Profiles and Google Local and is aimed squarely at the owner reply, not the original review. When a reviewer (or any user) hits Report on a business response, they can pick from a set of categories that describe the problem.<\/p>\n<p>The available reasons are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Off topic<\/strong>: the owner response doesn&#8217;t pertain to an experience at or with this business.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Profanity<\/strong>: the owner response contains swear words, sexually explicit language, or graphic violence.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bullying or harassment<\/strong>: the owner response personally attacks a specific individual.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Discrimination or hate speech<\/strong>: the owner response includes harmful language about an individual or group based on identity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Personal information<\/strong>: the owner response contains personal information such as an address or phone number.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The form also lets users flag legal issues tied to the response, with a separate option for that path.<\/p>\n<h2>Why it matters for businesses and reviewers<\/h2>\n<p>Owner responses are public, attached to a business&#8217;s profile, and often quoted in search results. A reply that drifts into personal attacks, exposes private details, or veers off topic can hurt the business&#8217;s reputation more than the original review ever did. The new tool gives customers and casual readers a structured way to flag those replies instead of relying on screenshots and forum complaints.<\/p>\n<p>For business owners, the reporting categories are a checklist worth reading. Replies that attack a reviewer by name, mention appearance, drop account details, or wander away from the customer&#8217;s actual experience are exactly the types of responses the form is built to catch.<\/p>\n<h2>How the option was spotted<\/h2>\n<p>The &#8220;Report owner response&#8221; choice surfaced in Google Business Profiles and Google Local. Screenshots of the new reporting flow circulated online and showed both the entry point on a business reply and the category list shown after selecting it.<\/p>\n<h2>How to use it<\/h2>\n<p>Any user can report an owner reply on a Google Business Profile or Google Local listing. Open the business reply you want to flag, choose the report option on that response, and pick the category that matches the issue. For legal problems with the response, there is a separate option on the same form.<\/p>\n<h2>FAQ<\/h2>\n<h3>What is the new &#8220;Report owner response&#8221; feature on Google Business Profiles?<\/h3>\n<p>It is a reporting option that lets users flag business owner replies on reviews for being off-topic, containing profanity, bullying or harassing, discriminatory, hateful, or exposing personal information. Legal issues with a response can be reported through a separate option on the same form.<\/p>\n<h3>What reasons can you pick when reporting an owner response?<\/h3>\n<p>The available reasons are off topic, profanity, bullying or harassment, discrimination or hate speech, and personal information such as an address or phone number.<\/p>\n<h3>Where does the &#8220;Report owner response&#8221; option appear?<\/h3>\n<p>It appears on owner responses within Google Business Profiles and Google Local, attached to the specific business reply rather than to the original review.<\/p>\n<h2>Related coverage<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/google-search-console-links-report-not-updated-month\/\">Google Search Console Links Report Has Not Refreshed in a Month<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/search-console-indexing-report-missing-june-2026-data\/\">Google Search Console Indexing Report Missing Old June 2026 Data<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the new \\\"Report owner response\\\" feature on Google Business Profiles?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"It is a reporting option that lets users flag business owner replies on reviews for being off-topic, containing profanity, bullying or harassing, discriminatory, hateful, or exposing personal information. Legal issues with a response can be reported through a separate option on the same form.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What reasons can you pick when reporting an owner response?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The available reasons are off topic, profanity, bullying or harassment, discrimination or hate speech, and personal information such as an address or phone number.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Where does the \\\"Report owner response\\\" option appear?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"It appears on owner responses within Google Business Profiles and Google Local, attached to the specific business reply rather than to the original review.\"}}]}]}<\/script><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin:2.5em 0 1em;opacity:.35\" \/>\n<p style=\"font-size:.85em;opacity:.7\">This article summarizes reporting from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seroundtable.com\/google-report-owner-response-41873.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">seroundtable.com<\/a>. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/disclaimer\/\">editorial disclaimer<\/a> for how our articles are produced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google now lets users flag business owner replies on reviews for being off-topic, profane, harassing, hateful, or exposing personal information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":399449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_title":"Google Report Owner Response Option for Reviews","rank_math_description":"Google now lets users report business owner replies on reviews for off-topic content, profanity, harassment, hate speech, or personal info.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"report owner response","footnotes":""},"categories":[25474],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-seo"],"elementor_data":null,"elementor_edit_mode":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399451,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399450\/revisions\/399451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizscoreai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}