How to get more Google reviews (without breaking the rules)

Why Google reviews matter

For a small business, reviews are often the first thing a new customer reads. They also count for search. Google's page of tips to improve your local ranking says prominence is based partly on how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.

The catch is that reviews are also where many businesses get into trouble. Google and the FTC both have rules, and breaking them can lose you the reviews you already have. Here is how to grow your reviews and stay on the right side of both.

Google's rules: what you can't do

Google's Maps user-contributed content policy lets businesses ask for reviews that reflect a genuine experience, as long as nothing is offered in return. It bans:

• Incentives. Paying for reviews, or giving free or money-off goods or services, gifts or prizes in exchange for one. Google's review tips page calls any incentive to post, change or remove a review fake engagement.
• Selective asking. Asking only happy customers for reviews, or discouraging negative ones. This is often called review gating.
• Fake reviews. Reviews written by you, your staff or your family, posted from several accounts, or bought from a service.
• Pressure. Requiring customers to leave a review while they are still on your premises, or telling them what to write.

When Google finds fake reviews, it can remove them and restrict the profile: block new reviews for a set period, unpublish existing ones, and show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed.

The FTC's rule on fake reviews

In 2024 the FTC announced its final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, the Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule. It lets the FTC seek civil penalties against businesses that knowingly break it. The FTC's questions and answers about the rule explain the main points:

• No fake reviews: reviews by people who don't exist, including AI-generated ones, or by people with no real experience of the business. Buying them is covered too.
• No incentives tied to what the review says: offering anything on the condition that a review is positive, or negative, is banned.
• No disguised insider reviews: reviews by owners, managers or staff can't pass as independent customer reviews.
• No review suppression: no unfounded legal threats, intimidation or false accusations to get a negative review taken down.

Note one difference. The FTC rule allows some incentives that aren't tied to what the review says; Google allows none. Following Google's stricter rule keeps you clear of both on incentives.

How to ask for reviews the right way

Asking is allowed, and it works best when it is easy and well timed.

1. Ask at the right moment: right after the work is done, while the experience is fresh. A cleaning company can ask when the job is signed off; a hair salon at checkout or in a thank-you message that evening.
2. Ask everyone. Send the same request to every customer, whatever you think they'll say.
3. Make it one tap. In your Business Profile, choose Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and copy the link. Google's help page on review links and QR codes notes that the QR code can currently only be created in a computer browser, not on a phone.
4. Put the link where customers already are: the receipt, the invoice email, a thank-you text, or a printed QR code at the front desk.
5. Keep the message short and neutral, such as: thanks for choosing us; if you have a minute, we'd appreciate an honest review on Google. Don't tell people what to write.
6. Ask once, with one reminder at most. A chain of requests starts to feel like pressure.

How to reply to reviews

Google's help page on managing customer reviews notes that your reply is public, appears under your business name, and that the reviewer is notified. You need a verified profile to reply.

• Reply to every review, good or bad, within a few days.
• Thank the person and mention what they had done, in your own words, not a pasted template.
• Never share private details in a reply. A dental office, for example, should never confirm that a reviewer is a patient.
• Keep it short, calm and signed by the business.

Handling a negative review

A negative review is not the end of the world, and future customers read your answer as closely as the review.

1. Wait until you are calm. Then reply in public: thank them, acknowledge the problem and offer to sort it out offline, with a phone number or email.
2. Don't argue the details in public, and never offer anything in return for removing or changing the review. Google treats that as fake engagement.
3. If you fix the problem, let the customer decide what to do. Google notes that customers can still edit their review after reading your reply.
4. If a review breaks Google's policies, for example spam, hate speech, or content that isn't about a real experience, report it for removal. Google says not to report a review just because you disagree with it.
5. Never threaten legal action to make a fair review disappear. Under the FTC rule, unfounded legal threats to remove a negative review are banned.

Google reviews checklist

• Copy your review link and save the QR code from your Business Profile.
• Add the link to receipts, invoice emails and thank-you messages.
• Ask every customer, right after the work is done.
• Never offer money, gifts or money off in exchange for a review.
• Never write, buy or swap reviews, and keep staff and family out of it.
• Don't tell customers what to write, and don't pressure them on the spot.
• Reply to every review within a few days, without private details.
• Answer negative reviews calmly and offer to talk offline.
• Report only reviews that break Google's policies.
• Follow each platform's own rules: Yelp asks businesses not to ask for reviews.

Reviews, replies and the Business Profile they live on are part of our SEO & AEO service. If your profile is already in trouble, read why Google suspends Business Profiles.

Sources

1. Prohibited & restricted content, Maps User Contributed Content Policy Help
2. Tips to get more reviews, Google Business Profile Help
3. Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews, Google Business Profile Help
4. Manage customer reviews, Google Business Profile Help
5. Report inappropriate reviews on your Business Profile, Google Business Profile Help
6. Business Profile restrictions for policy violations, Google Business Profile Help
7. Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help
8. Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials, Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
9. The Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: Questions and Answers, Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
10. Don't Ask for Reviews, Yelp Support Center