Most businesses that want more reviews are not doing anything wrong. They are just not asking. And when they finally do ask, they often do it in a way that Google’s policies quietly forbid.
Here is what you’re allowed to do, what you’re not, and the difference between the two.
Asking is fine. Filtering is not.
Google is comfortable with you asking customers to leave a review. What its prohibited and restricted content policy forbids is selectively soliciting positive reviews, usually called review gating: surveying people first and only sending the review link to the ones who answered positively.
It feels sensible, which is why so many businesses do it. But the point of a review score is that it reflects everyone, and a business that only forwards its happy customers is publishing a filtered number. Ask everyone or ask nobody.
The grey area worth naming: asking how a job went, and acting on the answer, is just good service. It becomes gating the moment the answer decides who receives the review link. Keep the two separate and you stay on the right side of it.
Do not pay for reviews, in any form
Offering a discount, a prize draw entry, a free coffee or anything else in exchange for a review is against Google’s policy. So is asking staff to collect a set number of reviews, or to get their own name mentioned in them, which the policy names specifically.
Buying reviews outright is worse, and the sellers are not as clever as they claim. Detection has moved on considerably, and businesses do lose their review history over it.
In the US this isn’t only a platform rule. The Federal Trade Commission has its own rules covering fake reviews and undisclosed incentives, so the exposure is wider than losing a profile. If you want a rule of thumb: nothing of value changes hands in return for a review, and nobody writes a review for a business they did not use.
What actually works
- Ask at the right moment. Just after the job is finished and the customer is pleased with it. Not three weeks later when they have moved on.
- Make it one tap. Google gives every profile a short review link. Use it. Anything that involves searching, scrolling and finding the right button loses most people.
- Ask in person, follow up in writing. A verbal ask followed by a text with the link works better than either alone.
- Make it routine. A handful of reviews arriving steadily reads as a real business. Forty arriving in one week doesn’t.
Where to find your review link
Google generates a short link for every verified Business Profile, and it opens the review box on Google Maps directly. You’ll find it in the profile’s own tools, usually under an option about asking for reviews.
Save it somewhere everyone can reach: a saved reply on the work phone, a QR code on the invoice, a line in the email footer. The difference between a link people have to look up and a link that is already in the message is most of your review volume.
A QR code on a card handed over at the end of a job works well for trades, because the customer is standing in front of you with the work fresh in mind and their phone already in their hand.
Who to ask, and when to stop
Ask everyone whose job is finished, in the order the jobs finished. That’s the whole rule. Cherry-picking is where the trouble starts, and it is also where the paperwork starts, because now somebody has to decide who qualifies.
One reminder is fine. Two is the limit. Beyond that you’re pestering a customer over something they have already decided not to do, and the goodwill you spend is worth more than the review.
If a customer says they will and never does, let it go. Most people mean it at the time and then get on with their week.
Do not script it
Requesting that specific content appears in a review is against the policy as well as being obvious to anyone reading the profile, because the reviews all read as if one person wrote them. Ask for their honest experience and leave the wording to them.
The one thing worth mentioning is which service they used, because a review that names the job tells future customers more than five stars alone. “They fixed the leak under the kitchen floor” is worth several generic recommendations.
Keep your own message short. Thank them, say a review helps other people find you, give the link. Three sentences. Long requests get read as marketing and ignored.
A few bad reviews are useful
A perfect five with a hundred reviews looks managed. A four point seven with a handful of complaints, answered well, looks like a real business that occasionally has an off day. Readers know the difference, and they read the negative ones first.
Which makes your replies part of the pitch, not damage control. A well handled complaint sells better than a wall of praise, because it answers the question every prospect is actually asking: what happens when something goes wrong?
Common questions
Can I ask customers from years ago?
You can, but expect a poor response and be careful about volume. A sudden batch of reviews describing work done years ago is exactly the pattern that gets a profile looked at. Start with recent customers and build the habit from there.
What if a customer asks me to write it for them?
Do not. It is a fake review with extra steps, it will read like every other one you wrote, and if it ever comes out it is far more damaging than having fewer reviews.
Are reviews on other sites worth chasing?
Google first, because that is where most people look. After that, whichever site actually ranks when someone searches your service and your town, which varies a lot by trade. Spreading yourself across six platforms usually means being thin on all of them.
Our post on why reviews matter covers the wider picture, and the profile work we do includes getting a review process running that you’ll actually stick to. Get in touch if you want a hand setting one up.
