How to get more Google reviews without breaking the rules

How to get more Google reviews: step by step

1. 1
   Verify your Business Profile. You need it to reply to reviews, and replying is half the job.
2. 2
   Make your review link and QR code. Copy the link from your Business Profile (the steps are below) so customers land straight on the review form.
3. 3
   Ask every customer, the same way. Put the request in the same place for everyone, such as the receipt or the thank-you email. Do not choose who gets asked by how you think they feel.
4. 4
   Ask at the end of the experience. After the order arrives, the job is done or the chat is closed, while it is still fresh.
5. 5
   Make it one tap. Send the link itself, not directions to find you on Maps. Tell customers they need a Google Account; Google says they can set one up with a non-Gmail email address.
6. 6
   Keep the request neutral. "Would you tell others how it went?" is fine. "Leave us five stars" asks for specific content, which Google's policy does not allow.
7. 7
   Offer nothing in return. No discount, gift, entry into a draw or payment, before or after the review.
8. 8
   Reply to reviews, good and bad. Thank people briefly, answer questions, and follow up on problems.

How to create your Google review link or QR code

Google's steps, from its help page on review links (Google):

1. 1
   Go to your Business Profile on a computer. Google says "reviews QR codes can only be generated on a computer browser, not on mobile devices."
2. 2
   Select Read Reviews, then Get more reviews.
3. 3
   Copy the link, or right-click the QR code and save the image.
4. 4
   Share it directly, or use the other sharing options Google offers there.

Where to share your Google review link

Google suggests four places: "Include it on your receipts", "Include it in thank you emails", "Add it at the end of a chat interaction" and "Print and display the QR code in your store" (Google).

What Google does not allow

Google's Maps policy says "Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed", and lists what merchants may not do (Google).

Review gating: why asking only happy customers is out

Review gating means checking how a customer feels first, then sending only the happy ones to Google and the unhappy ones somewhere private. It breaks Google's rule against selectively soliciting positive reviews, quoted above.

The law points the same way. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 treats publishing reviews "in a misleading way" as unfair in all circumstances, including "giving greater prominence to positive consumer reviews over negative ones" (Schedule 20). The CMA's guidance says cherry-picking "might be done either through suppressing negative reviews that have been submitted or by encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews" (CMA208, para 4.5). In the US, the FTC rule bans incentives "conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative" (16 CFR 465.4).

Google also makes the practical case: "A mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy" (Google).

How to reply to Google reviews

Google's tips, from its page on getting more reviews (Google):

• Reply at all. "As best practice, reply to reviews and share your perspective."
• Keep it professional. "Be professional and polite: Keep your replies clear and helpful."
• Do not sell. "Be conversational, not promotional: Your reviewers are already customers, so avoid using your response to offer deals or promotions."
• Protect the reviewer. "Never share a reviewer's private information or engage in personal attacks."

If you believe a review breaks Google's content policies, Google says "you can flag it" (Google). A review you simply disagree with is better answered in public.

How to get more customer reviews on any platform

The same habits work wherever you collect reviews, and most review platforms and laws set the same limits as Google:

1. 1
   Ask everyone. Build the request into every order or job, so no one chooses who is asked.
2. 2
   Ask at the right moment. When the customer has the result in hand.
3. 3
   Remove every step you can. A direct link to the review form, a QR code in person, no account where the platform allows it.
4. 4
   Follow up once. One reminder to everyone who has not answered, worded the same for all.
5. 5
   Show reviews where people decide. Our review widget guide covers putting them on your site.
6. 6
   Reply. Visitors read replies as much as reviews.
7. 7
   Never reward or filter for a good rating. Where a platform allows incentives at all, the UK guidance says the review "must be clearly identifiable as incentivised" (CMA208, para 3.5).

For how platforms check that a reviewer was a real customer, see verified reviews. For the software that runs all of this in one place, see review management platforms.

Mistakes that cost you reviews

• Asking weeks later. The customer has moved on.
• Sending people to search for you. Every extra step loses some of them.
• Asking only in person. A printed QR code works for walk-in customers; email reaches everyone.
• Gating, even by accident. A "how did we do?" survey that sends only high scores on to Google is the practice Google bans.
• Rewards. Even a small discount for any review, good or bad, counts as an incentive under Google's policy.
• Silence. A page of unanswered complaints says more than the complaints.

Where GoldStarred fits

GoldStarred does not collect Google reviews; Google's reviews live on your Business Profile. GoldStarred collects reviews of your business, and on Growth and Pro of your products, apps or courses, on your own public GoldStarred profile and shows them on your website. The asking works the same way as above: the Free plan gives you 75 review invites a month and an unlimited review link and QR code, Growth gives 250 invites a month with automatic reminders at $17 a month, and Pro gives unlimited invites at $37 a month. Plans are monthly, and prices exclude VAT and sales tax.

Invitations must be neutral and offer no incentive, and our fake review policy treats inviting only happy customers as a fake-review practice. Every review shows a label for how it arrived, and no business can hide, edit or reorder one. We make GoldStarred, so weigh this section with that in mind; see GoldStarred plans.