How to get more Google reviews without breaking the rules

Ask every customer, every time

Google's Maps content policy lets a business solicit or encourage reviews that reflect a genuine experience, as long as it doesn't offer incentives or try to influence the rating or the contents of the review. That one sentence is the whole permission.

The same policy says businesses must not "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews". Selective asking is usually called review gating: sending the link only to customers you expect to be happy, or screening them with a quick star rating first and routing low scores somewhere private. In a December 2023 media release, the ACCC said some third-party review management services enable review manipulation, including by directing customers with positive experiences to a public review and referring those with negative experiences straight to the business.

Gating is easy to slip into without meaning to. A technician who only asks the friendly customers, an office manager who skips the job that ran late, a software setting that sends the link after a high survey score: each one filters who gets asked. Some widely read advice on this topic recommends sending only satisfied customers to Google. However it's worded, that's selective soliciting under Google's policy.

The fix is structural. Tie the request to an event every job reaches, such as the invoice going out or the job being marked complete, instead of to how the customer seemed on the day. When the trigger is the paperwork and not the mood, you can't gate by accident, and you end up with a record that shows it.

Set up your profile and review link before you ask

Customers review your Business Profile, so start there. You need access to the profile to copy its review link, and Google's help says you must verify the business before you can reply to reviews. If the profile isn't claimed or its details are out of date, fix that first with the Google Business Profile checklist.

A business with no shopfront can still collect reviews. Google defines a service-area business as one that "visits or delivers to customers directly but doesn't serve customers at their business address", and says it can only have one profile for the whole area it serves. A mobile electrician working across several suburbs collects reviews on that one profile, the same way a shop does.

Businesses with more than one genuine location have one profile, and so one review link, per location. Google's guidelines say not to create more than one page for each location, and allow a service business one profile per location only where each has separate service areas and separate staff. Send each customer the link for the location that did the job, or the review lands on the wrong profile.

To get the link, open your Business Profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, then Copy. Google's help says review QR codes can currently only be made in a computer browser, not on a phone; right-click the code to save the image. Then put the link where customers already are. Google suggests receipts, thank-you emails, the end of a chat and a QR code in store, and says requests can also go by email, WhatsApp or a Facebook post. For each touchpoint:

Automate the request so it reaches every job

A request that depends on someone remembering at the end of a long day will miss customers, and the ones it misses tend to be the awkward jobs. Sending it from the system you already use to book, invoice or close jobs keeps the trigger identical for everyone. Many job-management, booking and invoicing tools can send an SMS or email when a job changes status, so check what yours already does before paying for anything new. Seven steps get it running:

Keep a log of who was asked and when, even if it's only the software's message history. It's how you check the request reaches everyone, and it's your evidence if anyone asks how your reviews were collected.

A steady flow also reads better than a one-off push. When requests go out with every job, reviews arrive spread across the year and describe recent work. A sudden burst after months of nothing usually means the process stalled; fix the trigger rather than sending another catch-up batch.

1. Pick one trigger every customer reaches. Job marked complete or invoice sent suits most service businesses. Avoid any trigger that depends on a judgement, such as a high survey score or a technician's tick box.
2. Write one template per channel. Start from the scripts in the next section and use the same wording for every customer.
3. Insert the right link. Paste the review link for the profile that did the job; a multi-location business needs a separate template, or a location field, for each profile.
4. Check the template has no conditions. Look for rules that send only when a rating is high, a customer is tagged as happy or a job is above a certain value, and remove any that decide who gets the link based on how they feel.
5. Check the template has no offer. Google's help says offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for reviews is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited. That includes prize draws and thank-you vouchers.
6. Send one reminder, then stop. A single follow-up a few days later is plenty. More than that starts to feel like pressure.
7. Test it on a real job. Send it to yourself or a colleague, open it on a phone and tap through to the review screen before it goes to customers.

What to say: request scripts for SMS, email and in person

Keep requests short, name the job and ask for an honest review. Say a plumbing business in Caloundra has just replaced a hot water system for a customer called Sam. These three scripts stay inside the rules, and they work for every customer whatever kind of day the job was:

The email gives Sam a direct way to raise a problem and still puts the review link in the same message. That's the difference between offering a feedback channel and gating: the public option goes to everyone, whatever they're likely to say.

What you leave out matters just as much. Google's policy bans asking for specific content, and it gives content that identifies a staff member as an example, so don't ask customers to mention your technician or use certain keywords. Don't ask for five stars, don't draft a review for the customer to paste, and don't pair the request with a discount code or a prize draw.

Train staff on the spoken line, because that's where pressure creeps in. Google's policy says businesses shouldn't require or pressure customers to leave reviews while on the premises, and bans asking staff to collect a certain number of reviews. Say the line, hand over the card or send the link, and move on. Never take the customer's phone and post the review for them.

Keep SMS and email requests free of offers, too. Under the Spam Act 2003, a commercial electronic message, one whose purposes include offering or promoting goods or services, needs consent (section 16), must identify who authorised it (section 17) and must include a working unsubscribe facility (section 18). The Act defines consent as express consent, or consent that can reasonably be inferred from a person's conduct and their business and other relationships. A discount on the next job is an offer to supply services, so a plain request with no offer attached is the simpler message to send.

If you're starting with very few reviews, a one-off message to past customers is tempting. Apply the same rules to it: send it to everyone on the list rather than a hand-picked set of fans, keep it offer-free, name your business and include a way to opt out. Check you have consent to contact each person through that channel. Expect the replies to arrive in a cluster, then let the job-triggered process carry on from there.

• SMS: Hi Sam, thanks for having us out to replace the hot water system today. If you've got a minute, we'd appreciate an honest Google review of the job: [review link]. Good or bad, it helps other locals decide. [Business name]
• Email, subject "How did the hot water job go?": Hi Sam, thanks again for having us out on Tuesday. If you have a moment, you can leave an honest review of the job on Google here: [review link]. If anything isn't right with the work, reply to this email or call [number] and we'll sort it out. Either way, thank you. [Name], [Business name]
• In person, at sign-off: Thanks for having us. We ask every customer for a Google review because it helps people around here pick a plumber. I'll text you the link so there's no rush, and whatever you think of the job is fine to write.

Surveys and NPS scores: compliant setups versus gated ones

A private feedback survey is fine. The trouble starts when the survey decides who sees the Google link. Many survey and review tools offer a setup where customers rate the job first, and only high scores are shown the review link while low scores go to a private form. That's selective soliciting of positive reviews under Google's policy, and it's the routing the ACCC described in its 2023 release. Here's how common setups compare:

If you already use a tool with score-based routing, switch off the condition, not the tool. Then submit a low-score test response and confirm it still reaches the review link.

When a negative review arrives, answer it. Google's tips for negative reviews: protect the reviewer's privacy, be honest about mistakes without taking responsibility for things outside your control, apologise where it fits, address the reviewer by name and respond promptly. Keep the reply conversational, not promotional. Google says the reviewer is notified when you reply, and that replies are checked against its policies, which usually takes up to 10 minutes but can sometimes take up to 30 days.

Then fix the cause. Repeated complaints about call-backs, arrival times or clean-up are operational feedback, and they'll keep turning up in new reviews until the process changes. Once a problem is fixed you can tell the reviewer, but don't ask them to change their rating or offer anything for an update; asking for a new rating is an attempt to influence it. Leave any edit to the customer.

Where the lines are, including reusing reviews in marketing

Two sets of rules apply to a Google review in Australia: Google's own policy, and the Australian Consumer Law, which the ACCC enforces. The ACCC's guidance covers online reviews generally, so it applies on Facebook, industry directories and your own website too, and each platform adds its own policy on top. Where the two differ, follow the stricter one. On incentives, that's Google.

Breaking Google's rules costs more than the reviews involved. Google's help says that after fake engagement it can stop a profile receiving new reviews for a set period, unpublish its existing reviews for a set period, or show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed. If that has already happened, the suspension guide covers the appeal side.

Reposting reviews on your website, social posts or in-store displays is common advice. Do it accurately: quote the review as written, never trim out the critical part, and don't present a hand-picked few as the whole picture. The ACCC says a business may mislead consumers if it suppresses or edits negative reviews, and asks businesses that show a star rating to display how many reviews it's based on. Asking the reviewer before you feature their name and words avoids surprises.

On your own site, Google's structured data guidelines say that when a business controls the reviews about itself, including through an embedded Google or Facebook reviews widget, its pages using LocalBusiness or Organization markup aren't eligible for review stars in search results. The website conversion checklist covers where proof like this sits on a page.

Health practitioners have another layer. Ahpra's advertising guidelines ban using testimonials to advertise a regulated health service, and Ahpra defines a testimonial by its clinical content: a comment about a symptom, a diagnosis or treatment, or an outcome. Ahpra says the ban doesn't stop patients posting reviews on review platforms, and that practitioners aren't responsible for removing testimonials on platforms they don't control. It also warns that engaging with reviews on third-party websites may be treated as using a testimonial, so a clinic shouldn't copy a Google review describing a treatment result onto its website, ads or social posts. Read Ahpra's current guidance before writing a request template, and have the wording checked by whoever handles compliance for the practice. Lawyers and other professions have advertising rules set by their own regulators; check those before automating anything.

Worked example: tracking the flow and the rating maths

Stay with the hypothetical Caloundra plumbing business. Say its profile shows 20 reviews averaging 3.9, and the owner wants to know what it would take to reach 4.5. Every figure in this example is illustrative, not a benchmark.

A simple average makes the maths easy to check. Twenty reviews at 3.9 is about 78 stars in total. To average 4.5, the total has to equal 4.5 times the new review count. If every new review were five stars, it would take 24 more: 78 plus 120 is 198, and 198 divided by 44 is 4.5. If new reviews averaged 4.8 instead, it would take 40 more. The 3.9 on the profile is rounded, so the real starting point could be slightly higher or lower; treat the result as a planning aid, not a prediction of the figure Google will show.

A lower average takes a lot of genuine reviews to move, which is why the request has to reach every customer on every job. And the strongest lever on future ratings is usually the work itself: if the low reviews share a cause, such as late arrivals, fixing it lifts every review that follows.

Next, the owner tracks the process monthly, not just the stars. These five measures show where a flow breaks down:

Say the owner finds coverage is high but the request-to-review rate is low. Testing the SMS on a phone shows the link sits at the end of a long message and is cut off in the notification preview, so most customers never see it. The owner moves the link to the second line and trims the thank-you. One test message found the problem; one edit fixed it.

Reviews also feed local search. Google's local ranking help says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking, as part of prominence, which it weighs alongside relevance and distance, and that there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. The Google Maps ranking guide explains how those signals fit together, and reviews are one part of local SEO. No one can guarantee a ranking from reviews, but any business can build a steady flow of genuine ones.