How to get more Google reviews without breaking the rules

Most businesses with a handful of Google reviews have the same problem: happy customers who never think to leave one. The fix is asking, and asking well. But Google's rules on how you ask are stricter than most owners realise, and breaking them can cost you the reviews you've got.

Why reviews matter more for a considered sale

When someone's choosing between three suppliers for a big job, reviews are one of the first things they check. They show you're a real business that real customers have dealt with. I've written about how buyers check whether you're real. On local searches, the map with its star ratings often sits above every website.

How to ask

Use Google's own link. In your Business Profile, go to Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and you'll get a short link and a QR code. (Google says the QR code can only be made on a computer, not a phone.)

Ask at the right moment. That's when the job's done and the customer is happy: the day the machine's commissioned, the project's handed over or the problem's fixed. Google suggests sharing the link on receipts, in thank-you emails or at the end of a chat.

Make it personal. A short note from the person who did the work, saying it would help, gets far more reviews than a generic automated email.

Ask everyone. This matters, and it's the one most businesses get wrong. See below.

Reply to every review. Thank people for good ones. Answer critical ones calmly and specifically. Google itself says a mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy.

What Google doesn't allow

Google's contribution policy is clear. You can encourage reviews of genuine experiences, but you can't:

• Offer anything in return, like a discount, a gift, free service or an entry into a draw, for a review, or for changing or removing a negative one.
• Ask only the happy customers. Google calls this selectively soliciting positive reviews. Sending your review link only to customers who said they were happy breaks the rule.
• Discourage negative reviews.
• Review your own business, or have staff, family or business partners do it. Google treats current and former staff and other close relationships as a conflict of interest.
• Pressure people on the spot, tell them what to write, or set your staff a target number of reviews.
• Buy reviews of any kind.

Google enforces this. Reviews that break the policy can be removed, and Google can restrict a profile that relies on them.

The same idea now reaches your website too. In July 2026, Google added a guideline that reviews shown in search results from your own site must not be fake, or written in exchange for a benefit without saying so clearly.

Fake or misleading reviews and testimonials can also breach the Australian Consumer Law, which the ACCC enforces.

Make it routine

The businesses with plenty of reviews don't run campaigns. They ask every customer, at the same point in every job, every time. Put the request into your process: a line in the handover email, a step on the job close-out checklist or an automatic message from your CRM when a job's marked complete. Then it happens without anyone having to remember.

Reviews are part of how you're found locally, which our SEO work covers, along with your Business Profile.

How we help with this: SEO →