How to get more Google reviews

Who is allowed to write a Google review?

Start here, because the wrong reviewers cost you more than they add.

A reviewer has to be signed in to a Google Account. Google's tips page says so, and it is the one hard gate on the whole process.

Google's content policy then rules out anyone with a conflict of interest. It names current or former employment, a contractual or consultory relationship, and other professional or personal ties. Competitors and family are given as examples.

So your staff may not review you. Nor may their partners, your agency, or a supplier you pay. Those reviews break a named policy, and anyone can report them.

How does Google say a business may ask?

Google's advice on this is short. Four points matter.

• Tell customers that a review helps, and that you read them.
• Make it easy. A link they can tap beats a set of directions.
• Ask everyone. Google says: "A mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy."
• Reply to the reviews you get. Google says replies show customers "that you value their feedback".

All four come from the same tips page. None of them involves picking names. For Trustpilot and Yelp rules, plus wording you can copy, see our review request rules and templates.

The fourth is the one teams skip, and it is the cheapest of the four. A profile where the owner answers reads better than a profile with a few more stars and silence under the complaints.

Where should the Google review link go?

Google gives every profile a review link. It opens the review box on the customer's phone, already pointed at your business, so there is nothing to search for.

Put it where the customer already is. The order confirmation email, the delivery text, the receipt, the footer of a support reply, and a card in the box all work.

Our guide to the Google review link covers where to find yours and where to place it. The part that matters here is not where the link sits. It is who gets it.

Why is asking only happy customers a problem?

The email that says "if you loved it, review us, and if not, tell support" is called review gating. It fails two tests at once.

Google's content policy says a merchant may not discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers. That is the practice, named in the rules you agreed to.

The FTC's rule on consumer reviews covers the same ground from the other direction. The rule was announced in August 2024 and took effect that October. Section 465.4 bans incentives tied to sentiment. Section 465.7 bans suppressing reviews by rating or sentiment on your own site. That second rule matters if you display Google reviews on your own site.

Gating also fails on its own terms. A wall of 5-star reviews with no complaints in it makes readers suspicious, and Google itself says a mix reads as more trustworthy. Our guide to asking only happy customers for reviews sets out the whole picture.

There is one question that tests your own process. Would a customer who had a bad week get the same message, at the same moment, in the same words? If not, you are choosing, and choosing is the thing both rules ban.

What may you never offer in exchange?

Anything of value. Google's tips page is blunt about it. Offering incentives "in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited".

That covers discounts, coupons, free products, prize draw entries, loyalty points and cash. It also covers a refund offered to make a bad review go away.

The FTC has shown what enforcement looks like. In its case against the telehealth firm NextMed, the agency said the company offered Amazon gift cards to consumers to remove or change negative reviews, and conditioned refunds on their agreement to remove them. The final order landed in December 2025 with a payment of $150,000.

A thank-you that goes to every customer, review or no review, is not an incentive. A reward that depends on the review is.

Why are my new Google reviews not showing?

Ask a hundred people at once and some of what arrives will not appear straight away. Google checks reviews before they publish.

Its page on missing or delayed reviews gives the reasons.

• The review is still being checked. Google says that "in some cases, this process might take a few days".
• Two profiles were merged, and reviews from both take a few days to show.
• The customer's phone or software is old, which Google says can cause trouble when they try to leave a review.
• Google switched reviews off for that profile or business category.
• The review broke a policy. Google says: "Reviews removed for policy violations won't be restored."

Google does not publish a limit on how many reviews are too many in a day, so we will not print one. What the page does show is that every review passes a check first. A steady flow gives you less to worry about than one burst on one afternoon.

Our guide on why a Google review disappeared works through the causes one at a time.

How fast does the rating average move?

Slower than the review count does. Google's page on review scores says the score "is the average of all ratings published on Google for that place or business". It also says "it may take up to 2 weeks to get an updated review score".

Two things follow from that. A profile with 40 reviews moves far faster than one with 4,000, because each new rating is a bigger share of the total. And nothing you do today shows up today.

So plan in months, not in weeks. A set number of new reviews every month is easier to run and easier to defend than a one-week push that you never repeat.

What is different for a health brand?

Asking a patient for a review is not the same as asking a retail buyer, even though the words can look alike.

The ask itself is fine. Keep it neutral, send it to everyone, and offer nothing. What changes is everything around it.

Never name a patient in public. Never confirm, in a reply or a post, that a named person is a patient or a customer. Never mention care, dates, orders or products in a public message aimed at one person. Send the ask through the channel the patient already uses, and keep the wording free of any hint about their condition.

Our telehealth page covers the rest, including what a public reply may and may not say about a person. It is general information, not legal advice.

Where does removal fit?

Asking for reviews and removing rule-breaking ones are two different jobs, and they fix two different problems. Our walkthrough for removing a rule-breaking review covers the second job.

Invitations fix a profile that is thin or out of date. Removal fixes a profile carrying reviews that should never have been published, such as a fake review, an advert, or a review meant for another company. Google takes a review down only when it breaks a policy, so a harsh but honest complaint stays. Our guide on why Google keeps most 1-star reviews sorts the two lists.

Doing the first job well makes the second one smaller. A profile with a steady flow of recent reviews carries a bad week better than a profile with nine reviews and nothing new.

We do the reporting work through our Google review removal service, and what each removal costs is public. Remove One Star charges $475 to $600 per confirmed removal, with nothing paid up front.

To put your link on a counter card or a receipt, make a QR code for Google reviews.

For the same job on the other platform, see our guide to getting more Trustpilot reviews. The rules are close, and the wording is not.