Google's review rules for local businesses, in plain English

Most local business owners have heard some version of "you're not allowed to ask for Google reviews." That is not true. You can ask. What you cannot do is rig the ask. The line between the two is clearer than most people think, and it is written down. This is the short version, with links to the pages Google and the regulators actually publish, so you do not have to take our word for it.

What is allowed

Google's own help page on getting reviews tells you to ask. It says you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code. The user-contributed content policy for Maps says the same thing from the other direction. Businesses may "solicit or encourage the posting of content that does represent a genuine experience, without offering incentives to do so or attempting to influence the rating or the contents of the review." That sentence is the whole rulebook in one line. You can find it under "Rating manipulation" on Google's Maps content policy page.

So, in practice, all of this is fine:

• Asking every customer, by text, email, a card on the invoice, or in person as you leave.
• Sending them a direct link to your review form.
• Asking more than once, within reason.
• Saying "an honest review" rather than "a five-star review."

A decent ask looks like this: "Thank you for having us out, Jennifer. If you've got a minute, an honest review would mean a lot - your word in the community helps people trust us, because you did." Nothing in that message tells her what to write or what rating to give. That is the point.

What is not allowed

The same policy page lists what a business must not do. Here they are, in Google's own wording where it matters.

Review gating

Google says merchants must not "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers." This is the one that catches well-meaning owners. The common setup is a text that asks "How did we do?" with a thumbs up and a thumbs down. Thumbs up gets sent to Google. Thumbs down gets a private form. It feels reasonable. It is against the rules, because only the happy people ever see the review link. Some software vendors still sell this. Google does not care who built it; the profile that used it is the one on the hook.

The fix is not complicated. Send everyone the same message with the same link. If you want private feedback too, ask for it in the same message, or ask for it later. Just do not use it as a filter.

Incentives

Google's help page is blunt: "Offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited." Read that twice. It covers the review you want, and it covers paying someone to soften or delete one you do not want. Discount for a review, draw for a gift card, free coffee if you show the reviewer's screen at the counter. All of it. The content policy says the same: no "payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" in exchange for "posting any review or revision or removal of a negative review."

Staff, family, and friends

Google treats reviews from people with a "conflict of interest" as fake engagement. Its examples include "current or former employment, a contractual or consultory relationship, or other professional or personal affiliations." Your foreman, your bookkeeper, your brother-in-law who got a deal on a furnace. None of those count as customers in Google's eyes. Asking staff to hit a review quota is called out separately: the policy names "merchants requesting that staff solicit a certain number of reviews" as a violation.

Buying reviews

Anything "paid for, directly or in kind" is out. So is anything "posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person." The offers that land in your inbox promising fifty five-star reviews for a few hundred dollars are selling you the fastest route to a wiped profile there is.

Kiosks and on-the-spot reviews

This one is a grey area, so here is exactly what Google says. Businesses "should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises." A tablet at the counter with a review form open on it is not banned by name. But the moment someone is standing in front of the clerk and the clerk is waiting, that is pressure, and it is happening on the premises. Our view: skip the kiosk. Send the link after they have left. It is cleaner, and in our experience it works better, because people write reviews when they have a minute, not when they are trying to pay and go.

Telling people what to write

Google says merchants should not "request that specific content be included," and gives the example of asking for "content that identifies a staff member." Scripts, keyword requests, "mention our name and the city" - do not do it. If a customer names your tech on their own, great. That is theirs to say.

What happens when you break the rules

Three things, roughly in order of how bad your day gets.

1. Reviews disappear. Google's prohibited content page says fake engagement and incentivized or biased reviews "will be removed." In our experience, real reviews can go in the same sweep, and getting them back is not something to count on.
2. Your profile gets restricted. Google's business guidelines say plainly that it "reserves the right to suspend access to Business Profiles on Google or other Google Services to individuals or businesses that violate these guidelines."
3. Account action. The content policy says consequences can "range from suspending the account privileges to account termination," and that Google looks at "whether a pattern of harmful behavior exists." A one-off mistake is treated differently from a system.

The frustrating part for the honest business is that, in our experience, Google does not send a warning letter first. Reviews just stop showing. If your count has been flat for months while you have been asking, it is worth looking at how you have been asking.

The regulators care too

Google's rules are contract terms. The government's rules are law, and both countries have moved on this. In the United States, the FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) was announced in August 2024 and came into force 60 days after it was published. It bans fake reviews, buying reviews, incentives "conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment," and insider reviews from officers or employees who do not "clearly and conspicuously" disclose the connection, and it lets the FTC "seek civil penalties against knowing violators." In Canada, the Competition Bureau warned businesses in early 2024 that "anyone who writes or permits writing reviews that give a false or misleading impression to consumers could be liable under the Competition Act," with employees required to "disclose all connections they have with the business" even when the opinion is honest. Neither agency is likely to come after a plumber for one bad idea. But the same conduct Google bans is now the conduct regulators have named, and "the software did it" is not a defence we would want to lean on.

Why asking everyone is also the better strategy

Set the rules aside for a second and think about what gating actually does. It builds a wall of five-star reviews that reads like a wall of five-star reviews. Google's own help page says it: "A mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy." People read the three-star review first. If the owner replied to it calmly and fixed the problem, that is worth more to the next customer than ten identical "great job, highly recommend" posts.

Then there is the arithmetic. If you only ask the customers you are sure about, you ask a fraction of them. If you ask everyone, you ask all of them. Most people are not going to write anything either way. But most jobs go fine, and a plain, honest request to a customer who had a plain, fine experience is where the majority of real reviews come from. The unhappy ones were going to find your profile on their own. Asking them first at least gives you a chance to hear it before the world does.

Ask everyone, ask nicely, ask for honesty, and let the rating be theirs. That is the rule and the strategy, and they happen to be the same thing.

If you would rather not run the asking by hand: Ask Every Customer texts every customer after a job, in your business's name. A check-in, a thank-you card, one honest review ask, a referral ask three weeks on, and a come-back reminder when it is time. Everyone gets the same message, no gate, no incentive. $2 a customer, first five free, card on file, and a customer counts once a year. askeverycustomer.com. Questions: contact@askeverycustomer.com.