How to get more Google reviews: six steps that follow Google's rules and the FTC's rule

How to get more Google reviews: six steps that follow the rules

• Step 1, verify and complete the profile. Google says reviews show next to your Business Profile in Maps and Search, and you must verify the business before you can reply to reviews.
• Step 2, create your review link or QR code. Google's tips say you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code, and that customers need a Google Account to post.
• Step 3, ask every customer. Ask after each visit or job, in person, on a receipt or in a follow-up message, whether or not you expect praise. Google lets merchants ask for reviews that represent a genuine experience, without incentives and without trying to shape what the review says.
• Step 4, make asking routine. Put the link on receipts, invoices, email signatures and a counter card. Do not set staff quotas or ask staff to request specific wording.
• Step 5, reply to every review promptly, as Google's tips advise. Keep replies short and specific.
• Step 6, keep asking. A BrightLocal survey of 1,002 US adults found that 74% only care about reviews written in the last three months, so reviews need to keep arriving. BrightLocal sells rival tools, so read the survey as one vendor's research.

Before you ask: what Google does not allow

• Incentives: payment, discounts or free goods or services in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing one.
• Review gating: discouraging negative reviews or selectively asking for positive ones.
• Pressure: requiring or pressuring customers to review on the premises, or asking for specific content.
• Quotas: asking staff to collect a set number of reviews, or reviews that name a staff member.
• Fake engagement: reviews posted from several accounts by or at the request of one person, or by someone with a conflict of interest.
• Competitor attacks: reviews posted on a rival business to undermine it.
• Google's guidelines tie these rules to the risk of a suspended profile, so treat them as firm.

What the FTC rule adds for US businesses

The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, was published in the Federal Register on August 22, 2024. Its text bars a business from writing, creating or selling a review that misrepresents whether the reviewer exists or what experience they had, and from buying such a review when it knew or should have known (section 465.2). It bars giving compensation or other incentives for reviews that express a particular sentiment, positive or negative (section 465.4). It requires a clear disclosure of the relationship when officers or managers write reviews about their own business (section 465.5), and it bars unfounded legal threats, physical threats, intimidation or knowingly false public accusations aimed at stopping or removing a review (section 465.7).

The rule says its insider limits do not apply to generalized solicitations to purchasers to post reviews about their experiences. This is a summary of the text, not legal advice.

How to reply to reviews

• Be short and specific. Google advises against sending the same thank you to everyone and says to be conversational rather than promotional.
• For negative reviews, protect privacy, avoid personal attacks, be honest about what you can and cannot do, apologize where it fits, address the reviewer by name and respond in good time. Move complex cases to a phone call or email.
• Flag only reviews that break Google's policies. Google says not to report a review just because you disagree with it.
• Expect a short wait. Google reviews each reply, which usually takes up to 10 minutes and can take up to 30 days. The reviewer is notified and can change the review after reading your reply.
• Never threaten a reviewer. The FTC rule bars unfounded legal threats and intimidation aimed at removing reviews.

Where a tool helps, and where it cannot

• Links and posters: Localo's free review poster generator makes a QR code poster, and Whitespark lists a free Google review link generator. Google's own tips cover the link and QR code at no cost.
• Replies: Localo's review manager drafts replies in a brand voice and leaves the send click to you, because it says Google discourages fully automated replies. See what is Localo and the Localo review.
• Requests: BrightLocal's Grow tier lists review requests by email, text and in-store campaigns. Whatever tool sends them, the same rules apply: ask everyone, offer nothing in return and do not shape the content.
• What no tool changes: the customer's experience decides what they write. The BrightLocal survey found that 78% of consumers were asked to write a review in the last 12 months and 65% wrote one after being asked, so asking matters, but the reviews still have to be genuine.