How to get more Google reviews, the legal way

Why reviews matter on the map

Google says it ranks local results on how relevant you are, how far you are from the person searching, and how well known you are. Your review count and rating feed into that last part. Customers read them too, before they ring.

Make asking a habit

The trick is asking at the right moment and making it easy. Google lets you make a link or a QR code from your Business Profile that opens the review form straight away.

• Ask in person as you finish the job, while they're pleased with it.
• Send the link the same day, in the text or WhatsApp message with your invoice.
• Keep a card with the QR code in the van.
• Put the link on your invoice and in your email signature.

A plain line works: “If you're happy with the job, a Google review would help a small firm like ours a lot. Here's the link.”

Ask everyone, and let them write what they like

Google's rules say a business can't discourage negative reviews or ask only happy customers. So no sending the link to the ones who smiled and keeping quiet with the rest.

You also shouldn't ask for particular wording, like your town or the job, or stand over someone while they write it. Reviews in a customer's own words read better anyway.

Don't reward reviews

Google treats any reward for a review as fake engagement: money, a discount or something free. That covers rewards for changing or removing a bad review too.

UK law goes part of the way. A review someone was paid or rewarded for is a banned practice if that isn't made clear. Google goes further and bans the reward itself, so on Google the safe answer is never.

What UK law says about fake reviews

Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 lists these as banned practices, unfair in every case:

• Writing or posting a review that pretends to come from a real customer and doesn't.
• Paying or asking someone else to do it, or offering that as a service.
• Rewarded reviews that hide the reward.
• Showing reviews in a misleading way, for example only the good ones on your site, presented as if they were all of them.

The Competition and Markets Authority can now enforce this itself and fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover. It has already opened investigations into businesses over fake and misleading reviews.

Showing reviews on your own website

Show your Google rating and link to the full list. If you quote a few, don't pick them in a way that gives a false picture of the rest.

Replying

Google's advice is to keep replies short, clear and polite, and to reply when you've got something useful to add. For a good review, a thank-you and a line about the job is enough. For a bad one, stay calm, say what you'll do about it, and offer to sort it out by phone.

Fake or abusive reviews about you

You can report a review that breaks Google's policies, such as spam, abuse or a review from someone who was never a customer. Open your Business Profile, go to your reviews and choose Report next to the one in question.

Google won't remove a review because it's negative or because you disagree with it.