How to get more Google reviews

Ask everyone.
Ask the same way.

To get more Google reviews, ask every customer, soon after they’ve had what they came for, with a link that opens the review box. Google gives you that link and a QR code in your Business Profile: Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Put it in a thank-you email or text, on the receipt, at the end of a chat and on a card by the till. Offer nothing in return, and don’t ask only the happy ones. Google’s policy prohibits both, and the US and UK now outlaw fake and bought reviews. The generator below writes the ask for each channel and prints a QR card. If you use Builderify, a short link per channel tells you which ask people actually use.

Write my review request What you can’t do

By the Builderify team

Illustration · A counter card for a made-up business, and Google’s review box, simplified. The code is decorative.
02 / Review request generator

Google review request templates,
and a card to print.

Every message asks for an honest review, not a good one, and says the same thing to every customer. Send one ask and, at most, one reminder.

Your business

Google’s review link. It opens the review box.

The link filled in is an example. Paste yours from Get more reviews.

Build it from a Place ID instead
Email
Subject: How was the job?
Hi [first name], Thanks for choosing Fernhill Plumbing. If you have a minute, would you tell others how the job went in a Google review? Whatever you thought, an honest review helps people decide, and it helps us get better. https://g.page/r/CdExampleReviewLink/review It takes about a minute. Thank you, Dan Fernhill Plumbing
Send it the same day, while the job is fresh.
03 / The rules

Can you offer an incentive for Google reviews?
No, and you can’t pick who you ask.

Google’s own policy is the strictest of the three: no reward of any kind for any review, good or bad. A summary to keep you on the right side of it, not legal advice for your case.

Google
Maps user-contributed content policy
  • No incentives: no “payment, discounts, free goods and/or services” in exchange for any review.
  • No “selectively solicit[ing] positive reviews”, and no discouraging negative ones.
  • No quotas for staff to collect reviews, and no reviews with a conflict of interest, such as from employees.
United States
FTC rule on consumer reviews, in force since 21 October 2024
  • No incentives conditioned on a review being positive, or negative.
  • No fake reviews, including ones written by AI, and no undisclosed reviews from insiders.
  • No legal threats or intimidation to remove a negative review.
United Kingdom
DMCC Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraph 13, in force since 6 April 2025
  • Banned in all circumstances: writing, or commissioning, a fake consumer review. Commissioning includes “incentivising by any means”.
  • Banned: a review that hides the fact it was incentivised, and publishing reviews in a misleading way.

Five common asks that break them

  1. 01

    “Loved it? Leave us 5 stars!”

    Asks for a good review, not a review. Ask how it went, and mean it.

  2. 02

    A survey that sends happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private form

    This is called review gating, and it is selectively soliciting positive reviews. Send everyone the same link.

  3. 03

    10% off your next visit for a review

    An incentive for posting any review, which Google prohibits, even if the review can say anything.

  4. 04

    Staff targets of five reviews a week

    Google lists staff review quotas as rating manipulation. Make asking part of the job, without a number.

  5. 05

    Writing reviews for customers to post, or having AI write them

    A review has to come from the person’s own experience, in their own words.

What Google does encourage: reply to reviews, the critical ones especially. A calm, specific reply under a two-star review is often what the next customer reads.

04 / With Builderify

Find out which ask
people actually use.

Google tells you a review arrived, not which ask led to it. Give each channel its own short link to the same review page: one on the card, one in the thank-you email, one in the text. The clicks on each show where to put your effort.

Short links run on the 250 free credits every account gets each month, with no charge per link or per click. Paste each one into the generator above to make its card.

Review link clicks, last 30 days Unique
  • Thank-you email /review-email63
  • Counter card /review-card41
  • Text after the job /review-text37
  • Receipt /review-receipt12

Illustration · Four short links to one review page

What Builderify does

  • Short Links to your review page, one per channel, count unique clicks for each. Put a short link on the card and you’ll see which ask people use
  • Campaigns send the email ask to a list, from your own domain
  • Customers who book, chat or fill in a contact form land in your lead lists, confirmed by email, ready to ask
  • No charge per short link or per click

Know this first

  • Nothing sends “two days after the appointment”: sequences start when someone joins a list, so send the ask as a campaign
  • No text messages; use your phone or WhatsApp with the template above
  • No review monitoring, and no replies to reviews from Builderify
  • The widget’s Reviews block shows a rating and count you type in, not your Google reviews
  • Short links have no QR code built in; make one with the generator above
Questions

Google reviews, before you ask.

Ask every customer, soon after they have had what they came for, with a direct link to your review box. Put the link in a thank-you email or text, on receipts, at the end of a chat and on a QR card by the till, send one reminder at most, and reply to the reviews you get.

On a computer, open your Business Profile at business.google.com, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Copy the link, or right-click the QR code and save it. Google only makes review QR codes in a computer browser, not on a phone.

No. Google's policy prohibits offering payment, discounts, free goods or services in exchange for posting any review, positive or negative. In the US, the FTC also bans incentives conditioned on a review being positive, and in the UK, commissioning a fake review, which includes incentivising one, is banned outright.

No. Google's policy prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews and discouraging negative ones. That rules out review gating, where a survey sends happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private form. Ask every customer the same way.

Ask for an honest review, not a good one: thank them, ask how it went, give the direct link, and say it takes about a minute. Avoid mentioning stars or "if you were happy". Keep a text message under 160 plain characters so it sends as one message.

Sources

Read on 11 October 2026.

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