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How to ask for reviews without breaking the rules

Reviews help customers choose you, and Google counts them toward how well known your business is. There are rules about how you may ask, from Google and from a federal rule.

Written October 7, 2026, from the sources listed at the bottom. Where a rule comes from Google, Google's page is the final word.

What's allowed

Asking is fine. Google says a business may ask customers to post a review of a genuine experience, as long as it offers nothing in return and doesn't try to steer what the review says. Google gives every profile a review link and a QR code for this.

What isn't

  • Rewards. No discount, gift, or prize drawing for a review, and nothing for changing or removing a bad one.
  • Picking who you ask. Asking only happy customers, or discouraging unhappy ones, is against Google's policy.
  • Insiders. Reviews from owners, staff, or family, and staff targets for collecting reviews.
  • Fake reviews. The FTC's rule bans fake reviews, including AI-written ones, and buying reviews with a required positive or negative slant. It also bans using threats to get a negative review removed.

A way to ask that stays inside the rules

  1. Get your review link or QR code from your Business Profile.
  2. Put it on every invoice, or send it in the same message to every customer after the job.
  3. Use the same words each time: "If you have a minute, a review helps us. Here's the link."
  4. Reply to the reviews you get, the critical ones most of all.

We never write, buy, or filter reviews for clients, and our site builder refuses to publish a review without its source and the customer's permission.

Sources

This guide is general information, not legal advice.

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