Google’s review rules are short, and the spirit of them is simple: a review should be an honest account of a real experience, written by the person who had it, with nothing bought or steered along the way. Everything below follows from that one idea.
The reason it is worth knowing the detail is that enforcement is silent. Reviews are filtered automatically, no email arrives, and by the time a business notices, it has often lost genuine reviews alongside the ones that broke the rules.
You are allowed to ask
This is the part businesses get wrong in the cautious direction. Asking customers for a review is permitted, and Google actively supports it — your Business Profile includes a shareable link for exactly this purpose. You can ask in person, on an invoice, in a follow-up email, on a card, or with a QR code on the counter.
What you cannot do is put a thumb on the scale — either by paying for the review or by deciding in advance who gets asked. Those are the two rules that catch people out, and they are the next two sections.
Rule 1 — No incentives, of any size
“Leave us a review and get 10% off” breaks the policy. So does a free drink, a prize draw entry, loyalty points, or a discount on the next service. It does not matter that you did not ask for a positive review — the moment there is something in it for the reviewer, the review is no longer an unprompted account of their experience.
Two other versions of the same mistake are easy to miss:
- Buying reviews outright. Any service selling you reviews is selling you removals and risk. These are the easiest pattern in the world for a platform to detect at scale.
- Rewarding staff per review. A bonus for the technician whose name appears most often quietly turns your team into the incentive, with the same distorting effect — and it tends to produce a burst of similar-sounding reviews from one location, which is exactly what filters look for.
Rule 2 — No review gating
Review gating is the polished version of cheating, and plenty of reputation software still sells it as a feature. The pattern: send everyone a “how did we do?” survey, then send the customers who click four or five stars to Google, and route anyone who clicks one or two to a private feedback form instead.
It feels defensible — you are just handling complaints privately — but the result is a public rating engineered to exclude the unhappy, which is precisely what the policy forbids. If you use a review-request tool, check what it does with a low score before you trust it.
The compliant version is easy: everyone gets the same message with the same link, whatever you think they are going to say. Handle complaints privately as well, by all means — just never instead.
Rule 3 — No reviews from your own side of the counter
Owners, staff, family and friends reviewing the business is a conflict of interest under Google’s policy. So is reviewing a competitor to drag their rating down, and so is an agency posting on your behalf.
A new business with five reviews that all share a surname, a posting date and a writing style is a conspicuous pattern. When those get removed, the listing often draws extra scrutiny — which is how genuine reviews end up disappearing too. If some of yours have already vanished, our guide to why Google reviews disappear walks through the likely causes.
Rule 4 — Reply like it is public, because it is
Replies are covered by the same content policies as reviews. The practical traps are revealing a customer’s personal details while defending yourself, and arguing with someone in a way that reads badly to the hundred people who see the exchange later.
You are allowed to disagree — politely, briefly, and with an offer to sort it out offline. We have worked examples for negative reviews and positive ones.
Where UK law comes into it
Google’s policy is one layer; UK consumer protection law is another. Fake and misleading reviews fall within the unfair commercial practices regime brought in under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which the Competition and Markets Authority enforces. Commissioning fake reviews, or presenting incentivised reviews as though they were independent, is the kind of conduct it is aimed at.
This is general information rather than legal advice, and the guidance develops — if you are running review campaigns at any scale, it is worth reading the CMA’s current guidance directly, or asking a solicitor. The safe path is the same either way: real customers, honest asks, nothing offered in return.
The compliant playbook, in four lines
- Ask everyone, every time. Same link, same message, regardless of mood. Consistency beats any clever tactic.
- Ask at the moment of relief or delight. Job finished, keys handed over, test passed. A QR code or a direct link removes the friction.
- Offer nothing in return. Not a discount, not a draw, not a coffee.
- Reply to all of them. It is the one lever that is entirely within the rules and entirely within your control.
For the full tactical version — timing, wording and templates — see how to get more Google reviews.
Honest reviews are worth more when people can see them
Playing by the rules means your rating is real — which is exactly why it is worth putting in front of visitors rather than leaving it on Google Maps. WeWidget displays your live Google reviews on your own website, unedited and attributed, synced from Google every day. Connect by searching your business name — no Google login — and the rating badge is free forever, with no card. See the widget styles →