Google Review Policy for Businesses: What’s Allowed

Google lets businesses ask every customer for a review and share their review link or QR code. It bans incentives of any kind, asking only happy customers (review gating), fake or bought reviews, and reviews from owners, staff or anyone with a conflict of interest. Breaking the rules can lead to removed reviews and profile restrictions.

Where Google’s rules live

The rules sit in Google’s Maps user-generated content policy on prohibited and restricted content, under “Fake engagement” and “Rating manipulation”. Google’s tips to get more reviews repeat the key point for businesses: reviews must reflect a genuine experience, and offering incentives in exchange for reviews is strictly prohibited.

This guide summarises those pages in plain English. It is not legal advice, and Google can change its policies at any time, so check the source pages before you rely on a detail. Where we explain what a rule means in practice, we say so.

What Google allows

Google wants reviews. Its policy says merchants may solicit or encourage reviews that represent a genuine experience, “without offering incentives to do so or attempting to influence the rating or the contents of the review”. In practice that means you can:

• Ask every customer for a review — in person, by message, on a receipt or with a sign.
• Share your review link or QR code. Your Business Profile creates both for you; Google explains how to create a review link or QR code.
• Remind customers to leave a review, as long as the reminder goes to everyone and carries no reward.
• Reply to reviews, positive and negative. Google recommends it.
• Report reviews you believe break Google’s policy, using the tools in your Business Profile.
• Use an NFC card, stand or sticker that opens your review link, offered to every customer.

Notice what every allowed practice has in common: the same request, to everyone, with nothing attached. The customer decides whether to review, what to write and how many stars to give.

What Google bans

Incentives of any kind

Google does not allow businesses to “offer incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services – in exchange for posting any review or revision or removal of a negative review”. Its page on incentivised or biased reviews adds “any other benefit offered to the reviewer”. A free coffee for a review, a discount code for a five-star rating and a prize draw for everyone who reviews are all incentives. So is a refund offered on condition that a customer changes or deletes a review.

Review gating

Google does not allow merchants to “discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”. This is often called review gating. The classic example is a survey that asks “How did we do?” and sends only customers who answer well to Google, while unhappy customers are routed to a private form. Asking only the regulars who seem pleased is the same thing done by hand. Our guide to review gating, explained shows the common forms and the honest alternative.

Fake and bought reviews

Content “not based on a real experience” is fake engagement and is removed. So are reviews or ratings “paid for, directly or in kind”, and content posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person. Buying reviews from a service, writing reviews yourself under other names and asking friends to review a business they have never used all fall here.

Owners, staff and conflicts of interest

Google removes content “based on a conflict of interest”, which it says may include current or former employment, a contractual or consulting relationship, family relationships and industry competitors. Owners and staff must not review their own business, and should not review competitors either.

Review swaps

Two businesses agreeing to review each other is not on Google’s list by name. In our reading it breaks two rules at once: the reviews do not reflect a genuine customer experience, and the reviewers have a professional relationship. Treat swaps as banned.

Pressure, quotas and scripted content

Google says merchants should not require or pressure customers to review while on the premises, and should not ask for specific content. It lists two examples: asking staff to collect a certain number of reviews, and asking for reviews that include specific content, such as naming a staff member.

Attacking competitors

Posting content on a competitor’s profile to damage its reputation is also prohibited.

Allowed or not: a quick check

Grey areas, answered

Most questions we hear fall into a few patterns. These answers are our reading of Google’s policy; when in doubt, choose the option that treats every customer the same and gives nothing in return.

Can I ask for reviews in a newsletter or on social media?

Yes, if the request goes to everyone who receives it and carries no reward. A post that says “Leave us a review and enter our prize draw” is not allowed, because entry depends on reviewing.

Can I run a loyalty scheme?

Yes, as long as points, stamps or perks are never tied to leaving, changing or removing a review. Keep the two completely separate.

Can a feedback survey come before the review link?

Only if every customer gets the review link whatever they answer. A survey that decides who sees the link is review gating.

Can my marketing agency post reviews for us?

No. An agency has a contractual relationship with you, which is a conflict of interest, and reviews it writes are not genuine customer experiences.

Can I thank customers who left a review?

Yes — reply to the review. Do not send a gift or a discount as a thank-you; that turns the review into an incentivised one.

What can happen if you break the rules

Google’s policy says fake engagement “is not allowed and will be removed”. Removal is the first consequence: the reviews disappear, and the rating moves with them.

For business owners, Google’s page on Business Profile restrictions for policy violations lists examples of further restrictions, “but not limited to” these:

• The profile cannot receive new reviews or ratings for a set period.
• Existing reviews or ratings are unpublished for a set period.
• The profile shows a warning telling people that fake reviews were removed.

Google says it notifies owners by email before applying a restriction, and that businesses can appeal. It does not publish a full list of what triggers a restriction, so the safe course is not to test the edges.

Some countries go further and make fake reviews illegal. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews from 6 April 2025 (CMA guidance on fake reviews). In the US, the FTC rule on consumer reviews and testimonials (16 CFR Part 465) has been in force since 21 October 2024 (FTC questions and answers). Check the rules where you trade; our guide to fake review laws in the UK, US, EU and Australia sets them side by side.

How an NFC review card fits the rules

An NFC review card opens your review link. It does not filter customers, suggest a rating or offer a reward, so used the same way with every customer it is simply an easier way to ask. Our Google review NFC card guide explains how the card works and which version to choose.

The card becomes a problem only when it is used selectively: kept under the counter for regulars, offered only after a “Did you enjoy it?” question, or paired with a free drink. The fix is a habit, not a product:

• The card, stand or sticker is visible to, or offered to, every customer.
• Staff use the same neutral words with everyone and never mention stars.
• Nothing is given in return — no discount, no freebie, no entry into a draw.
• No one on the team reviews the business, and no one is set a review target.

The same applies to multi-platform cards: the page they open must show every customer the same choice of sites, never send happy customers to one and unhappy ones to another. Our guide to choosing between Google, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot review cards explains each platform’s rules.

We sell NFC review cards for Google, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot on that basis, and we will never help with incentivised, gated or fake reviews.

A one-page review policy for your team

Write the rules down once, in your own words, and show them to every new starter. Something like this covers it:

1. We ask every customer for a review, the same way, at the end of the visit.
2. We never offer anything in return for a review — no discount, freebie or prize draw.
3. We never ask only the customers we think are happy, and we never send anyone to a survey first.
4. We do not review our own business, our competitors, or businesses we have a relationship with.
5. We do not ask customers to mention anyone by name or to give a particular rating.
6. We reply to reviews politely, and we report reviews that break Google’s policy instead of arguing.

Handling a bad experience without gating

When a visit goes wrong, the temptation is to keep that customer away from your review page. That is gating, even when it happens one customer at a time. There is a better order of events:

1. Fix the problem privately and quickly. Apologise, put it right, and do not make the fix depend on what the customer writes.
2. Treat them like every other customer. If everyone is offered the card, they are offered it too.
3. Accept the review they choose to write. A critical review is their right.
4. Reply politely and briefly. Say what happened and what you changed, without arguing.

Our restaurant and café setup guide walks through this for a complaint at the table.

Never ask a customer to change or delete a review in return for a refund, a discount or a free service. Google lists that as an incentive. And do not send unhappy customers to a private feedback form instead of Google; a private form is fine as an extra channel, but not as a replacement for the review link.

Honest, routine asking does more for your profile over time than any shortcut. Our guide to getting more Google reviews without breaking the rules turns these rules into a weekly routine, with scripts staff can use.

Questions

Can I offer a discount to customers who leave a Google review?

No. Google does not allow payment, discounts, free goods or services, or any other benefit in exchange for a review — whatever the review says.

Is it allowed to ask customers for a Google review?

Yes. Google allows businesses to ask for reviews that reflect a genuine experience, as long as they ask without rewards and without trying to influence the rating or content.

What is review gating?

Asking only customers you expect to be happy, or filtering customers with a survey first. Google does not allow merchants to selectively solicit positive reviews or discourage negative ones.

Can my staff or family review my business?

No. Google removes reviews based on a conflict of interest, including current or former employment and family relationships.

What happens if Google finds fake reviews on my profile?

Google removes them and may restrict the profile — for example blocking new reviews for a set period or showing a warning that fake reviews were removed. Google says owners are notified by email and can appeal.

Can I ask a customer to remove a negative review?

You can reply to it and fix the problem, but you must not offer anything in return for changing or removing it. Google lists that as an incentive.

Is an NFC review card allowed?

Yes, when it is offered to every customer with nothing in return. The card only opens your review link; the customer decides what to write.