How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Local Business

Two local businesses offer the same service. One has a handful of reviews, most from a couple of years ago. The other has a steady stream of recent feedback, plus thoughtful responses from the owner.

Which one would you feel more comfortable calling?

That is why getting more Google reviews matters so much for local businesses. The catch is that even happy customers rarely leave one on their own. A simple, repeatable process makes it easy for real customers to share honest feedback.

Here’s how to do it.

Why Google Reviews Matter for Local Businesses

Google reviews can affect how potential customers evaluate your business and how visible it is in local search. They give people real customer experiences and help Google understand a business’s prominence.

Reviews Help Potential Customers Evaluate Your Business

When someone finds your Google Business Profile in Search or Maps, they can see your overall rating, number of reviews, individual customer feedback, and your responses. Together, those details tell a story.

Potential customers can see what people consistently like about your business, whether complaints recur, how recent the feedback is, and how you handle situations when things don’t go perfectly.

A negative review doesn’t automatically make a business untrustworthy. A professional, helpful response can show potential customers how the business treats people when problems come up.

And don’t get too hung up on maintaining a perfect 5.0. The goal is genuine feedback that accurately reflects the customer experience, not a flawless score at any cost.

Reviews Can Support Local Search Visibility

Reviews aren’t only for people researching your business. They’re also part of local SEO. Google says local search results are primarily based on relevance, distance, and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business’s local ranking.

However, 20 reviews won’t automatically put you in the Map Pack. Neither will 50, 100, or a particular star rating. Reviews are one piece of a much larger local search strategy.

Still, if you’re trying to strengthen your presence on Google, a consistent stream of authentic customer feedback is worth paying attention to.

At Digital Neighbor, reviews are part of our Motion for Marketing™ System in two ways. First, they power the Visibility Maximizer: more reviews correlate directly with being seen in Google Maps and the Map Pack. Second, they power the Reputation Builder: the more reviews you have, the stronger your authority, and the more likely people are to choose you once they find you.

How Do You Get More Google Reviews From Customers?

The best way to get more Google reviews from customers is to make asking for feedback a consistent part of the customer experience. Instead of waiting for reviews, create a simple process your team can repeat after purchases, appointments, completed services, or other appropriate customer interactions.

A good review strategy looks something like this:

1. Claim and verify your Google Business Profile.
2. Create your direct Google review link.
3. Identify natural points in the customer experience to ask for feedback.
4. Ask customers directly.
5. Put your review link where customers already interact with you.
6. Follow up when appropriate.
7. Respond to the reviews you receive.
8. Monitor your reviews and improve the process over time.

The easier this process is for your customers and employees, the more likely it is to actually happen consistently.

What Are the Best Ways to Get More Google Reviews?

The most effective ways to get more Google reviews are to:

• Ask real customers for honest feedback.
• Send customers a direct Google review link.
• Use a Google review QR code for in-person interactions.
• Ask after the customer has experienced your product or service.
• Include review requests in email, SMS, receipts, and other natural touchpoints.
• Send one reasonable follow-up when appropriate.
• Respond to the reviews customers leave.
• Make review requests part of an ongoing process instead of a one-time campaign.

Whatever method you use, Google reviews should come from genuine customer experiences. Don’t buy reviews, offer incentives, selectively ask only happy customers, or tell reviewers what to write.

1. Make Sure Your Google Business Profile Is Ready for Reviews

Get the foundation right before you start sending customers there. Before asking anyone for a review, make sure you’re sending them to the right place. Claim, verify, and keep your Google Business Profile accurate so it reflects the business they’re reviewing.

Check the basics:

• Business name
• Address or service area
• Phone number
• Website
• Business hours
• Primary and additional categories
• Services, where applicable
• Current photos

Google recommends keeping Business Profile information complete and accurate and adding relevant photos and videos that help customers understand the business.

Think about it from the customer’s perspective. If someone clicks your review link and sees an old address, outdated hours, or a business name they don’t recognize, you’ve introduced doubt at the worst possible moment.

And if Google requires you to verify your profile before you can properly manage it, take care of that first. Depending on the business, that may include completing Google Business Profile video verification.

2. Create a Direct Google Review Link

If you want customers to leave reviews, don’t make them search for your business, find the right listing, scroll around, and figure out where the review button lives. Send them directly there.

Google allows businesses to create and share a review request link or QR code through their Business Profile. Once you have your Google review link, save it somewhere your team can easily access it. You can use the same direct link across multiple parts of your review process.

How Do I Get My Google Review Link?

You can get a Google review link from your Google Business Profile and share it directly with customers.

Google’s interface can change, but the basic process is:

1. Sign in to the Google Account connected to your Business Profile.
2. Find and open your Business Profile.
3. Select the option to Ask for reviews.
4. Copy the review link Google provides.
5. Test the link before adding it to your customer communications.

You can then use that direct link in emails, text messages, receipts, your website, or other appropriate customer touchpoints.

Where to Put Your Google Review Link

To be clear, plastering REVIEW US! everywhere a customer looks isn’t what we mean. The goal is to remove unnecessary steps when asking for feedback makes sense.

Depending on your business, that might include:

• Post-purchase emails
• Service-completion texts
• Email signatures
• Digital receipts
• Thank-you pages
• Customer portals
• Follow-up emails
• Printed materials
• Your website

There’s another important distinction here: your direct review link should be available to customers regardless of whether you think they’ll leave a positive or negative review.

Don’t create an easy path to Google for happy customers and a different path for everyone else. That’s review gating, and we’ll get to why that’s a problem below.

3. Ask for Reviews at the Right Moment

The best time to ask for a Google review is after a customer has experienced enough of your product or service to provide meaningful feedback. There isn’t one ideal number of hours or days that applies to every business. Think about when you’ve actually delivered the value of your service or product.

For example:

• Law firm: After the matter resolves and the client has seen the outcome, and only in line with your state bar’s rules on testimonials and client communications.
• Restaurant: Shortly after the customer’s visit.
• HVAC company or plumber: After the work is finished and the customer has had a chance to confirm the problem is resolved.
• Dentist: After an appropriate appointment is completed.
• Home service company: After the project or scheduled service is complete.
• Professional service: After a meaningful milestone or when the service is complete.
• Long-term client relationship: At a natural point when the client has experienced enough of the service to provide useful feedback.

The idea is to build the request naturally into the customer journey.

That’s different from teaching employees to identify customers who “seem happy” and only ask them. Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews.

How Often Should You Ask Customers for Google Reviews?

Local businesses should ask for Google reviews consistently as part of normal customer follow-up rather than running occasional bursts of review requests. The right cadence depends on how often your business serves customers, but each request should tie to a genuine customer experience.

A restaurant might have opportunities to request feedback every day, while a contractor completing a handful of projects each month will naturally have fewer. Build the request into your customer experience rather than trying to hit an arbitrary number of reviews each week.

4. Ask Customers Directly Without
Making It Awkward

A good review request doesn’t need a speech. Keep it short, tell the customer that their feedback matters, and make leaving a review easy. Most importantly, ask for an honest review, not a five-star review.

Here are a few ways that can sound.

In-Person Review Request

Thanks for choosing us today. If you have a minute, we’d really appreciate your feedback on Google. There’s a QR code right here that will take you to the review page.

That’s it. No pressure. No instructions about what they should say.

Email Review Request

Hi [Name],

Thanks again for choosing [Business Name]. We’d appreciate hearing about your experience. If you have a minute, you can share your feedback with us on Google here: [Review Link]

Text Message Review Request

Thanks for choosing [Business Name], [Name]. We’d appreciate your feedback about your experience: [Review Link]

Keep SMS requests short and mobile-friendly. The link should do most of the work.

Review Request for Service Businesses

Ask. Make it easy. Then give the customer space to decide.

For example, for a plumber, HVAC contractor, electrician, landscaper, or similar service business, the request can naturally follow completion of the job:

Thanks for trusting us with your service today. If you have a minute, we’d appreciate your feedback about how everything went: [Review Link]

Whichever method you use, don’t tell customers what to write or ask them to include specific phrases. And don’t turn the request into an uncomfortable exercise where an employee stands over someone waiting for them to post a review.

5. Use QR Codes to Make Reviews
Easier In Person

A QR code can turn an offline customer interaction into a direct path to your Google review page. Google supports sharing review-request QR codes, making them especially useful for businesses where customers regularly interact with employees in person.

Depending on the business, you could add one to:

• Receipts
• Checkout counters
• Table tents
• Appointment cards
• Invoices
• Leave-behind materials
• Appropriate in-store displays

A simple line like “How was your experience? Share your feedback on Google.” is enough.

And one very practical tip: test the QR code before you print 5,000 copies of it. Try it on multiple phones and make sure it takes customers where you expect. A QR code that leads to the wrong page isn’t removing friction. It’s adding a new kind.

6. Build Review Requests Into Your
Follow-Up Process

The most sustainable review strategy is one your employees don’t have to remember from scratch every time. Make the request part of a workflow that already exists.

For many local businesses, that could be:

Service completed → Thank-you message → Review request → One reminder

The exact workflow will depend on how your business operates. A restaurant’s point-of-sale system may play a role. A dentist may build the request into appointment follow-up. A home services company may trigger it when a job is marked complete in its customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Tools that can help automate the process include:

• CRM platforms
• POS systems
• Appointment platforms
• Email automation
• SMS platforms
• Review-generation tools

Review software can help send requests, distribute links, schedule reminders, and track activity. What it shouldn’t do is manufacture reviews. Automation should make asking consistent, but the customer still decides whether to review you and what to say.

Should You Send a Follow-Up Review Request?

Yes, a polite follow-up review request can be reasonable if a customer hasn’t responded to the first one. You just don’t need to keep chasing them.

Something as simple as this works:

Hi [Name], just a quick follow-up in case you didn’t get a chance to share your feedback. If you’d still like to, here’s the link: [Review Link]. Thanks again for choosing us.

If they don’t respond, move on.

7. Respond to the Google Reviews
You Already Have

Review generation doesn’t end when someone clicks POST. Responding shows future customers that your business pays attention to the people it serves.

Google recommends responding to reviews and says helpful responses show a business values customer feedback.

Responding to Positive Reviews

Keep it straightforward: thank the customer, personalize the response when it makes sense, and keep it genuine.

For example:

Thanks for the kind words, Maria. We’re glad our team could make the repair process a little easier. We appreciate you choosing us.

Try not to paste the same “Thanks for your five-star review!” response underneath every review. Customers can spot the copy-and-paste job.

And if someone leaves four stars while saying wonderful things about you, simply thank them. Don’t ask them to change it to five.

Responding to Negative Reviews

Negative reviews require a little more restraint. Don’t respond while you’re angry. Don’t argue point by point. And don’t reveal private customer information while trying to prove that your business was right.

Remember that you’re not only responding to the unhappy customer. Future customers may read the exchange while deciding whether to call you. How you handle criticism can tell them a lot about how you run the business.

Instead:

• Acknowledge the concern.
• Keep your response professional.
• Correct necessary information carefully.
• Protect the customer’s privacy.
• Move detailed problem-solving offline when appropriate.

8. Track Review Activity and Learn
From the Feedback

Reviews aren’t just reputation assets. Taken together, they can reveal recurring strengths, customer frustrations, and opportunities to improve your business.

Keep an eye on things like:

• Total review volume
• How frequently new reviews arrive
• Overall star rating
• Recurring positive themes
• Recurring complaints
• Locations or services customers mention
• Your review response rate
• Where review requests originated, when measurable

Then look for patterns. If customers repeatedly mention how well your technicians explain the work they’re doing, that’s a real strength worth reinforcing with the team.

On the other hand, if review after review complains about difficulty scheduling an appointment, you may not have a review problem. You may have a scheduling problem that your reviews were nice enough to point out.

Customer feedback can help inform operations, training, service, and marketing.

What NOT to Do to Get More Google Reviews

Trying to accelerate review growth with shortcuts can create a much bigger problem. Google prohibits fake engagement and practices designed to manipulate ratings, so your review strategy needs to prioritize genuine customer feedback.

And it is not only a Google issue. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized a rule in 2024 that bans buying fake reviews, offering incentives conditioned on a review’s sentiment, and using threats or intimidation to suppress negative reviews. The FTC can seek civil penalties against businesses that knowingly break it.

Don’t Buy Google Reviews

Never purchase Google reviews. Paid or fake reviews violate Google’s policies and can be removed.

Google may also restrict Business Profiles involved in fake engagement, including temporarily preventing new reviews, unpublishing existing reviews, or displaying a warning that fake reviews were removed.

Don’t Offer Incentives for Reviews

Don’t exchange discounts, free products, gift cards, raffle entries, or other incentives for Google reviews. Google prohibits offering incentives in exchange for posting a review, changing an existing review, or removing negative feedback.

Things like these are a big no-no:

• “Leave us a Google review for 10% off.”
• “Post a review to enter our gift card drawing.”
• “Get a free product when you review us.”

Don’t Review-Gate

Review gating means privately asking customers how they felt about their experience, directing happy customers to Google, and sending unhappy customers somewhere else. It kind of goes without saying, but don’t do it.

You can absolutely collect private customer feedback. The problem is using that feedback to determine who gets invited to leave a public review.

Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews or discouraging negative reviews. Give customers the same opportunity to provide honest feedback regardless of what you think they’re going to say.

Don’t Script the Review

You can ask for feedback. You shouldn’t tell customers what their feedback needs to contain. Don’t ask them to leave five stars, mention specific employees, include target keywords, or copy language you’ve provided. Real customers sound like real customers.

Don’t Manufacture a Sudden Flood of Reviews

More isn’t automatically better, particularly when the activity isn’t genuine. Google’s policies identify unusual patterns or volumes that suggest rating manipulation as prohibited behavior. Build review requests naturally into your ongoing customer process rather than organizing artificial bursts designed to change your rating overnight.

Build a Local Presence Customers Can Trust

Book a Free Discovery Call to Talk About Your Local SEO Strategy

Your Google reviews, Business Profile, website, local SEO, business information, photos, and overall customer experience should all support the same goal: making it easier for nearby customers to find you and feel confident choosing you.

If reviews are coming in sporadically, your Google Business Profile needs attention, or you’re struggling to turn local visibility into actual business, Digital Neighbor can help connect the pieces.

Our local SEO approach brings together Google Business Profile optimization, review strategy, local search visibility, website content, and the other signals that help businesses build a stronger presence in their markets.

Want to build a digital marketing strategy that keeps working long after the next review comes in?

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FAQs About Google Reviews