Google reviews: get more of them and reply, without breaking the rules

Why reviews matter so much

“Avis google” (Google reviews) is searched 40,500 times a month in France. Reviews play two roles. For Google, they are part of a business’s prominence: its help page on local ranking says that more reviews and positive ratings can improve a business’s local ranking. For the customer, they are often the last check before calling.

The effect of reviews on sales has been documented for a long time. In a study published in 2006 in the Journal of Marketing Research, Judith Chevalier and Dina Mayzlin compared book reviews on two major online retail sites: an improvement in a book’s reviews on one site led to an increase in its relative sales on that site. It is not a study of Google Maps, but the mechanism is the same: a buyer who compares relies on what others have written. The authors also observe that readers read the text of reviews, not just the rating, and that in most of their samples the effect of a one-star review outweighs that of a five-star review.

What the reviews on our listings show

Across the 4,631 listings surveyed, the median listing has 27 reviews, and a quarter of listings exceed 97 reviews. At the other end, 33% of listings have fewer than 10 reviews: for a customer comparing three listings side by side, that often rules them out.

Listings ranked in the first 10 Google Maps results have, at the median, more reviews than the ones below them (29 against 26), and a slightly higher average rating (4.69 against 4.64). This is a correlation observed in one survey, not proof of cause and effect: the distance to the searcher and the relevance of the listing also weigh on every ranking.

How to ask for a review

Google recommends reminding customers to leave a review by giving them a Google link or a QR code, which you create from your Business Profile. The rest is a matter of method:

1. 1
   Create the review request link from your Business Profile and keep it close at hand (template text message, email signature, invoice).
2. 2
   Ask at the right moment: at the end of a successful job, when handing over the keys, after an appointment, when the customer has just thanked you.
3. 3
   Send the link the same day by text message or WhatsApp, with a simple, personal sentence.
4. 4
   Ask every customer, not just the ones you know are happy: Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews.
5. 5
   Display the QR code where customers wait or pay, without ever pushing them on the spot.
6. 6
   One reminder at most, a few days later, then you stop.

What Google prohibits

The Google Maps policy is explicit: contributions must reflect a genuine experience. Incentivised or biased reviews are treated as rating manipulation and are removed. Merchants are not allowed to:

• offer an incentive (payment, discount, free product or service) in exchange for a review, for changing one or for removing a negative review;
• discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or ask only satisfied customers for reviews;
• make customers leave a rating on the spot, pressure them to do so, or ask them to include specific content;
• have reviews posted where there is a conflict of interest (current or former employees, relatives, partners) or post on a competitor’s listing to harm its reputation.

Google describes trading incentives for reviews as strictly prohibited fake engagement, and places restrictions on listings that break these rules. Google also flags unusual review volumes or patterns as signs of manipulation.

Reply to reviews, especially the bad ones

Google advises replying to reviews to show that you value feedback, and reminds you that replies are public. They are read by your future customers far more than by the author of the review.

• Keep it short, friendly and precise. No sales pitch: the person who wrote the review is already a customer.
• Faced with a negative review: reveal no private information, never attack the person, acknowledge what is fair and explain what is not.
• Offer to continue by phone or email to settle the problem; a customer happy with the follow-up sometimes updates the review on their own.
• Sign with your first name: Google notes that it makes the reply feel more authentic.
• Reply quickly. A fake review or one that breaks the policy is reported to Google from the listing; you do not fight it in a reply.

Google also stresses that a mix of positive and negative feedback is often seen as more trustworthy. There is no need to fear every criticism: handled well in public, it is part of that mix.

Getting a fake review removed: Google’s procedure

You cannot delete a review left on your listing yourself. Google only removes reviews that break its policy (fake reviews, spam, abusive language, conflict of interest, off-topic); a review that is merely harsh but sincere stays online, and Google asks you not to report a review just because you dislike it. The procedure has three steps:

1. 1
   Report the review: from your Business Profile (Read reviews, then the flag icon next to the review), or from Google’s review management tool, choosing the exact reason (for example “Spam”).
2. 2
   Track the status in the review management tool: “Decision pending”, “Report reviewed, no policy violation” or “Escalated”, in which case the decision reaches you by email. Google says the review usually takes several days.
3. 3
   Appeal if the review is not removed: the tool offers an appeal for eligible reviews, up to 10 at a time, with an answer by email.