How to get more Google reviews as a trade business

Why do Google reviews matter so much for a trade business?

Because your star rating sits right next to your name when someone searches Google or Google Maps for a roofer or a plumber, before they have seen your website or heard your voice. For a lot of people weighing up who to ring, those customer reviews are the first evidence they get. Google's own advice on local ranking says that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking". It counts reviews as part of how well known a business is, alongside how relevant it is to the search and how far away it is.

The same page says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. So for most small firms, reviews are one of the few levers that are entirely in their own hands. If you are missing from the map results altogether, reviews alone will not fix it; our page on being missing from the Google local pack covers the other causes.

How do you ask customers for Google reviews?

Google suggests two tools, both made from your Business Profile: a review link you can send, and a QR code people can scan. To make them, open your profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, then the share icon, where you can copy the link or save the QR code. Google notes that QR codes can only be made in a computer browser, not on your phone. The link does most of the work for a trade, because you can drop it into the text or email you already send when a job is finished, and it takes customers straight to your review page.

Why do Google reviews stall for most trades?

Usually for one of three dull reasons. The first is simply not asking: good customer feedback on the doorstep stays on the doorstep unless you ask for it to go online. The second is asking too late, weeks after the job, when the new boiler is just part of the house. The third is friction. Telling customers to leave a review "on Google" makes them search for you, find the right profile and hunt for the button, and every extra step is a chance to give up. A direct link removes all of that.

If you ask for reviews every time and they still trickle in, look at whether the link works on a phone and whether customers need a Google Account they do not have. And if the reviews are arriving but the phone still is not ringing, look next at the website your profile sends people to. The £149 report that starts our Fix-It Plan checks it and gives you a plain-English list of what to fix first.

1. 1Create your review link and QR code from your Business Profile. Save the link somewhere you can paste it in seconds.
2. 2Ask on the day, ideally while you are packing up or as the invoice goes out. Mention it in person, then send the link so they can do it later, in their own time.
3. 3Ask every customer the same way, including the job that went less smoothly.
4. 4Put the QR code somewhere customers already look: the bottom of the invoice, the back of a quote, a sticker on the van door or inside the boiler cupboard.
5. 5Send one reminder a few days later if they have not got round to it, then leave it.
6. 6Reply to every bad review, and to good ones when you have something useful to add.

What should the message say?

Short and plain works. Something like this, sent from your own phone, is enough:

Use their name and the job you did, so it reads like a message from a person. Do not tell them what to write or how many stars to give. Google's rating manipulation rules count staff asking for reviews "that include specific content" as manipulation, and say businesses "should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises". On a customer's doorstep the safe habit is the same: ask, then leave it with them.

One practical snag: customers need a Google Account to leave a review. Google points out that it does not have to be a Gmail address, which is worth saying to the customer who tells you they "don't do Google".

How do you get more Google reviews fast, and for free?

Both of Google's tools, the review link and the QR code, cost nothing. The quickest honest boost is usually the customers you have already done work for. Send your link to everyone you have worked for in the last few months, including the job that needed a second visit, with a line reminding them what you did. After that, the pace of new reviews follows the pace of finished jobs. Anything sold as a faster route, such as review swaps or bought reviews, breaks the policy in the next section.

What is Google's "20% rule" for reviews?

It turns up in search suggestions, but we could not find a 20% rule anywhere in Google's review help pages or its Maps content policy, which are the rules Google actually enforces. Treat any advice built on it as someone's theory.

How many 5-star reviews does it take to raise your rating?

More than most people guess, and it depends on how many reviews you already have. The table shows how many new five-star reviews it takes to lift a plain average, assuming every new one is five stars.

The sum is simple: every review moves the average a little less than the last one did. That is why a steady habit of asking beats a one-off push, and why a single bad review hurts a new profile far more than an established one.

What does Google's review policy not allow?

Plenty of review tactics fall foul of two sections of Google's Maps content policy: fake engagement and rating manipulation. Here is how common ideas measure up.

The incentive rule catches people out, because a small thank-you feels harmless. Google's line is that offering anything in exchange for posting a review, or for changing or removing a bad one, is fake engagement and "strictly prohibited". The ban covers any incentive, so telling customers about it does not make it allowed.

What is review gating?

Review gating is sending customers through a filter before you ask for a review. Usually a text or email asks how the job went, sends the happy ones to Google, and sends the unhappy ones to a private feedback form. Google's rating manipulation rules say businesses must not "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers", which is what a gate does. If your software has this switched on, turn it off.

Is it illegal to buy Google reviews in the UK?

Yes. Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 lists the commercial practices that are always treated as unfair, and paragraph 13 covers reviews. It bans submitting, or commissioning someone else to submit or write, "a fake consumer review" or a review that "conceals the fact it has been incentivised". Commissioning "includes incentivising by any means". That part of the Act came into force on 6 April 2025, under the Act's second commencement regulations.

The same paragraph matters if you put reviews on your own website. Publishing reviews "in a misleading way" is also banned, and the Act's first example is leaving out or removing negative reviews while publishing positive ones. A testimonials page made only of five-star quotes, with the grumbles quietly dropped, is exactly that.

The Competition and Markets Authority has a short guide for businesses on these rules. Google is stricter than the law on one point. The Act targets incentives that are hidden, while Google does not allow incentivised reviews on your profile at all.

What happens if Google finds fake reviews on your profile?

The reviews come down, and Google says it may restrict the profile as well. The examples it gives are stopping the profile from receiving new reviews or ratings for a set period, hiding its existing reviews for a set period, and showing a warning that tells customers fake reviews were removed. Google emails the owner before a restriction goes on, and you can contest one you think is wrong.

For a trade that lives on its rating, a warning banner on the profile undoes the point of collecting reviews at all.

How should you reply to Google reviews?

Google's advice is to keep replies short, relevant and professional, and to reply in good time. It also says you do not need to thank every reviewer publicly, and it advises against using replies for offers: "Your reviewers are already customers, so there's no need to offer deals or promotions."

A bad review needs more care. Google suggests finding out what happened, owning mistakes where they were yours, apologising where it is due, and signing the reply. Never post a customer's private details and never make it personal, however unfair the review feels. Remember that the next customer will read your reply too.

Can you remove a bad Google review?

Not yourself. Google says only reviews that break its policies are eligible for removal, and asks businesses not to report a review "just because you disagree with it or dislike it". If a review is spam, abusive or from someone who was never a customer, report it from Read reviews on your profile. Google says checks typically take several days, and if a report is turned down you get one appeal covering up to 10 reviews. If someone threatens bad reviews unless you pay, Google has a separate route for reporting extortion.