How to get more Google reviews: the link, the QR code, the words to send and the rules to stay inside.

Short answer: to get more Google reviews, get your review link from your Google Business Profile, send it by text on the same day as the job with a short personal message, put a QR code on your invoices and counter, and reply to every review you get. Ask every customer the same way, never offer anything in return, and keep it up every week rather than in bursts.

Why reviews matter more than most marketing

Google says plainly that review count and score are factored into local ranking. That means reviews are one of the few local ranking inputs only you can produce. They also decide which of the three businesses in the map box gets the call. In a live check from Angaston on 5 October 2026, a pet shop with 18 reviews and the right category led the map box for “pet shop barossa”. Reviews don’t rescue a profile with the wrong category, but on a correct profile they make the difference. Our reviews and ranking article has the evidence; this article is the method.

How do I get my Google review link?

Your review link opens the review box for your business directly, so the customer doesn’t have to search for you, find the profile and scroll for the button. That one change gets more reviews than anything else here.

1. Sign in to the Google account that manages your Business Profile.
2. Search your business name on Google (or open the Google Maps app) to bring up your profile.
3. Choose “Ask for reviews” (sometimes shown as “Get more reviews”).
4. Copy the short link. It usually starts with g.page/r/.

Test it on your own phone first. Then save it somewhere you can paste it in seconds: a text template on your phone, your email signature and your invoice software.

How do I make a Google review QR code?

Google’s profile tools sometimes offer a QR code alongside the link. If yours doesn’t, any QR code generator will turn the review link into one. Use a plain, static code that points straight at your g.page link, not a paid “dynamic” code that can stop working if the subscription lapses.

Where QR codes earn their keep: printed on invoices and job sheets, on a card left after a service call, on the counter of a shop or café, and on the back of a business card. A QR code on a van is mostly decoration; nobody scans a moving ute.

What should I text customers?

Ask on the same day as the job, while the result is fresh, and use their name and the job. A text gets a far better response than an email for most local businesses. Something like this works:

A few rules of thumb:

• Ask in person first if you can (“we’ll send you a link, a review would really help us”), then send the text.
• Keep it short and in your own voice. One message, one link.
• Follow up once a few days later if they haven’t, then leave it.
• Make it routine: every finished job, every week, by whoever closes off the job. A steady trickle keeps your newest review recent, which is what customers look at.
• Mentioning the job and suburb in your thank-you reply (not in what you ask them to write) keeps the review relevant without scripting it.

What Google and the ACCC don’t allow

Most reviews that disappear were collected in a way that breaks the rules. Google’s policies and the ACCC’s guidance for Australian businesses line up on the important points:

• No incentives. No discounts, free items, prize draws or payments for reviews, even for “honest” ones.
• No gating. Don’t ask only the customers you think are happy, or send unhappy ones somewhere else first.
• No conflict of interest. Owners, staff, family and friends shouldn’t review the business. Don’t review competitors either.
• No fake or bought reviews. The ACCC treats fake reviews as misleading conduct under Australian Consumer Law, and Google removes them.
• No review stations. Don’t hand customers a shop tablet to review you on the spot; Google’s guidelines ask businesses not to, and reviews from one device in one place are the kind its filters remove.

How should I respond to Google reviews?

Reply to every review, good and bad. Customers read the replies as much as the reviews, and a profile where the owner answers looks like a business that cares.

• Good reviews: thank them by name, mention the job (“glad the new switchboard has stopped the tripping”), keep it to two or three lines.
• Bad reviews: stay calm and factual, apologise for the experience without arguing the detail in public, and offer to fix it offline with a phone number or email. Never post the customer’s private details.
• Reply within a few days. A week-old complaint with no answer reads worse than the complaint.

Replies should come from the business itself. On our Growth and Serious plans we draft replies to new reviews for you to post, but we don’t reply on a client’s profile ourselves.

Can I remove a bad Google review?

Not just because it’s negative. You can report a review that breaks Google’s policies, for example spam, a fake review, a review from a competitor or ex-employee, offensive language, or a review about a different business. Use the report option on the review in your profile, then check its progress in Google’s reviews management tool. While you wait, reply publicly and politely; future customers will judge you on the reply.

Be wary of anyone who offers to “remove reviews” for a fee. They can’t do anything you can’t do yourself, and some of what they offer breaks the rules.

A weekly routine that keeps working

1. Save your review link as a text template and in your email signature.
2. Put a QR code on invoices, job sheets and the counter.
3. Ask every customer the same day as the job, in person and then by text.
4. Send one follow-up a few days later, then stop.
5. Reply to every new review within a few days.
6. Report only the reviews that genuinely break Google’s policies.
7. Once a month, compare your review count with the three businesses in your map box.

Reviews work best on a profile that is already set up properly: the right category, every service, a real service area. Our Google Business Profile optimisation and local SEO pages explain that side, and every plan includes a review-request kit with your link, wording and QR code. Plans start at $349 a month; see the pricing page for what each one includes.

Frequently asked questions