How do I get more Google reviews?

2 min read

Ask every customer in person, on the day the job finishes, and give them a short link straight to your review page. There is nothing else to it. The two things that stop it working are leaving it a week and asking by text, and asking everybody at once.

Asking at the right moment, every time, is the part most businesses drop. See search and AI visibility.

Google gives every profile a review link. It is in your Business Profile under the option to ask for reviews, and it opens the review box straight away, skipping the listing page. Save it as a QR code on your phone and put it on your invoice. Asking someone to "find us on Google and leave a review" loses most of them at the finding. If yours has stopped showing up at all, sort that first: see why is my Google Business Profile not showing up.

The timing matters more than the wording

The moment is when the job is finished, they are happy with it, and you are standing in front of them. A day later they are back at work and it is gone. Ask then, while your phone is in your hand, and offer to send the link there and then.

When to ask for a review, against the job’s timeline A vertical timeline in three stages. First, the job finishes, on site. Moments later comes the window: ask now, because they are happy and you are stood in front of them, phone in hand. A day later, if you have not asked, it is too late: they are back at work and the moment is gone. When to ask The moment matters more than the wording The job finishes ON SITE, JOB DONE Moments later Ask now THE WINDOW They’re happy, and you’re stood in front of them. Ask while your phone’s in your hand. A day later Too late Back at work. The moment’s gone.

What to say

Plainly, and without apologising for asking. Something like: "If you are happy with how it has turned out, a review on Google genuinely helps me. Shall I send you the link?" People say yes to that far more often than tradespeople expect, because most customers are pleased and simply have not thought of it.

Answer every one of them

Reply to the good ones briefly and the bad ones carefully. A calm, specific reply to a poor review does more good than the review does harm, because the next person reading is judging how you handle a problem. Never argue, and never explain the customer to themselves in public.

Two things that will get you in trouble

Do not buy reviews. They are traceable, they arrive in patterns, and Google removes them and sometimes the profile with them.

Do not offer anything in return, not a discount and not a prize draw. Paying for reviews in kind is against Google's terms whether or not the review is honest, and a competitor who spots it can report it.

A steady trickle beats a burst

Twenty reviews arriving in one week looks exactly like twenty bought reviews. Two or three a month, every month, is both more believable and more useful, because recent reviews carry more weight than old ones. Keeping that trickle going is part of search and AI visibility.

While you are here

How many Google reviews do I need?

Enough to sit alongside whoever else comes up for your trade in your town, which is usually somewhere between ten and forty. Past that, how recent they are matters more than how many.

Can I remove a bad Google review?

Only if it breaks Google's rules, meaning it is fake, abusive, or not about your business. You can report it, and it may or may not go. An honest bad review cannot be removed, so the reply is your answer to it.

Want this done for you?

Ring and describe the job. We’ll tell you what’s involved and what it would cost, in plain English, with no obligation.

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