How to Get More Google Reviews in Australia (Without Breaking the Rules)

The way to get more Google reviews is boringly simple: ask every happy customer, make it a one-tap job for them, and ask at the moment they are most pleased with you. The business with 12 reviews and a competitor on 200 usually just never built the habit of asking. The other half of the job is staying inside the rules, because the ACCC and Google both treat fake or paid-for reviews as a serious problem, and the penalties are real.

TL;DR

Grab your review link and QR code from Google Business Profile, then put them everywhere a customer already looks: the counter, the invoice, the follow-up text, the thank-you email. Ask in person when the job goes well. Reply to every review, including the bad ones, calmly and publicly. Never pay for reviews, never offer a discount for one, and never filter out unhappy customers before asking. If a fake review lands, report it through your profile and keep the evidence.

Get your review link first

Everything else depends on this. Google gives every verified profile a short link that drops the customer straight into the "write a review" box, with no searching and no hunting for the button. Google's guide to creating a review link or QR code gives the steps:

1. Sign in at business.google.com and open your Business Profile.
2. Select "Read reviews".
3. Select "Get more reviews" (the share icon).
4. Press Copy to grab the link, or right-click the QR code and save it as an image.

The QR code can only be generated from a desktop browser, not the mobile app. Save both somewhere you can find them again, because you will be pasting that link into templates for years.

Not claimed or verified yet? Do that first. Our complete guide to Google Business Profile walks through it.

Put a QR code where customers already are

The counter is the obvious spot for a cafe, a barber or a shop. A small printed card by the till with "Scan to leave us a Google review" gets scanned more than you would expect, especially if whoever is serving mentions it.

For trades and services, the invoice is the better surface. Nobody reads a tradie's invoice more carefully than the customer who just paid it. Put the QR code and a one-line ask in the footer. If you invoice from Xero or MYOB, edit the template once and every invoice carries it from then on. Other spots: the back of a business card, the reception desk at a clinic.

Text them after the job

For plumbers, electricians, cleaners, removalists and anyone else who finishes a job and drives away, an SMS the same afternoon is the highest-return ask you can make. The customer still remembers you, the problem is fixed, and they are looking at their phone anyway.

Keep it short and human: "Hi Sarah, thanks for having us out today. If you were happy with the job, a Google review would mean a lot to a small business like ours: [link]. Cheers, Dave." One message, no chasing.

Only text people who gave you their number in the course of doing business with you, and always say who you are, because a bare link from an unknown number gets deleted.

Email follow-ups for longer jobs

Email suits businesses where the relationship runs longer: accountants after a tax return, builders at handover, photographers when the gallery is delivered, physios at the end of a treatment block. Send it when the outcome is fresh.

Put the ask in its own short email rather than burying it in an invoice reminder. Subject line "Quick favour?" beats "Client feedback survey" every time. One sentence of thanks, one sentence of ask, the link, done.

If your software can send automated follow-ups, set the review email to go a day or two after the job is marked complete. Automating the ask is fine. Sending it only to customers who rated you five stars in a private survey first is not (more on that below).

Ask in person at the moment of delight

Nothing beats a face-to-face ask when the customer has just told you they are thrilled. The mechanic who says "glad it's running sweet again, a Google review really helps us if you get a sec" while handing over the keys will get more reviews in a month than a poster gets in a year.

Ask when they have just said something nice. Tell them exactly how ("search our name on Google and tap Write a review, or scan this"). Then drop it. Do not ask twice. Give staff the same words, because most people skip asking out of awkwardness, not disagreement.

Reply to every review, good and bad

Google's Manage customer reviews page confirms that replies are public and sit directly under the customer's review. Every reply is a small piece of marketing aimed at the next person reading.

For a good review, reply within a few days and mention something specific. "Thanks Priya, glad the new split system is keeping the front room cool" reads as real. "Thank you for your feedback!" reads as a template.

For a bad review, slow down. Do not reply angry, and do not argue point by point in public. Acknowledge the issue, say what you did or will do about it, and offer to sort it out directly with a phone number or email. Three or four sentences. Future customers are not judging you on whether you had a bad day. They are judging how you handled it. If the reviewer is wrong on a fact, one calm sentence is fine. Ten is not.

Never buy or incentivise reviews

This is the part that gets businesses into real trouble, and it catches people who thought they were being clever rather than dishonest.

The ACCC's guidance on online reviews for products and services states that it is against the law for a business to create fake or misleading reviews or arrange for others to do so. The same page lists other conduct that can be misleading under Australian Consumer Law: publishing reviews from staff, family or paid reviewers without disclosing the connection, offering discounts or gifts for positive reviews without disclosing it, and removing or editing genuine negative reviews to lift your rating. The enforcement examples on that page run from a A$6,600 penalty against a removalist for false testimonials up to a A$2.9 million Federal Court penalty against HealthEngine, which included suppressing negative reviews.

Google's rules are stricter again. The Maps user-generated content policy prohibits reviews paid for directly or in kind, bans offering payment, discounts or free goods for any review, and specifically bans selectively soliciting positive reviews or discouraging negative ones. That last one is the trap. A "rate us privately first, and if you loved us we'll send the Google link" flow is exactly what Google says not to do.

What is allowed is simple. Ask genuine customers, all of them, with no reward attached, and let them say what they like. The businesses offering "leave a review and get 10% off" are breaking both sets of rules. Some get away with it. Some lose every review on their profile in one sweep, or end up in an ACCC media release.

What to do when a fake review lands

It happens: a competitor, a disgruntled ex-employee, a mix-up with a similarly named business. Reviews that break Google's policy can be removed, but only those. A one-star review from a real customer who is being unfair is not removable.

Google's guide to reporting inappropriate reviews gives the steps: open your Business Profile, select "Read reviews", click the report icon next to the review, pick a reason and send it. The separate Reviews Management Tool lets you watch the status ("Decision pending", "No policy violation found", "Escalated") and, if Google says no, submit a one-time appeal for up to ten reviews. Google says evaluation typically takes several days.

Before you report, gather what you can:

• Booking, job or sales records showing the reviewer was never a customer, or which job the review relates to.
• Screenshots of the review and the reviewer's profile, including other reviews they have left (a burst of one-star reviews across unrelated businesses in one afternoon is a strong signal).
• Any messages or social posts showing a link to a competitor or a personal grudge.
• Dates, in case the review refers to a time you were closed or did not exist.

While you wait, reply publicly and briefly: "We have no record of a customer by this name and have reported this review. If we have made a mistake, please call us on [number] and we will put it right." That reply does more for the next reader than the removal does.

Reviews on other sites count too

Google is the big one, but people cross-check. A profile with 80 Google reviews and nothing anywhere else looks thinner than one with 50 on Google, 20 on Facebook and a handful on a directory listing. Reviews spread across a few places are also harder to fake.

The Local List includes reviews on every free listing alongside your hours, phone, website and the ABN Verified badge, so a customer who finds you through a suburb search can see what other locals have said. Facebook Recommendations still matter where community groups drive referrals. For the wider set of places worth being listed, see our top 20 free business listing sites in Australia. Send most people to Google, but when someone found you through Facebook or a directory, ask them to review you there.

Start with one ask this week

Do not build a system before you have built the habit. This week, get the review link, put it in one SMS template and one invoice footer, and ask the next three happy customers in person. That alone will out-perform most of your local competitors, because most of them are not asking at all.

Reviews are one of the 10 ways to get more local customers that cost nothing but attention. And if you are not yet listed somewhere those reviews can sit alongside your details, add your business to The Local List for free.