How to get your Google review link
Open your profile on a computer
Go to business.google.com and sign in with the Google account that owns or manages the profile. Use a computer browser: Google's help page on review links and QR codes says the QR code can only be created there, not on a phone.
Pick the right location
If you manage more than one location, open the profile for the location the customer visited. Each location is its own Business Profile, and a review posts to whichever profile the link belongs to.
Open Get more reviews
Select Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Google shows your review link and a QR code together.
Copy the link and save the QR code
Select Copy to copy the link for texts, emails and invoices. For print, right-click the QR code and choose Save image as. Keep both in one shared file so every staff member sends the same link.
Test it before you send it
Open the link in a private browser window and scan the QR code with a phone. Confirm both land on your business, at the right location, before the link goes into a message or onto a card.
Should you shorten the link or make your own QR code?
You don't need a third-party QR generator. Per Google Business Profile Help, Google lets you create a Google link or a QR code to request reviews, and it lists both as ways to ask customers for a review.
A URL shortener such as bit.ly can give you a tidier, branded link for texts. The trade-off is that it adds a redirect you have to keep working. If that shortener account lapses or the short link gets edited, every card and sticker pointing to it breaks at once. For anything printed, use the QR code Google gives you so there is nothing in between your customer and your profile.
Print the code on a counter card at checkout, a sticker on the receipt folder, or a leave-behind card after a service visit. Test each print run with a phone before you put it out.
Where and when to send your Google review link
Right after the job
Send the link the same day the work is done or the customer leaves. The visit is still clear in their mind, so they can describe it in their own words, which is what Google wants: a review that reflects a genuine experience.
By text message
Keep it short and neutral: 'Thanks for choosing us. If you have a minute, we'd appreciate a Google review: [link].' Don't mention a star rating or suggest what to write.
In a follow-up email
For longer jobs, send one email when the work is complete. Put the link in the first paragraph, not at the bottom under your signature block.
On a counter card or receipt
Print the QR code on a small card at checkout. A customer who doesn't want to type a URL can scan it with their phone camera.
On your invoice
Add a one-line note with the link at the bottom of every invoice. Customers who pay online can click it from the same screen.
What Google forbids when you ask for reviews
Google's Maps User Generated Content Policy bars merchants from offering incentives, such as payment, discounts, or free goods or services, in exchange for posting a review or for revising or removing a negative one. Reviews posted because of an incentive are not allowed and will be removed from Maps.
You also cannot discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive ones, under the same policy. A feedback form that sends only happy customers to the Google link is selective solicitation. Send the link to everyone, every time.
When you ask, don't require or pressure customers to leave a rating or review while they are on your premises, and don't request specific content. The policy names two staff practices directly: asking staff to collect a certain number of reviews, and asking staff to collect reviews that include specific content, such as a staff member's name. Google Business Profile Help sums up the standard: reviews must reflect a genuine experience.
Common mistakes owners make with their review link
Sending the wrong location's link
With several locations, each profile has its own link. Send the wrong one and the customer reviews a store they never visited, which helps neither profile.
Asking only the happy ones
Filtering who gets the link is selective solicitation of positive reviews, which Google's policy bans. Send it to every customer.
Asking for a rating or specific words
Asking for five stars, a product mention, or a staff member's name is requesting specific content, which the policy does not allow. Ask for a review and nothing more.
Setting staff review quotas
Google's policy names merchants who ask staff to solicit a certain number of reviews. Train staff to share the link, not to hit a count.
Offering a discount in return
A coupon or a free coffee for a review is an incentive. Google removes incentivized reviews, and its help page links to Business Profile restrictions for policy violations.
Need someone to manage the whole review process for you?
Rankure's review management service covers one location for $173 a month. It tracks new reviews, replies to them, and reports reviews that break Google policy. It never buys, filters, or gates reviews.
Questions people also ask
Can I use my Google review link on social media?
Do customers need a Gmail address to leave a review?
Can I give my staff a review target?
What happens if someone leaves a fake or policy-breaking review?
Is it okay to add my Google review link to my email signature?
Should I reply to the reviews that come in?
Sources
- Tips to get more reviews - Google Business Profile Help read 2026-11-06
- Prohibited & restricted content - Maps User Generated Content Policy Help read 2026-11-06
- Tips to get more reviews - Google Business Profile Help read 2026-11-06
- Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews - Google Business Profile Help read 2026-11-06
Facts and prices checked . Next review February 2027.