Ask every customer for a Google review. Offer nothing back.
Google tells you to ask for reviews. Ask every customer the same way, and offer nothing for a Google review, not even a drawing entry.
Search for your business on Google and a box shows up with your address, hours and reviews. Google calls that box your Business Profile. Anyone in Middle Haddam or Cobalt deciding whether to call you sees those reviews there. Google gives you a link to ask for them. Ask every customer the same way. For a Google review, offer nothing in return, not even a drawing entry, since Google bans any benefit given for a review.
The federal floor. The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, is the federal agency that enforces the law against unfair or deceptive business practices. Its rule on reviews has been in force since Oct. 21, 2024, on any review site. Among other things, the rule bans fake reviews, rewards tied to a good or bad review, and reviews by insiders who don’t disclose their tie to the business. Courts can fine businesses that break it knowingly. Google’s rule is stricter. Yelp, the review website, says not to ask anyone at all.
The FTC rule does not ban asking. In one FTC staff example, a business routinely emails every buyer asking for a review. If a few of those buyers turn out to be employees who post without saying so, the business has not broken the rule. A request sent to customers in general is exempt.
A hint is enough. The ban on rewards covers a hinted condition as well as a stated one. The FTC’s example: “Tell us how much you loved your visit to John’s Steakhouse and get a $5 coupon.” An owner or manager can’t review the business without disclosing the relationship. Nor can you ask a spouse, parent, child, sibling or employee for a review without telling them to disclose it, if the review then appears without it. The disclosure must be easy to notice. FTC staff say it can be as short as a reviewer calling the business their wife’s company.
On a reward for a good review, all three say no. They differ on any other reward, and on whether to ask at all:
- The FTC rule does not ban a reward that carries no condition about whether the review is good or bad. FTC staff add that not disclosing such a reward could still break the agency’s wider law.
- Google calls any incentive for a review “strictly prohibited.” It also bars pressuring customers to review while they’re at your business, setting review quotas for staff and asking only happy customers (the subject of No. 14).
- Yelp says not to ask anyone, customers, friends or family, and not to offer freebies, discounts or payment. Asking may hurt your Yelp rating, Yelp says, because its software may not recommend reviews that seem prompted.
Family and staff. Here the FTC and Google part ways. Google’s Maps policy says a current or former job with the business, or a family tie, may be a conflict of interest, and biased reviews are removed from Maps. It does not say whether a disclosure changes that. Our advice: don’t ask family or staff to review you on Google.
What Google can do. If Google decides an owner broke its rules against fake reviews, it removes those reviews. It might also block new reviews or hide existing ones for a set period, or post a warning that fake reviews were removed. Google says it emails the owner first, and the owner can appeal.
Where to find the link. Google says the review QR code, the square barcode a customer scans with a phone, can only be made in a computer browser. Go to your Business Profile, select Read Reviews, then Get more reviews. Choose Copy for the link, or right-click the QR code and pick Save image as. Google suggests receipts, thank-you emails, the end of a chat and a sign in the store.
Check yours today. Read every receipt, email and counter sign that asks for a review. Strike any offer attached to it.
The Standard: Ask every customer the same way. On Google, give nothing for a review.
Source: FTC, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465), its staff Q&A and its August 2024 announcement; Google Business Profile Help and Maps content policy pages on requesting reviews, incentives and restrictions; Yelp Support, “Don’t Ask for Reviews”; read Sept. 25, 2026.