If you want to show for searches in your town, city, or state for a for a keyword search, Google reviews are what will get you there. Yes, it’s kinda scary how much power Google has over the success or failure of small businesses. And yes, they are a monopoly in more ways then one. But until such a time as they are dethroned, the path is pretty clear:
Get more Google reviews and you will get more customers.
In fact, one study showed that every 10 Google reviews will increase conversion by an average of 3.8%. That creates a pretty simple formula if you want to grow by 10% or 20% in a year.
Google Business Profiles will also often be seen and interacted with more then your actual website, so it’s important to treat your profile as an asset that is “just as” or “more” important your actual website. (Don’t get me started on how Google steals traffic from websites).
When potential customers search for your business, the first thing they see will often be your Google Business Profile with ratings and reviews before anything else. A strong review profile not only improves your local search rankings but also directly influences purchase decisions—studies show that up to 98% of consumers check reviews before making a purchase.
The challenge isn’t just getting reviews, it’s implementing a systematic strategy that consistently captures feedback from satisfied customers. In this guide, we’ll walk through proven tactics to get more Google reviews, optimize your approach, and build the foundation for sustainable review growth.
What about service based businesses without a location?
You don’t actually need to have a brick-and-mortar location to create a Google Business Profile. You can even hide your address. This was not the case in the past, so many service-based businesses don’t realize they are allowed to have one. You can and if you optimize it well and get reviews, you will get more business inquiries. I’ve done this for dozens of businesses as a marketing and SEO consultant.
1. First things first. Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Get your Google Business Profile set up properly first. You can’t play the review game without claiming your business and optimizing your profile.
Once you’ve claimed it (which you should have done already), fill out every section like your business depends on it. And honestly, it does. Make sure your category is right, your hours are accurate, your description isn’t generic, and you’ve got quality photos. Aim for at least 10-15 photos showing your location, team, products, customers—whatever is relevant to your business.
The data is clear: complete profiles with photos get about 10x more clicks than incomplete ones. That’s not an exaggeration. Google also rewards businesses that keep their information fresh and updated, so check in on your profile regularly and make sure everything is still accurate.
2. Get Your Review Link
Use the link Google provides to share with customers. Asking your customers to figure out where to go and what to do creates friction and it doesn’t take a lot of friction for customers to give up and forget about leaving the review they may have intended. (You can make it ever easier for customers if you use Prompt Reviews, but I’m also biased because I built it)
Your review link should be as easy to find as the “Order Now” button. That means it needs to be everywhere: your website, your email signature, your newsletters, your social media, your follow-up emails. Everywhere.
To find your direct Google review link, go to your Google Business Profile, click the link icon, and grab the “write a review” URL. Post it. Honestly, the easier you make it, the more reviews you’ll get.
Show your customers that reviews are important. Getting a review should start at the moment a customer walks in the door or the moment you first meet a new prospect. Don’t make it an afterthought. Reviews are business fuel. You’ve got to try to catch-em all!
Add it to your email signature. If you and everyone on your teamhas it in their signature reviews become part of your company culture. And yes, Prompt Reviews does have an email signature creators built in, so you can add a professional “Review us on Google” button to every message your team sends out. It’s passive, it’s professional, and it works.
You can also add review request buttons to your website, checkout pages, and thank-you pages—basically anywhere a customer might be feeling good about their experience with you. (We’ve got widgets for that too!)
3. Ask for Reviews When It Actually Matters
The worst time to ask for a review is when the customer has forgotten about your business. The best time is right after they’ve had a positive experience—while they’re still thinking about you.
If you’re a service business, ask immediately after the job is done or delivery is complete. For e-commerce, wait 5-7 days (give them time to actually use the product). For restaurants or retail, ask before they leave if you can, efore you can collect reviews, your Google Business Profile needs to be properly set up and claimed.
Start by verifying that your business profile is claimed and you have administrative access. Once claimed, optimize every section: ensure your business category is correct, your hours are accurate, and your business description clearly explains what you do. Add high-quality photos (at least 10-15 to start) showing your location, products, team, and customer interactions. Complete profiles with photos and detailed information receive 10x more clicks than incomplete ones.
Make sure your website URL is linked correctly, and keep your contact information current. Google rewards businesses that maintain complete, up-to-date profiles with better visibility in local search results.
2. Make It Easy for Customers to Leave Reviews
Your customers want to leave reviews—but only if you make it frictionless. The easier you make the process, the more reviews you’ll get.
Create a direct link to your Google review page and place it everywhere: your website, email signature, social media, and follow-up emails. You can find your review link by going to your Google Business Profile, clicking the link icon, and copying the “write a review” URL.
One powerful tactic is adding a review link to your email signature. Every single email sent by your team becomes an opportunity to ask for a review. Tools like Prompt Reviews simplify this by providing customizable review widgets and email signature creators that add a “Review us on Google” link to every message. This passive approach captures reviews from customers who are already engaged with your business through email communication.
You can also add review request buttons to your website, checkout pages, and thank-you pages. The key is omnipresence—make sure every touchpoint gives satisfied customers an easy path to leaving a review.
3. Ask for Reviews at the Right Time
Timing is everything. Ask for reviews when customers feel greatfull—right after a positive interaction with your business. It doesn’t have to be after your service is completed. It might be right in the middle of it. Ask right after you have done something nice or gone above and beyond.
Don’t wait too long. People are busy and their memories are short. Ask when they still remember who you are and what you provided. Wait too long and customers lose their momentum.
Run review campaigns and track who has and hasn’t left a review. With Prompt Reviews, you can upload your customer list and create review outreach campaigns. Or you can do it in a spreadsheet. Don’t forget to follow up if they don’t do it. It’s worth your time.
4. Review Capture Pages
The secret sauce of Prompt Reviews is our review capture page. They are branded landing page designed to ask for reviews before directing customers to Google (or any other review site.. This allows you to provide additional context, suggest keywords and give your customers AI tools to improve their reviews. It also allows you to capture reviews in the app so you can display them on your website and build trust.
Prompt Pages have a bunch of features that can be turned on and off, so you can test what works best. You can set up different capture pages for different campaigns or customer segments, for different review platforms, and then track your results.
5. Offer an Incentive (But Be Careful)
Incentivizing reviews is can violate Google’s policies if you don’t do it correctly. The key is that you cannot offer incentives specifically for positive reviews—that violates Google’s policies and can get your business suspended.
What you can do: offer incentives for leaving any review (positive or negative), offer incentives for writing detailed reviews, or run contests where review submission is one entry method among many. A common approach is to say something like, “Leave a review for a chance to win $50” or “Write a review and receive 10% off your next purchase.”
Be transparent about the incentive in your request. Something like, “We’d love your honest feedback. Leave a review of any kind and you’ll be entered into a monthly drawing for a $50 gift card” works well.
For many businesses, incentives aren’t necessary if you’ve nailed the previous strategies. Satisfied customers who are asked at the right time, in the right way, will often leave reviews without incentives. But if you’re struggling to get traction, a modest incentive can jumpstart your review collection efforts.
6. Respond to All Your Reviews
Responding to reviews serves multiple purposes: it shows customers you care about their feedback, it gives you an opportunity to address complaints before they escalate, and it signals to Google that you’re actively managing your business.
For positive reviews, keep responses brief and genuine. Thank the customer by name, mention something specific from their review, and invite them back. Example: “Thank you, Sarah! We loved creating your logo design and we’re so glad it exceeded your expectations. We can’t wait to work with you on your next project!”
For negative reviews, this is your chance to turn a frustrated customer into a loyal advocate. Respond professionally without being defensive. Acknowledge their concern, apologize if appropriate, explain what went wrong, and offer to make it right. Offer to move the conversation offline—”I’m so sorry you had this experience. We’d love the chance to make it right. Please call me at [number] or email [address].”
Responding to all reviews also signals to prospective customers that you’re responsive and take feedback seriously. Businesses with high review response rates see more customer engagement and higher conversion rates. Make this a regular habit—check your Google Business Profile a few times each week and respond to new reviews within 24 hours if possible.
7. Use QR Codes for In-Person Requests
For brick-and-mortar businesses, QR codes are where it’s at. You can print them on receipts, posters, table-tents, or near the checkout—when customers scan, they go directly to your review page or capture page. And can leave a review in just a few clicks.
QR codes eliminate the friction of manually typing a URL or searching for your business. It’s one quick scan on a smartphone and the customer is ready to review. This is especially effective in restaurants, retail stores, service centers, and any business where you see customers in person.
Prompt Reviews can generate custom QR codes that link to your review capture pages, letting you track which locations or campaigns are generating the most review requests. You can even customize QR codes with your logo or colors to match your branding.
8. Display Your Reviews on Your Website
Social proof is powerful. Displaying your Google reviews on your website isn’t just good for conversions—it also encourages visitors to leave reviews themselves.
Add review widgets to your homepage, landing pages, and product pages. Show your star rating and the most recent positive reviews. This does two things: it builds trust with website visitors who see real customer feedback, and it normalizes the review-leaving behavior for customers who haven’t left one yet.
Prompt Reviews include review display widgets that pull your latest Google reviews directly from your profile and display them beautifully on your site. This keeps the reviews fresh (no manual updating required) and lets customers see real testimonials while they’re on your website.
9. Build a Review Collection System
Getting more reviews isn’t a one-time project—it’s an ongoing system. The most successful businesses treat review collection as a core business process, not a random effort. In fact, Google will reward business that get consisten reviews overtime more then companies that get a bunch of reviews racked up over a short time. That reward is better search rankings.
Here’s how to build a systematic approach: First, identify all the places in your customer journey where you can ask for reviews. Is it after a purchase? After customer support interaction? After an event? After a consultation? Create a process for each. Then, schedule these requests consistently. If you use email marketing, set up automated sequences. If you’re in-person, train your team to ask for reviews consistently. Finally, track the results. Monitor how many review requests you’re sending, how many reviews you receive, and what your conversion rate is.
Prompt Reviews makes this easier with campaign management features. You can create multiple review request campaigns, each targeted to different customer segments or touchpoints. You can see how many people clicked your review link, how many made it to your review capture page, and how many actually left a review. This data-driven approach lets you continuously improve your review collection process.
10. Don’t Engage in Fake Reviews or Review Stuffing
This needs to be said clearly: never buy fake reviews, ask employees to review your business, or use review services that artificially inflate your count. Google’s algorithms are pretty good at detecting fake reviews, and the penalties are severe—your business can be suspended from Google Search, Google Maps, and lose years of built-up reputation.
The effort required to generate even 10-20 fake reviews really isn’t worth the risk. Instead, invest that time and energy into the legitimate strategies above. Real reviews from real customers are worth infinitely more than fake ones because they actually convert customers and improve your local search ranking.
Focus on earning reviews genuinely. When you optimize your profile, ask at the right time, make it easy to review, and respond thoughtfully to feedback, reviews will come naturally.
Google reviews are one of the most important drivers of local business growth. Your strategy should focus on three core principles:
Show your customers that reviews are important to you from the get go. Make it easy for them to leave a review at every touchpoint in their customer journey.
Ask strategically. Time your requests for when customer satisfaction is highest.
Respond authentically. Show that you care about feedback and use it to improve.
The businesses that excel at review generation aren’t necessarily the biggest or most expensive—they’re the ones that treat reviews as a systematic part of their business, not an afterthought.
I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t take work, but if you make it second-nature it will pay off ten-fold.
You don’t have to do it all at once either. Start with one strategy from this list this week. Pick what feels most achievable and get it in place. Then add another next week. Before long, you’ll have a complete system generating steady, authentic Google reviews that boost your local search ranking and convert more customers.
And if you need a little help, that’s what I built Prompt Reviews for, so why not try it out for free?
Here’s the link: https://promptreviews.app
