Google has tightened the rules around how businesses ask customers for reviews.
The good news is that you can still ask genuine customers to share their experience. In fact, regular reviews should absolutely remain part of your marketing strategy.
What has changed is the way Google is looking at review collection. Staff quotas, scripted requests and anything that influences what a customer writes could now put your reviews—and your Google Business Profile—at greater risk.
The takeaway is simple: keep asking, but make sure the process is natural, neutral and genuine.
Here’s what changed, what stayed the same and how to keep your review strategy compliant in 2026.
The update rolled out across two days in April 2026.
On 16 April 2026, Google shared a number of new ways it's protecting businesses and customers across Google Maps.
These included:
The update made one thing clear: Google is investing heavily in detecting suspicious activity faster and stopping it before it causes more damage.
The following day, Google added two important lines to its prohibited & restricted content policy.
Businesses must not:
In practice, that means businesses should avoid asking staff “Collect five Google reviews this week”, “ask the customer to mention your name”, or “make sure they include the service we completed”.
A customer can still choose to mention a team member, service or location in their review. The issue is when the business tells them what to include.
Just to be clear—the update isn't telling businesses to stop asking for reviews. It's drawing a clearer line between inviting honest feedback and trying to shape the result.
A lot of the rules being discussed alongside the April update were already in place.
Google reviews must still reflect a genuine customer experience.
Businesses must not:
The important point is that asking for feedback is still allowed.
A genuine customer can still leave a positive or negative review. They can still mention a staff member, service or location in their own words.
You simply can't tell them what rating to choose, what to say or pressure them to post publicly.
Google Maps handles an enormous amount of customer content.
In this update from Google, they reported publishing more than 1 billion helpful reviews in 2025 alone. Maps users also suggested around 80 million updates to business information.
And at the same time, Google blocked or removed more than 292 million reviews it believed breached its policies.
That doesn't mean 292 million genuine reviews suddenly disappeared from business profiles. The figure includes reviews blocked before they were published, as well as reviews removed after being flagged.
What it does show is how closely Google is monitoring review activity.
Google is no longer relying only on people manually reporting suspicious content. Its , automated systems can analyse activity and patterns across Maps at scale.
Potential warning signs may include:
That doesn't mean every increase in reviews is a problem. A busy business can naturally receive a large number over a short period.
But it does mean your review generation process needs to be consistent and linked to genuine customer activity.
It is also worth remembering that legitimate reviews can sometimes be delayed or removed by mistake. A missing review doesn't automatically mean your business or customer has broken a rule.
If you have noticed genuine reviews go missing, check out this article for help getting missing reviews back.
The answer is not to stop asking for reviews.
The safest approach is to build a simple process that regularly invites genuine customers to share honest feedback in their own words.
Reviews should come from people who have genuinely used your business.
That means invitations should be linked to real appointments, quotes, purchases, services or jobs.
Systems like Better Reviews help businesses follow up with real customers after the service has been completed, keeping each invitation tied to a genuine experience.
Customers should always be free to describe their experience in their own words.
Avoid asking for:
A simple request is best:
“Thanks for choosing our business. We’d appreciate your honest feedback about your experience.”
Better Reviews invitations are designed to ask for honest feedback without telling customers what rating to choose or what to say.
Businesses shouldn’t only invite customers they expect to be happy.
This is known as review gating. It happens when satisfied customers are encouraged to post publicly, while unhappy customers are not given the same opportunity.
A compliant process, like Better Reviews, allows customers to share positive or negative feedback on Google if they choose.
That helps businesses build a more genuine picture of the customer experience, rather than selectively chasing only positive reviews.
Customers should have the chance to respond in their own time, on their own device and without pressure.
Post-service invitations sent by SMS or email make this easy.
With Better Reviews, you can send SMS or Email invitations after the customer interaction, or leave a Shareable card asking for feedback via a QR code, giving them space to respond once they have left the business.
This is far more natural than asking someone to post a review at the counter while a staff member waits.
Review collection works best when it becomes part of your regular customer follow-up process.
Avoid ignoring reviews for months and then suddenly running a large campaign.
Instead, invite customers as work is completed.
Better Rviews unch helps businesses create a steady flow of invitations through SMS and email, rather than relying on irregular review pushes.
Shareable cards can also provide a passive reminder. Customers can take the card away and respond when it suits them, without being pressured to do anything on the spot.
A regular process creates a more natural flow of ongoing reviews.
Google doesn't allow businesses to offer rewards, discounts or other incentives in exchange for posting a Google review.
Better Reviews Shareable cards invite customers to share honest feedback for the chance to receive a reward.
Customers can provide positive or negative feedback for entry into the draw.
They aren't asked to leave five stars, write something positive or include any specific wording, and posting on Google doesn't give them an extra entry or improve their chance of receiving the reward.
The reward is for sharing feedback—not for publishing a Google review.
That keeps the process focused on genuine customer engagement while making the Google review completely optional.
Your team can still play an important role in building customer feedback, but avoid giving individual staff members a set number of Google reviews to collect.
That means staying away from targets like:
Instead, focus on the parts of the process your team can control, like providing a review worthy service, handing out Shareable cards asking for feedback, and celebrating and sharing genuine reviews with the team.
Positive feedback should still be recognised!
Share great reviews in team meetings, internal newsletters or group chats. Use them to acknowledge strong service, highlight what customers value and remind your team of the difference their work makes.
The key is to celebrate feedback customers have chosen to share—not pressure staff to generate a certain number of reviews or ask customers to mention them by name.
Google have always removed reviews that breach its policies, but with their new, stricter policies and stronger detection methods, the consequences are starting to go further than losing a few reviews.
Google could:
The commercial impact can be pretty big.
A business coould lose social proof, see its review count drop, or lose the ability to collect new reviews for a period.
There is also the time involved in tracking missing reviews, contacting Google and appealing decisions.
The fact that Google blocked or removed more than 292 million policy-violating reviews during 2025 shows how seriously it is taking misleading and manipulated content.
Compliance is not just about avoiding penalties. It is about protecting the genuine reviews your business has worked hard to earn.
Google’s 2026 policy changes are not a reason to pause your review strategy.
Regular, detailed reviews are one of the strongest ways to show customers, Google and other AI-powered search platforms what your business does and why it can be trusted.
The safest approach is straightforward:
→ Ask genuine customers regularly.
→ Use neutral wording.
→ Let customers respond in their own words.
→ Avoid quotas, scripts, pressure and selective invitations.
A system like Better Reviews can help make this part of your normal post-service process by following up through SMS, email and Shareable cards, while giving every customer a low-pressure way to share honest feedback.
Keep asking for feedback. Just make sure the process is fair, consistent and genuine.