How to get more Google reviews for your trade business.

Most tradies know reviews matter. Few have a way of getting them that does not depend on remembering to ask. This guide sets out a three-part system that fits around a working week, the shortcuts that break Google’s rules (and Australian law), and the honest sum for how long it takes to catch the businesses above you on Maps. Every figure links to its source.

Why reviews decide who gets the call

Google says it ranks local results on relevance, distance and prominence, and that prominence is partly based on how many reviews you have: “More reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking”. You cannot change how far a customer is from you. You can change how many people vouch for you.

Reviews also do the selling once you appear. BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, a February 2026 panel of 1,002 US adults, found:

• 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.
• 47% won’t use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.
• 74% look for reviews written in the last three months, and 32% for reviews from the last two weeks.
• 31% will only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17% a year earlier.

Those are US figures, and no equivalent Australian survey publishes the same detail. The direction is still clear: customers want a decent number of reviews, a high average, and reviews that are recent. A big pile of old reviews does not cover the last of those. A steady flow does.

The three-part system

1. Ask every customer, at the moment the job is done

The best time to ask is when the customer is looking at the finished job: the hot water is running, the leak has stopped, the deck is down. Ask in person, then send the link by text that evening so they can do it from the couch. A week later by email, most people have moved on.

Ask everyone, not just the customers you think will be kind. Google’s policy says merchants must not “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”, and asking everyone also gives you an honest picture of how the work is landing. BrightLocal found 78% of consumers were asked for a review in the past 12 months, and 28% now say they will “always” write one if asked, up from 16% in 2025. Asking works. Most businesses just do not do it every time.

2. Make it one tap

Every extra step loses people. Google lets you create a review link or QR code from your Business Profile (Read reviews, then Get more reviews) that opens your review form directly. Google suggests putting it on receipts and thank-you emails, and printing the QR code. For a tradie that means the invoice, the follow-up text, and a card you leave on the bench when you pack up.

Two practical notes from Google’s own pages: the QR code can only be generated from a computer browser, not the phone app, and the customer needs to be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review. If you would rather not fiddle with it, Scalepoint’s free Local Pack Check Chrome extension makes a printable review QR card for your business straight from Google Maps.

3. Reply to every review, good and bad

Replies are public, and the next customer reads them. BrightLocal found 80% of consumers say they are likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews. The same survey found generic, templated replies put off 50% of consumers, so “Thanks for the review” pasted under every five-star rating does not count.

Google’s guidance on review replies lines up: keep it short, polite and specific, mention something real about the job, and do not use the reply to push a deal. For a negative review, reply promptly, acknowledge what went wrong without taking the blame for things outside your control, and offer to sort it out by phone. You cannot delete a genuine bad review, but if a review breaks Google’s content policies you can flag it for removal.

What not to do

Google lists what it treats as fake engagement and rating manipulation in its Maps user-generated content policy. The ones that catch tradies out:

• No incentives. Google bans offering “payment, discounts, free goods and/or services” in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing a negative one. Ten per cent off the next service counts.
• No buying reviews. Reviews or ratings “paid for, directly or in kind” are fake engagement and Google removes them.
• No review gating. Do not ask only the customers you expect to be happy, and do not discourage negative reviews. Some review tools ask “How did we do?” first and only send the happy ones to Google. That is selective soliciting, so skip that feature.
• No pressure or scripts. Google says merchants should not require or pressure customers to review on the premises, ask for specific wording, or set staff a target number of reviews to collect.
• No bursts. Google flags “unusual volumes or patterns” of reviews as possible rating manipulation. A steady trickle from real jobs is safer than texting your whole customer list in one afternoon.
• No reviews from family or staff. Google treats reviews from employees, relatives and competitors as a conflict of interest.

The penalties are real. Google can restrict a Business Profile so it cannot receive new reviews for a set period, unpublish its existing reviews for a set period, or display a warning telling customers that fake reviews were removed. Each of those does more damage than the reviews you were trying to buy.

Australian law applies too

The ACCC says it is against the law for a business to create fake or misleading reviews or arrange for others to, and that suppressing or removing genuine negative reviews can mislead consumers. The ACCC says any incentive must apply whether the review is positive or negative, and must be clearly disclosed. Google is stricter and bans incentives on Google reviews outright, so the simple rule is: no incentives at all.

How long it takes to catch up

Work out the gap, then divide by your weekly pace. Say the top three on Maps for your trade and suburb average 150 reviews and you have 20 (illustrative):

Five a week sounds like a lot until you count jobs. Not every customer follows through, so you need to ask more than five people a week, which is why asking every customer matters. The third row is the honest version: the businesses above you are not standing still, so you need to out-pace them, not just match them. Recency helps you here: your reviews will be newer than theirs, and 74% of consumers in BrightLocal’s survey look for reviews from the last three months.

You do not need to guess the numbers for your area. Local Pack Check compares your Google Business Profile with the top three on Maps for any search you run, shows the review gap, and does this catch-up sum for you at five a week.

Where reviews fit in the bigger picture

Reviews are one part of a complete profile. Categories, service areas, photos and hours matter too, and our Google Business Profile checklist for tradies covers each one. If you would rather someone else ran it, review requests and replies included, that sits inside our local SEO service, part of our wider SEO work for trades and local businesses, month to month with no lock-in. Start with a free audit: we compare your profile with the top three in your suburbs and send back the three moves that matter most.

Sources

• Tips to improve your local ranking on Google, Google Business Profile Help.
• Tips to get more reviews, Google Business Profile Help.
• Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews, Google Business Profile Help.
• Manage customer reviews, Google Business Profile Help.
• Prohibited and restricted content: fake engagement and rating manipulation, Maps User Generated Content Policy Help.
• Business Profile restrictions for policy violations, Google Business Profile Help.
• Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, BrightLocal, February 2026 (1,002 US adults).
• Online reviews for products and services, ACCC, July 2026.