The most reliable way to get more Google reviews is also the least clever one: ask every client, at the moment they're happiest, with a link that takes one tap. Most businesses with too few reviews aren't doing anything wrong. They just aren't asking, or they're asking in a way that takes more than ten seconds to act on.
What has changed is the list of things you're not allowed to do while you ask. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews has applied since October 2024, and Google tightened its own policy this spring. Some of the most common ways salons and restaurants have boosted their reviews now break one or both.
Why reviews matter more than they did
In BrightLocal's 2026 survey of US consumers — a vendor's survey, but a long-running one — 97% said they read reviews of local businesses, and 31% said they'd only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17% the year before. Recency counts as well: 74% look for reviews from the last three months.
So a steady stream of new reviews is worth more than a pile of old ones, and a 4.4 average costs you more customers than it did a year ago.
How to get more Google reviews
Get your review link. In your Google Business Profile, open your reviews and choose Get more reviews. Google gives you a short link to share and a QR code; the QR code has to be generated on a computer rather than a phone.
Ask everyone. Not only the clients who seem delighted. Asking only the happy ones is exactly what both Google and the FTC tell businesses not to do — more on that below.
Ask while it's fresh, and don't press. For a salon, the natural moment is when the client sees the finished result, or in the message that follows the visit. For a restaurant, it's with the check or the next morning. Ask once and leave it there: Google prohibits requiring or pressuring customers to review you while they're on your premises.
Make it one tap. Put the link in your thank-you text or email, and the QR code at the desk or in the check presenter. Google's own help page suggests printing the QR code and displaying it in your store.
Reply to reviews — all of them, briefly. You'll need a verified Business Profile to reply. A calm reply to a bad review is read by everyone who reads the review, which is a much bigger audience than the person who wrote it.
How many Google reviews do you need?
There's no number. What a potential customer weighs is the rating, how recent the reviews are, and how you compare with the places they could go instead. Forty reviews from the last few months can do more for a salon than three hundred from years ago, because recent reviews are the ones people look for.
What the rules don't allow
Rewarding reviews. Google's policy prohibits offering "incentives – such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services - in exchange for posting any review", honest ones included. The FTC's rule is narrower: it bans incentives conditioned on a review being positive or negative. Follow Google's version. It's the stricter one, and it's Google's platform.
Asking only happy customers. Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews, the practice usually called review gating: a quick survey that sends satisfied clients to Google and unhappy ones to a private form. The FTC's guide for businesses says the same thing plainly: "Don't ask for reviews only from customers you think will leave positive ones."
Reviewing yourself. Google doesn't allow reviews from anyone with a conflict of interest, including current and former employees, and removes them. The FTC rule separately bans reviews by managers, staff or relatives that don't clearly disclose the connection.
Staff quotas, and asking clients to name a stylist. Google's policy also prohibits businesses from asking staff to collect a set number of reviews, and from asking for reviews that name a staff member. That last one catches out a lot of salons, where "mention your technician by name!" has long been standard advice.
Faking, buying or burying reviews. The FTC rule bans fake reviews, buying them, and suppressing negative ones with threats or false accusations. Knowing violations can bring civil penalties of more than $50,000 each.
When Google finds a problem, it can remove reviews, stop your profile from receiving new ones for a time, or show a warning that fake reviews were removed.
When a review is unfair
Google won't take a review down because it's unfair or because you disagree with it. It removes reviews that break its policies. If one does — it's fake, abusive, or written by someone with a conflict of interest — report it from your Business Profile and follow the report in Google's Reviews Management Tool.
For everything else, reply: briefly, without arguing, and for the next person who reads it rather than the person who wrote it. "We're sorry your color didn't turn out the way you hoped — please call and ask for Anna, and we'll put it right" tells every future client what happens here when something goes wrong.
Make asking automatic
The system that works is the one that doesn't depend on anyone remembering: the review link in the message clients already get after a visit, the QR code at the desk, and fifteen minutes a week to reply to whatever came in.
While you're in your Business Profile, check your hours as well. Your hours are listed in five places, and a review that begins "showed up and they were closed" is the easiest bad review to prevent.