How to get a Google review link to send customers

Your Google review link lives inside your Business Profile. On a computer, sign in to the Google account that manages the profile, open it from business.google.com, choose Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Google shows a short link you can copy and a QR code you can save. That one link opens the review box for your business directly, so a customer can leave stars in a few taps.

Before you start: the profile has to be yours

The review link only appears for someone who manages the Business Profile. If you search for your business and see your listing but no editing tools, you are either signed in with the wrong Google account or someone else manages the profile.

Try every Google account you might have used: your business Gmail, a personal one, an old address from the year you set it up. If none of them shows the management tools, the profile may sit in a former agency's or employee's account. Getting your Google Business Profile back from an old agency walks through requesting access. Sort that out first, because reviews build up on a profile you do not control.

Step by step: copy the link on a computer

Google's help pages say the QR code can only be made in a browser on a computer, so start there.

Go to business.google.com and sign in with the account that manages your profile.
Open your business. On many accounts the profile's tools appear right at the top of a Google search for your business name.
Choose Read reviews.
Choose Get more reviews. A small window opens with the link and a QR code.
Click the copy icon next to the link.
To keep the QR code, right-click it and choose Save image as, then save it somewhere you will find it.

Paste the link straight into an email to yourself with a subject like "Review link" so you can find it on any device later.

Test it like a customer

Open the link on your phone. It should land on your business with the star rating box ready. Then send it to a friend who has a Google account and ask them to open it without leaving a review. If it lands anywhere else, such as a search page or a different business with a similar name, copy the link again from the same window.

A customer must be signed in to a Google account to post a review. Most people with an Android phone or a Gmail address already are; people who are not will be asked to sign in first.

Where to put the link

The link only works if customers meet it at the right moment, usually right after a job they were happy with. Pick two or three of these, not all of them.

A text message. The most direct route for trades and services. Save a short message in your phone's notes and paste it in after the job.
Your email signature. A plain line under your name: "Happy with our work? A Google review helps other customers find us," with the link.
Invoices and receipts. Add the link or the QR code at the bottom of the invoice template you already send.
The thank-you email after a booking or a delivery.
A small printed sign with the QR code at your counter, on your truck's paperwork, or in the folder you leave with a customer. QR codes that point to your website covers print size and testing, and the same rules apply here.
Your website, as a "Review us on Google" link on your contact or thank-you page.

The link Google gives you is already short. You do not need a separate link shortener, and it is safer to avoid one: if that service ever closes, every printed card and old receipt stops working. If you want something a customer can type, put a simple page on your own website, such as yourbusiness.com/review, that forwards to the Google link. You control that page forever.

What Google allows when you ask

You may ask every customer for an honest review. What breaks Google's rules is trying to steer or pay for the result.

No rewards. Google's policies count free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews as fake engagement. That includes a discount on the next visit, a gift card or a prize draw.
Ask everyone the same way. Do not send the link only to customers you expect to be happy.
No reviews from staff or family pretending to be customers, and no writing the review for someone.
No tablet at the counter for customers to post from. Many reviews from one device and one place can be filtered out.

Our guide to asking customers for Google reviews the right way goes into timing and wording, and why buying reviews backfires explains the rules from both Google and the FTC.

After the reviews arrive

Reply to them, the good ones briefly and the unhappy ones calmly and in public view. Future customers read your replies as closely as the reviews. Responding to Google reviews, good and bad has examples of what to write.

Keep your link in one known place. If you ever change the Google account that manages the profile, the link for the business usually stays the same, but test it again after any change to your profile.

What to do this week

Sign in and confirm you manage your Business Profile.
Copy the review link and save the QR code from Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
Test the link on your phone and on a friend's.
Save a short text message with the link in your phone's notes.
Add the link to your email signature and your invoice template.
Ask the next three happy customers, the same way each time.

Reviews do the most good when the website they lead to backs them up; if yours no longer does, you can see your site rebuilt first and judge it side by side.