More Google reviews without breaking the FTC's review rule

Say you run a pool service in Pleasanton. You’ve got 31 Google reviews, the newest from last spring, and the company that just started servicing the next neighborhood over has 140. A software rep calls with a fix: their tool texts every customer, sends the happy ones to Google and the unhappy ones to a private feedback form, and throws in a gift card for anyone who leaves five stars.

Two of those three ideas can now get you in trouble with Google, and one of them with the Federal Trade Commission as well. The good news is that the clean way to get more reviews is also the simplest, and it takes about a minute per job.

This post covers what the rules ban, how to ask, and what to do when a one-star review lands anyway. It explains the rules; it isn’t legal advice for your business.

Why reviews still decide close calls

When a homeowner has two or three names, reviews are often how they pick. In Roofing Contractor and Owens Corning’s 2026 homeowner survey, about 62% of homeowners called online reviews very or extremely important when choosing a roofer, and just under 30% more called them important. That’s one trade, but the logic carries: when the price and the distance are similar, the reviews are what’s left to compare.

What the FTC’s review rule bans

The FTC’s Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials was published in August 2024 and took effect October 21, 2024. It covers six practices. In plain words:

1. Fake reviews. Writing, buying or selling reviews from people who don’t exist or didn’t have the experience described, or using them when you knew or should have known they were fake.
2. Paying for a particular opinion. Offering anything, cash, discounts, gift cards, in exchange for a review that says something positive (or negative, about a competitor). The rule is about tying the reward to the sentiment.
3. Undisclosed insider reviews. An owner or manager reviewing their own business without saying so. Also, a manager asking employees or relatives for reviews and those reviews going up without the relationship disclosed. A general request to all your customers is fine.
4. Fake “independent” review sites. Running a review site or “top 10” page that looks independent but is really yours.
5. Review suppression. Using legal threats with no basis, physical threats, intimidation or public false accusations to stop a review or get it taken down. Also, showing only your good reviews on your own site while implying that’s all of them.
6. Fake social proof. Buying fake followers, views or likes.

On your own website, you’re allowed to leave out reviews for reasons that apply to every review regardless of rating, such as abusive language, personal information or content that’s clearly fake. You’re not allowed to leave out the bad ones because they’re bad.

The penalty. The FTC can seek civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation, its maximum for rule violations. The FTC skipped its 2026 inflation update and said it will keep applying the 2025 levels, so that figure stands as of October 2026.

Is anyone enforcing it? In December 2025 the FTC sent warning letters to ten companies, according to Kelley Drye, flagging fake reviews, sentiment-based incentives, undisclosed insider reviews and hidden negative reviews. That’s warnings, not fines, but it shows where the FTC is looking.

What Google’s policy adds

Google’s rules for reviews on Maps are stricter than the FTC’s in two places that matter for small businesses. Its contributed content policy says:

• No incentives at all. Not only for five stars. Google treats reviews “paid for, directly or in kind” as fake engagement. Its review link help page puts it plainly: offering free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews “is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited.”
• No gating. Under rating manipulation, the policy bans businesses that “discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.”
• No quotas. Asking staff to collect a set number of reviews, or reviews that mention specific things, is also listed as manipulation.

So back to the software rep. The gift card for five stars breaks both the FTC rule and Google’s policy. Sending only happy customers to Google breaks Google’s policy. Texting every customer a review link is fine.

Google can remove reviews and restrict profiles that break these rules. For a local business, a profile restriction is worse than a fine, because it’s where the calls come from.

How to ask, the clean way

The rule of thumb: ask everyone, ask the same way, ask soon, offer nothing.

Get your link. In your Business Profile on a computer, go to Read reviews, then Get more reviews. Google gives you a link and a QR code. Save both.

Ask the same day. The best moment is when the job is done and the customer is happy you showed up. A text is easier for them than a card in the mailbox, because the link is one tap.

Copy and adjust these.

Text:

Hi [first name], it’s [your name] from [business]. Thanks for having us out today. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other people in [town] find us: [link]. Thanks either way.

Email:

Subject: Thanks from [business]

Hi [first name],

Thanks for choosing us for [job]. If you have two minutes, we’d be grateful for an honest review on Google. It helps other people in [town] find us.

[link]

If anything about the job wasn’t right, reply to this email and I’ll make it right.

[your name] [business] · [phone]

The last line of the email is not gating. Every customer gets the same Google link. You’re also offering a direct line, and some people with a problem will use it. That’s good service, not suppression.

What to leave out: “five-star”, any reward, and any wording that suggests the review should be positive.

Staff and family. Your crew can hand out the link to customers. They shouldn’t review the business themselves, and neither should your relatives, unless they say who they are. Google’s policy also treats reviews from current or former employees as a conflict of interest.

How to answer a one-star review

You’ll get one. Reply within a day or two, publicly, and keep it short. Everyone who reads it later will see how you handled it.

1. Thank them and use their name. It reads as a person, not a template.
2. Acknowledge the problem without arguing the details in public.
3. Give a way to fix it offline, a name and a phone number.
4. Don’t share job details or anything private. And no threats, ever. Threatening a reviewer is exactly what the FTC rule’s suppression section covers.

Example:

Hi Dana, thanks for telling us. You’re right that we were late, and we should have called ahead. I’d like to make this right. Please call me directly at [number]. [Your name], owner.

If a review breaks Google’s policy, for example it’s from someone who was never a customer, report it through your profile. Don’t try to argue it down in the replies.

What to do about it: a weekly review routine

1. Monday, five minutes: reply to every new review from the past week, good and bad.
2. Every finished job: send the review text the same day. Same message to every customer.
3. Check your tools: if any review software you use filters customers by rating before showing the Google link, turn that setting off.
4. Check your offers: remove any discount, raffle or gift card tied to reviews, on your site, receipts or texts.
5. Once a month: count new reviews, and read the bad ones for patterns. A repeat complaint is a process problem, not a review problem.

If you’d rather someone else kept your profile and reviews in shape, that’s what our reputation management and local marketing work does. And if you’re wondering why reviews matter more now than a few years ago, our post on zero-click local search explains where the decision moved.

Sources

1. Federal Trade Commission, via Cornell Legal Information Institute · Aug 22, 2024Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (16 CFR Part 465)
2. Federal Trade Commission · Feb 11, 2025FTC Publishes Inflation-Adjusted Civil Penalty Amounts for 2025
3. Federal Trade Commission, Federal Register · Sep 15, 2026Civil Penalty Inflation Adjustments (FR Doc. 2026-18853)
4. Kelley Drye & Warren (Ad Law Access) · Dec 28, 2025FTC Warns Companies of Potential Violations of the Consumer Review Rule
5. Google Maps user contributed content policy · Oct 27, 2026Prohibited & restricted content
6. Google Business Profile Help · Oct 27, 2026Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews
7. Roofing Contractor, with Owens Corning · May 1, 20262026 homeowner survey