The short version. In your Business Profile, choose Read reviews, then Get more reviews, then Copy. That link opens Google's real review form for your business on any phone. If you can't get into the profile, the same link can be built from your Place ID. Then put it where your customers are after they've left: the receipt, a take-home card, the follow-up email — not a tablet at the counter.
Way one: the button in your Business Profile
Google added a proper, documented way to do this. From its Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews page:
- Go to your Business Profile (search your business name on Google while signed in to the account that manages it).
- Select Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
- To copy the link, select Copy. To save the QR code, right-click it and choose Save image as…
Two details from the same page: the QR code is only generated in a computer browser, not on a phone, and Google also offers to send the request by email, WhatsApp or a Facebook post from the same screen.
That link is the one to use wherever you can get it. It's Google's, it opens the review dialog directly, and it doesn't expire.
Way two: build it from your Place ID
If you don't have profile access today — a former manager owns it, or the verification is stuck — the review form still has a public address. Every business on Google Maps has a Place ID, and this URL opens the review form for it:
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOUR_PLACE_ID
To find yours, use Google's own Place ID Finder: type the business name, pick it from the dropdown, and copy the string that starts with ChIJ. Paste it into the URL above and test it on a phone. If the form that opens shows your business name and stars, you're done.
This is the same destination as the button — Google's form, no pre-filled text, no star pre-selected. That matters, and it's covered under what's allowed below.
Where to put the link
The link only works if someone taps it, and most of the people you want to tap it have already paid and gone. So the question isn't "where does the link go" — it's "what leaves with the customer?"
- The receipt. Most POS and booking systems can print a line under the total, and a link or a short QR fits on it. It goes home in the bag. We keep step-by-step guides for Square, Toast, Clover, Vagaro, Mindbody, Boulevard, Zenoti and the rest — including the systems that can't do it, and what to do instead.
- A take-home card. A business-card-sized QR code at the counter or in the bag. Take-home is the operative word: Google's content policy says businesses "should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises," which is why the review kiosk and the shared tablet are out and the card in the bag is in.
- The follow-up email or text. For anyone whose address you hold — a booking, an online order, a newsletter — one line, a day or two after the visit, with the link. Google's own screen will send it by email or WhatsApp for you.
- Your website and email signature. Small, permanent, free. (If you want the link to capture an email and count scans as well, that's a page behind it — see how Oh Local can help.)
- Google's own suggestion: "To leave reviews, you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code." That's the whole method, in Google's words.
Where not to put it: a slide on the TV behind the counter that nobody will photograph, and a "leave us a review" sign with no link, which asks the customer to go find you.
What's allowed — and what costs you the listing
The rules are short and they are enforced. From Google's content policy and the FTC's 2024 rule on consumer reviews:
- Ask everyone. You can ask every customer for a review. What you can't do is ask only the happy ones — steering satisfied customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private form is "review gating," and the FTC rule treats suppressing negative reviews as a deceptive practice. If you offer a private feedback option, offer it beside the public link, for everyone, not instead of it for some.
- No incentives. Google's words: "Offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, to customers in exchange for reviews is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited." No discount for a review, no raffle entry for a review, no "show us your review for a free coffee."
- Nothing pre-written. Don't hand the customer text to paste, and don't use a tool that pre-selects five stars. The form must open empty — the Google link does.
- Not on the premises. A link they use later is fine; a tablet you hand them while they wait for their card back is the thing the policy names.
- Yelp is different. Yelp forbids asking for reviews at all — any prompt, any encouragement. Keep the Google link and the Yelp logo apart.
Break these and the penalty isn't a warning: Google can remove reviews or restrict the profile, and the FTC rule carries civil penalties per violation. The good news is that none of the rules forbid the simple thing — a real link, handed to everyone, used later.
Printing a QR code that scans
If you turn the link into a QR code — Google's, or one from any generator — two things decide whether it works at a counter, and neither shows up on your screen:
- Contrast. A dark code on a light background. Brand-coloured codes on tinted card look great in the mock-up — in our own scan tests, a code at a contrast that passes for text decoded only about half the time. Print black on white unless you've tested the alternative with a phone in real light.
- Size. On a receipt or a business card, the code needs to be big enough that the phone's camera resolves it from a normal distance — roughly an inch square on a card is the floor; smaller than that on thermal receipt paper is a coin toss.
Print one, scan it with three different phones from arm's length, and only then order five hundred.
What the link can't do
A review link is a door. It doesn't tell you who walked through it, it doesn't capture an email so you can invite them back, it doesn't offer the unhappy customer a private word first, and it doesn't reply to the review that results. For most owners that's fine for a first year. When it stops being fine, the answer is a page behind the QR that does those things.
How Oh Local helps with this
The link in this post is Google's, and it's the right one. What it can't do is the reason Oh Local exists: a page behind your QR and short link that offers every review option, captures the customer's email so you can invite them back, gives an unhappy customer a private word before the public one, and counts scans by placement so you know the card in the bag beats the sign on the wall. From $10 a month, printed card included. The free audit is the quickest way to see whether your reviews are arriving fast enough for it to matter yet.
How it works
- Run the free audit. We read your public Google reviews and replies and send you the numbers: reply rate, the reviews still waiting for an answer, and the oldest of them — with the table on this page to put them beside.
- Claim your page. Pick your listing, and your QR card and short link are ready to print — from your own phone, no onboarding call.
- Get the weekly email. Every new review with its reply drafted, private feedback that came in, and the short list of what to fix on your listing and site.
- Approve, and that’s it. You press approve on the replies you like. The rest — the card, the page, the measuring — runs on its own.
What you get
Your review page
A printed QR card and a short link that open every review option — Google, Tripadvisor, Facebook — capture the customer’s email, and give an unhappy customer a private word first. About four minutes to a printable QR.
Reviews handled
Every new review on your platforms, with the reply drafted in your voice, in one weekly email. Negative ones first. You approve, edit or skip; nothing posts without you.
Local standing
Where you rank around your shop, what competitors are doing, what changed on your listing — with the exact fix for each. Recommendations can lead to better rankings and more visibility; no tool can promise a position, including ours.
| Industry | Audited | Reviews a month (median) | Top quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas restaurants | 358 | 9.3 | 17.4+ |
| Dallas dental practices | 85 | 6 | 8.7+ |
| Dallas retail shops | 83 | 0.9 | 3.2+ |
| Dallas tattoo studios | 82 | 2.2 | 8+ |
| Dallas barbershops | 81 | 2.1 | 4.4+ |
| Dallas plastic surgeons | 75 | 1 | 2.7+ |
| Dallas med spas | 74 | 2.9 | 6.7+ |
FAQ
Does the Google review link work on a phone?
Yes. The link from your Business Profile — and the Place ID link — opens Google's review form on any phone or computer. The customer needs to be signed in to a Google account to write a review; Google prompts them to sign in if they aren't.
Do customers need a Google account to leave a review?
Yes. Google reviews are posted from a Google account, and the form asks the customer to sign in if they aren't already. Most people are signed in on their phone, which is one reason a link they use later works better than a tablet at the counter.
Can I turn the review link into a QR code?
Yes. Your Business Profile generates one under Read reviews → Get more reviews (on a computer browser), and any QR generator will encode the same link. Print it dark on light and at least an inch square, and test it with a few phones before you print a batch.
Can I put the review link on my receipt?
Yes. Google's guidance is to ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code, and a receipt line is one of the most reliable places to put it because it leaves with the customer. Most POS and booking systems can print a custom line; see the per-system guides for the exact clicks.
Can I give a discount for a Google review?
No. Google's content policy says offering free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews is fake engagement and prohibited, and the FTC's 2024 rule on consumer reviews carries civil penalties. Ask every customer, plainly, and offer nothing for it.
Is it OK to ask only my happy customers for a review?
No. Steering happy customers to Google and unhappy ones elsewhere is review gating, which the FTC rule treats as suppressing negative reviews. Ask everyone; if you offer a private feedback channel, offer it alongside the public link for every customer.
