Digital Foundations
Get Your Google Review Link
One link. Five stars. No scavenger hunt.
A review link takes a customer straight to the box where they rate you. Without it, you’re asking them to search, scroll, find your listing and hunt for a button — and most of them won’t. Here’s how to get yours, whether you run a Google Business Profile, have a listing you never claimed, or aren’t on Google yet.
What a review link actually is.
It’s a web address that opens Google’s review form for your business. The customer taps it, the stars are already there, and they write a few lines. No searching, no picking the right listing out of five results.
Without a link
“Just look us up on Google and leave a review.” Your customer searches, scrolls past the ads, finds a listing with the wrong photo, can’t see a review button, and goes back to work.
With a link
A text with one address in it. They tap, the rating screen opens, they rate you and put the phone back in their pocket. Thirty seconds.
- Job finishedSomething real happened in the business
- You thank themIn person, by email, by text
- They tap one linkNothing to search for
- Google opens the review formStars at the ready
- The review sits on your profileVisible to the next local looking for you
Most reviews aren’t refused. They’re abandoned.
People usually aren’t saying no to leaving a review. They’re saying no to the fuss of working out where to do it.
Which situation are you in?
There are three, and the way you get your link differs slightly in each. Find yourself in the table and jump to that section.
| Your situation | Go to |
|---|---|
| You manage a Google Business Profile | Section 04 — copy your link |
| A Google listing exists but you’ve never claimed or verified it | Section 06 — get a link anyway |
| Your business doesn’t appear on Google at all | Section 07 — get listed first |
| You’re not sure which applies | Section 03 — check what Google shows |
None of this needs a website or a paid tool
You don’t need reputation management software, a marketing agency or a link shortener to collect honest Google reviews. You need the link and a habit of sending it.
See what Google already shows.
Before you create anything, find out what’s already there. Plenty of businesses have had a Google listing for years without knowing it.
- 01
Search your business name and suburb on your phone
Note whether a listing appears, and whether it already has reviews
- 02
Open Google Maps and search “[your service] [your suburb]”
This is what a stranger sees when they need someone like you
- 03
Look for a manage or ownership option while signed in
If Google offers to manage or claim the listing, you don’t control it yet
- 04
Write down what you found
Business name shown, phone number, address or service area, roughly how many reviews
- Does a listing exist?
- Are the details on it correct — name, phone, hours, area?
- Does it already have reviews, and who wrote them?
- Can you manage it, or is it sitting unclaimed?
- Is there more than one listing for your business?
Don’t create a second listing
If a listing already exists, adding another splits your reviews across two profiles and makes Google’s data messier to fix later. Work out what exists first, then claim or correct it.
Copy your review link.
This is the short one. Google gives every verified Business Profile a direct review link, and it’s sitting in your dashboard waiting to be copied.
- 01
Open business.google.com on a computer
Signed in to the Google account that manages the profile
- 02
Choose your business
If you manage more than one location, pick the right one
- 03
Open the reviews area and look for Get more reviews
On many accounts this sits under Read reviews; some show it as Ask for reviews
- 04
Select Copy to grab the review link
Paste it somewhere safe straight away
- 05
For a QR code, right-click the code and choose Save image as…
Useful for anything you print — invoices, a van sign, a job sheet
Use a computer for this
Google generates the review QR code in a computer browser, not on a mobile device. The link is easier to copy on a desktop too — and you only have to do it once.
The menus move
Google renames and relocates these options regularly, and the wording differs between accounts and devices. If you can’t see it, look around anything labelled reviews, customers or share — or search your own business name while signed in, which often surfaces the same option in the panel beside the results.
What the link looks like — and what it isn’t.
Google produces a few different addresses for a business, and they don’t all do the same thing. Grabbing the wrong one is the most common mistake, and it’s an invisible one — the link still works, it just doesn’t open the review form.
| Type | What it does | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| Short review link (usually a Google short domain, often with /review on the end) | Opens the review form with the stars showing | Text messages and anything a human has to read |
| Long write-review URL (starts with google.com/maps and carries a place identifier) | Same result — the review form — in a much longer address | Website buttons and emails where it can hide behind a link |
| Your Maps listing URL (google.com/maps/place/Your Business) | Shows your listing. The customer still has to find the review button. | Not for review requests — use it when you want people to see your profile |
Test which one you have
Open the link in a private window. If you land on the star rating screen, it’s a review link. If you land on your listing and nothing else happens, it’s just your profile address.
Get a review link anyway.
Google builds most of its business data itself, and local residents and other businesses have been adding to it for years. So your business can be on Google Maps before you’ve touched it — and customers can already leave reviews there, whether you claimed it or not.
- 01
Find your listing in Google Maps
Search your business name and suburb
- 02
Open the reviews section of the listing
- 03
Choose Write a review
Google opens the rating form for that business
- 04
Copy the address from your browser while that form is open, or use the listing’s Share button and copy the link
Do this on a computer — it’s far easier than on a phone
- 05
Test the link in a private window before you send it to anyone
If it opens your review form, you’re done
Two honest caveats. A link you didn’t generate from your own profile is more likely to change behaviour later, because you’re relying on a format Google never promised you. And a listing you don’t manage is a listing you can’t correct — wrong phone number, wrong hours, wrong category, someone else’s photos.
So treat this as a working shortcut, and claim the profile when you’ve got twenty minutes.
If you like building things yourself
Every Google Maps listing has a place identifier behind it, and Google publishes a place ID finder for developers. Some review links are constructed from that identifier. You don’t need any of this to get a working link today — but it’s there if you want to understand what’s actually happening.
Get listed first.
If a search for your business name and suburb returns nothing, there’s no review form to link to yet. Create the profile, then come back for the link.
- 01
Create a Google Business Profile using your business details
Use an email address you control, not one attached to a former employee
- 02
Complete the basics
Name, category, service area or address, phone number, hours, a short description
- 03
Verify the profile when Google asks
Verification is often a postcard, a phone call or a code — and it can take days
- 04
Come back here and copy your review link
Section 04 once the profile is verified
Verification takes time
That’s the slow part, and it’s Google’s, not yours. Start it today. And don’t buy a “reviews package” to solve what is really a “we don’t exist on Google yet” problem.
Test the link properly.
A review link that doesn’t work isn’t obviously broken. It just quietly stops producing reviews. Two minutes of checking is worth it.
- Open it in a private or incognito window
- Open it on a phone, not just your computer
- Check it’s your business, not a similarly named one
- Check the star rating screen appears — not just your listing
- Check it works in both the Maps app and a browser
- Ask someone else to try it once, since their account may behave differently to yours
- Repeat the check whenever you change anything on the profile
A broken link is a silent leak
Send a faulty link to forty customers and you won’t get forty complaints — you’ll get nothing at all. That’s why this check matters more than it looks like it does.
Where to put it once you have it.
The link is only useful where a happy customer is already standing. Put it in the places that appear at the end of a good job.
- The invoice or receipt — one line at the bottom with the link
- Your email signature
- The text message you send when a job is finished
- The thank-you or handover email
- A reviews page or button on your website
- A QR code on the van, the door, the job sheet or the unpacking note
Review request line for invoices and emails
Happy with the work? A quick Google review helps other locals find us: [Your Google review link] Takes about 30 seconds. Thanks — it really does help.
One tap is the whole ask
Don’t write instructions, don’t explain why reviews matter to you, don’t ask them to search for you as a backup. Give the line, give the link, and get out of the way.
Keep it somewhere you’ll find it.
You’ll paste this link for years — into invoices, into an automation, into a new website, into a message to a new staff member. So it needs a home that isn’t one person’s phone.
Review link record card
Business: Google review link: QR code saved: Profile managed by: Account email: Listing verified: yes / no Link tested: (date) Used by: (website / invoice / email / SMS automation)
Copy that into your password manager or a business notes document and fill it in while you’re still looking at the profile. It takes a minute and saves a hunt later.
The link is an asset, not a clipboard habit
If it only lives in one person’s messages, it leaves with that person. Write it down in somewhere the business owns.
Ask honestly. It’s the only version that lasts.
Google reviews are meant to reflect a real experience, and Google treats them that way. Keep your end clean and the asset holds its value.
- Never pay for a review, or offer a discount, freebie or prize in exchange for one
- Don’t ask only the customers you think are happy — ask everyone who had the work done
- Don’t write reviews yourself, and don’t have your team do it
- Don’t ask for five stars. Ask for an honest review
- Reply to every review, including the unfair ones, politely and briefly
- If a review is genuinely wrong, use Google’s report process — don’t try to bury it
Incentivised reviews get removed
And they can put the profile itself at risk. You’d be trading a permanent asset for a few months of inflated stars.
Now it can become a system.
Once you’ve sent the link by hand often enough that you’ve seen people actually use it, it can stop living in your memory. The trigger is a job being finished — which you already know about.
- Job completeA status changes in your customer table
- Your automation runsAirtable, Make, Zapier or something similar
- A text goes outShort, honest, with your review link in it
- The customer taps itStars already waiting
- Your profile growsWithout you remembering to ask
Manual → Proven → Automated
Send a few by hand first. See what the message looks like on a real phone and whether people respond. Then automate something you’ve already watched work.
Where to go next.
Got stuck?
Have a crack first.
If you’ve followed the guide and something isn’t working — Google won’t show the option, the link lands in the wrong place, you can’t tell whether a listing is yours — tell us where you’ve got to and we’ll point you in the right direction.
Build assets. Not dependencies.
Own the profile. Own the link. Own the reviews.
Your reviews are the one piece of your reputation that other people write and nobody can quietly edit.
That’s exactly why they shouldn’t live inside a tool you rent or a login you can’t reset.
Grab the link, keep it somewhere the business owns, and put it in front of every happy customer.