How to get a Google review link for your business

Why customers who promise a review never leave one

A customer thanks you, says they will write a review, and you send them the address of your Google Maps page. Nothing arrives. They opened the link, saw a map with your opening hours, and had to find the review button on their own. On a phone, that button sits below the fold, behind a prompt to open the Maps app.

The fix is a link that starts the review itself. Google has one for every business, and you can make it with or without access to the Business Profile. If you already have a link and it fails for customers, read Google review link not working instead. This article is about picking the right link and getting it in front of people.

Which link opens the review box

We opened each format for Google's Sydney office (Place ID ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4) in a browser that was not signed in to Google. Google Sydney has no published g.page link, so we built one in the same format from its Maps business number and checked it against a real g.page review link that a US business prints in its own how-to. Both behaved the same.

Two things stood out. The g.page link checks the device: a computer goes to Google Maps with the review box already open, a phone is sent to the same writereview address our generator builds. And a Maps link is not a review link at all. It shows your profile and leaves the customer to look for the button.

Signed out, every review link ends at Google's sign-in, because Google's help page says “Customers must be signed into a Google Account to leave a review.” Signed in, that step disappears. In our earlier test the writereview link opened the review box straight away for a signed-in desktop user. We did not test the other formats signed in.

Getting the link

If you can sign in to the Business Profile, take Google's own link. On a computer, open your profile, choose Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and copy the link. The same panel gives you a QR code, but Google's help page says it can only be made in a computer browser, not on a phone.

If you cannot sign in, for example you set this up for a client or the owner's login is on someone else's phone, use the Place ID. Paste it, or the long Google Maps address from a computer, into our free Google review link generator. It needs no account, builds the writereview link with a QR code, and does not store what you paste. The tool page explains how to find the Place ID.

Either way, open the link once in a browser where you are signed in to Google. If the review box opens over your business, it is ready to send.

Sending it by email

Send the email soon after the job, while the visit is still fresh. Keep it to a few lines with the link on its own line, or on a button. Ask one thing: the review. A second link to your newsletter or a survey splits the click.

Send it to every customer, not only the ones you expect to be happy. Google's Maps content policy names this directly: businesses must not “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers”. It also counts a discount, a gift or anything else offered in return for a review as fake engagement. A thank-you with no strings attached is fine.

Google's help page also suggests sending the request by WhatsApp or in a Facebook post. The same short text works there.

Subject: Thanks for choosing Bright Smile Dental

Hi Anna,

Thank you for coming in on Tuesday. Would you leave us a short review on Google? It helps other people in the area find us.

https://g.page/r/YOUR-CODE/review

Good or bad, we read every one.

Maria, Bright Smile Dental

Sending it by text message

A text suits businesses that see the customer in person, like a salon or a garage. Text only people who gave you their number for messages, and keep it to one line plus the link.

Here the length of the link matters. Google's g.page link is 39 characters; the writereview link with a Place ID is 79. Both open the review step, so in a text use the shorter one if you have the Business Profile login. Avoid link shorteners from other services: customers are rightly careful about short links they do not recognise, and a g.page address at least says Google.

Printing it as a QR code

A QR code is for the moment the customer is in front of you: at the counter, on the receipt, on a card in the delivery box. Print the link that opens the review step, not your Maps page, or the customer scans, lands on a map and gives up.

The shorter link also makes a simpler code. Through our generator's QR encoder, the 79-character writereview link becomes a 37 by 37 grid of squares and the 39-character g.page link a 29 by 29 grid. Printed at the same size, each square of the shorter one is about a quarter larger, which helps when the code is small or scanned from a distance. Scan your printed code with two phones before you order a hundred cards.

Adding it to your website

Your site sees customers when they are already pleased: the thank-you page after a booking, the order confirmation, the footer of your contact page. A plain link or button there is enough, opening Google in a new tab.

Use the same link as everywhere else. Google's Place ID docs say IDs can change over time, so open the link again now and then, and after any change to your profile.

<!-- Put your own link in href: the one from "Get more reviews", or writereview?placeid= + your Place ID -->
<a href="https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOUR_PLACE_ID"
   target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  Review us on Google
</a>

Reviews on your own site as well

Google reviews live on Google. If you also want reviews on your own pages, Formgong collects them for you. Press Ask for a review on a submission in your Formgong inbox and that customer gets one email with a link to your review page, and no reminders. Or switch on automatic review requests in the form's settings: each person who filled in your contact form gets one email in your business's name 3, 7 or 14 days later, and nobody is asked twice in 90 days. Shops can send review emails after each order.

These emails link to your Formgong review page, not to Google. Approved reviews show on your site through the review widget and on a public review page at formgong.com/reviews/. If you have several branches, each one gets its own review link. When Google is where you want the review, paste your Google link into your own message, as above.

Did a customer get stuck?

Did one of these formats behave differently for your customers, signed in or on their phone? Write to support@formgong.com and tell us what they saw. We will check it and add it here.

What Formgong Reviews includes for free

• Unlimited review sites and reviews. Text, photo, video and voice reviews on Free.
• A widget with no view limit. The review widget, carousel, badge and stars in product lists load as often as your pages do.
• Review emails in your store's name. Sent after each order with your logo and colours, replies to you, no email service to set up; buyers can rate inside Gmail without leaving the email, and get one reminder (how it works).
• Bring your old reviews. Import from Judge.me, Yotpo, Loox, Shopify Product Reviews, WooCommerce, Etsy or a CSV.
• You decide what shows. Approve each review or choose a publishing mode, reply in public or in private, and let shoppers ask the author a question.
• Google. A Merchant Center review feed, and product rating markup through the WordPress plugin.
• Reviews from your form. People who filled in your contact form can get a review request automatically.
• One account for the rest. Contact forms with Telegram and Google Sheets, an AI help chat, and free website templates.