How to Get More Google Reviews (the Ethical, ACCC-Compliant Way)

Ask almost any small business owner where their best new customers come from and you'll hear a version of the same answer: word of mouth. Google reviews are word of mouth for the internet age. They're the first thing a potential customer sees when they search for you, and they quietly decide whether that person calls you or scrolls on to a competitor. So it makes sense to want more of them. The tricky part is doing it well, because the line between honestly earning reviews and dishonestly manufacturing them is one the regulator watches closely.

The good news is that learning how to get more Google reviews the right way is genuinely simple. You don't need clever tricks, paid schemes or anything that keeps you up at night. You need a habit of asking real customers at the right moment, a way to make it effortless, and the integrity to keep every review honest. This guide walks through exactly how, including where the legal lines sit in Australia so you never cross them.

Why Google Reviews Matter More Than Ever

When someone needs a plumber, a physio, an accountant or a cafe, they reach for their phone and search. What comes back is a short list of local businesses, each with a star rating and a stack of reviews. Before that person reads a single word on your website, they've already formed an impression from those stars. Reviews have become the modern shopfront, and a business with a healthy, recent stream of genuine reviews looks trustworthy in a way that no amount of your own advertising can match, because the words come from real customers rather than from you.

Reviews do two jobs at once. They build trust with the human reading them, and they feed Google's local search, which tends to favour businesses with a steady flow of fresh, genuine reviews. That's why they pair so well with a well-kept profile. If you haven't already, it's worth getting the foundations right first, which we covered in our guide to Google Business Profile optimisation for Melbourne businesses. Reviews are the fuel; your profile is the engine they run through.

But with that influence comes temptation, and it's exactly why the regulator has stepped in. When reviews carry this much weight, some businesses try to game them, and that's where things go badly wrong.

More than a third. That's how common it is for businesses to cross the line, often without realising how serious it is. So before we get to the how, let's be crystal clear on the rules, because getting more reviews is only worth doing if you do it honestly.

The Rules: What the ACCC Says You Can and Can't Do

In Australia, online reviews fall under the Australian Consumer Law, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) takes fake and misleading reviews seriously. The principle is straightforward: a review must be a genuine, honest opinion from a real customer, and you must not do anything to mislead the people reading them. Within that principle, asking for reviews is not only allowed, it's encouraged. What's banned is manufacturing, filtering or faking them.

According to business.gov.au and the ACCC, a review is likely to be fake or misleading if it's written by someone who hasn't actually used your product or service, written by staff, family or a paid party without disclosing that connection, edited or its rating changed after the customer posted it, or if genuine negative reviews are removed or hidden so only the positive ones show. Any of these can breach the law. The consequences are real: back in 2017 the ACCC took action against Meriton, which was penalised 3 million dollars for manipulating guest feedback so that poor reviews were less likely to reach TripAdvisor.

Hold on to one simple test and you'll stay safe: is this a real, honest opinion from a real customer, shown without me filtering it? If yes, you're fine. If you're doing anything to manufacture, skew or hide reviews, stop. With the rules clear, here's the enjoyable part, which is how to earn plenty of genuine reviews.

Just Ask: The Simplest Way to Get More Reviews

Here's the secret that makes everything else easier: most happy customers are perfectly willing to leave you a review, they just never think to do it on their own. Life is busy, they move on, and the moment passes. The single biggest reason businesses don't have more reviews isn't that customers are unwilling. It's that nobody asked. So ask. Warmly, personally and without apology, because a good review helps other people find a business worth trusting.

Timing is everything. Ask at the natural high point, the moment the customer is happiest: right after you've finished a job well, when they've just said thank you, when they mention how pleased they are. That's when a gentle "it would mean a lot if you'd share that in a quick Google review" lands perfectly. A face-to-face or personal ask from the owner or the person who did the work always beats an automated, impersonal one. People say yes to people they like.

Keep the ask genuine and low pressure. You're not begging or pestering; you're inviting a satisfied customer to help others find you. And crucially, ask everyone, not just the ones you're sure are delighted. Asking only your happiest customers to skew your rating is exactly the cherry-picking the ACCC warns against. Ask across the board, trust your work to earn the ratings it deserves, and let the honest picture stand. This is the same posture of confident integrity we wrote about in turning enquiries into clients without feeling salesy.

Make It Easy: Your Google Review Link

Willingness fades fast when the task is fiddly. If a customer has to search for your business, scroll, find the reviews tab and work out where to click, most will give up before they start. Your job is to remove every ounce of friction so leaving a review takes seconds. The tool for this is your direct Google review link, a short web address that opens straight to the review box for your business, star rating ready to go.

You can get this link from your Google Business Profile: in the profile manager there's an option to ask for reviews that gives you a short shareable link. Copy it, and consider turning it into a QR code as well. Now you have two effortless formats: a link you can text or email, and a code someone can scan on the spot. Put the link where customers actually are at the moment you ask them, so saying yes and doing it happen in the same breath.

The principle behind all of these is the same: meet people where they already are and make the next step tiny. When asking is personal and doing it is effortless, the reviews start to flow.

Build Reviews Into Your Everyday Systems

Getting a burst of reviews once is easy. Getting a steady stream, month after month, is what actually builds your reputation, and that only happens when asking stops depending on your memory. If getting reviews relies on you remembering in the moment, it will happen sometimes and be forgotten most of the time. The fix is to make the ask a fixed step in your process, so it happens every single time without anyone having to think about it.

Look at your customer journey and pin the ask to a specific, repeatable trigger. When a job is marked complete, the thank-you text with the review link goes out. When you send the final invoice, the link is on it. When you close off a project, asking for a review is the last item on your checklist. Once it's built into the workflow like this, reviews accumulate quietly in the background as a natural by-product of doing good work, rather than a task you have to nerve yourself up for. This is simply good systems thinking applied to your reputation.

Finish the loop by responding to every review, good or bad. A quick, warm thank you to a positive reviewer shows you're present and grateful. A calm, professional reply to a negative one shows future customers you're accountable and care about putting things right. Responding also signals to Google that your profile is active. It only takes a few minutes a week, and it turns your reviews from a static wall of stars into a living conversation that keeps earning trust.

What Never to Do

It's worth being blunt about the shortcuts, because they're tempting and they can cost you dearly. Never buy reviews or pay a service to generate them. Never write reviews for your own business or ask staff, friends or family to pose as customers. Never set up an incentive that rewards only positive reviews. And never, ever delete, hide or suppress genuine negative reviews to protect your average. Each of these can breach the Australian Consumer Law, and the reputational damage of being caught faking reviews is far worse than a couple of honest three-star ratings ever could be.

There's a deeper reason to avoid all this beyond the legal risk, too. Fake reviews are fragile. Customers are increasingly good at spotting a suspicious run of glowing, generic five-star reviews, and a perfect score with no critical feedback reads as too good to be true. A believable profile has texture: mostly positive, a few mixed, and thoughtful owner responses throughout. That authenticity is what actually persuades people, which is why honesty isn't just the lawful path, it's the more effective one. It's the same conviction that runs through all ethical marketing for Christian business owners: the truth is a better long-term strategy than any trick.

A Good Name Is Worth More Than Gold

For a Christian business owner, the whole question of reviews comes back to something older and deeper than marketing: your name, your reputation, and your integrity. A review is really just a public record of whether you did what you said you would. The most powerful review strategy in the world is simply to be the kind of business that earns good reviews honestly, by serving people so well that they genuinely want to tell others.

"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favour rather than silver and gold."

Proverbs 22:1 (NKJV)

A good name is worth more than money, and it's built the same slow, honest way a good review is earned: one kept promise at a time. No shortcut can manufacture it, and any attempt to fake it eventually shows. So chase the good name, not just the good ratings, and the ratings will follow as a natural fruit of the reputation you've actually earned.

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much."

Luke 16:10 (NKJV)

How you handle the small thing, a single honest review, reflects how you handle everything. An owner who won't fudge a star rating is usually the same owner customers can trust with the big things too, and people sense that. So ask boldly, keep it honest, serve people well, and let your reviews tell the true story of a business worth trusting. That's a reputation no competitor can copy and no regulator can question.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article is general information, not legal advice. For your obligations around online reviews, see the ACCC and business.gov.au.