What Google allows on a review card

Ask without steering the answer

Google allows businesses to ask customers for reviews based on genuine experiences. It prohibits incentives, attempts to influence the rating or content, discouraging negative reviews and selectively asking for positive ones. It also says customers should not be pressured to write a review while still on the premises. [1]

That rules out a discount for a review, a gift for a high rating or a request to change a negative review in exchange for something. Asking only customers you expect to be pleased creates a different problem: you are filtering whose experience gets invited into public view.

Use the same neutral invitation regardless of whether the customer seemed delighted, uncertain or dissatisfied. Do not build a route that sends happy customers to Google and everyone else to a private form. A support channel can exist without making it a substitute for someone’s opportunity to leave a review.

Write a neutral invitation

Here is example wording for a card, not a customer quotation:

Tell us about your experience.
Scan to leave a review.

The sentence describes the action and leaves the opinion with the customer. It does not promise a reward, prescribe a score or hand them a script. Keep that same approach in the conversation when you offer the card. A neutral printed message does little good if a staff member adds a request for praise.

Read the finished card aloud before approving it. Ask whether any part sounds like a condition, a trade or a required favor. If so, simplify the invitation. This is an editorial check on the request, not a prediction of how many people will respond.

Check the destination

Google provides a review link and QR code through a business’s own Business Profile. Its instructions describe opening the review area on a computer, choosing the option to get more reviews, and copying the link or saving the QR image. Google explicitly includes printed display of that code among its suggested ways to share it. [2]

Start from the profile you manage and verify that it is the intended business before preparing the artwork. Then test the printed proof with a phone. Follow the full route yourself instead of checking only that the camera recognizes a code. Confirm the business and the review destination are correct.

A successful scan and a submitted review are different things. The customer still chooses whether to write. Keep any instructions brief and leave the choice with them.

Know the FTC distinction

The FTC’s final rule announced in 2024 addresses fake or false reviews and testimonials, incentives conditioned on a positive or negative opinion, and specified forms of review suppression. The sentiment condition can be explicit or implied. These are federal requirements, separate from Google’s platform policy. [3]

Do not confuse that rule with a blanket statement that every incentivized review is banned under that particular federal provision. Google’s rule is stricter for reviews on its service: do not offer an incentive for any review. The practical choice for a Google review card is an honest request with no reward attached.

Your assistant can help develop the layout and check that the invitation stays neutral. Offscreen supplies design guidance and artwork checks; it does not provide a guarantee of policy compliance or review results. Check the linked official rules before printing, especially if you change the request or the route behind the code.