How-to

How to send a Google review link

Get your unique review link from your Google Business Profile, or generate one from your place ID, then text it to the customer. Text it, don't just email it: texts get opened within minutes, email mostly sits there. The link and the channel matter more than anything clever you say alongside them.

1. Fastest path: use the free generator

If you don't already have your link saved somewhere, the free Google review link + QR code generator builds it in about 30 seconds. Paste your business name, pick your listing, and it hands you the direct link plus a printable QR kit for the counter or the truck. No signup, no account, nothing to log into. Save the link somewhere permanent once you have it, a pinned note, a text to yourself, the memo field on your phone, so you're not regenerating it every time.

2. Manual path: through your Google Business Profile

Open the Google Business Profile app or the dashboard at business.google.com and go to Home. Look for the "Get more reviews" or "Ask for reviews" card, sometimes it's a share icon next to your business name instead. Tapping it gives you a short link that goes straight to your review form. Copy it and it's good to reuse for every customer going forward, it doesn't expire or change.

If your business has more than one location, each location has its own separate link tied to its own listing. Grab the one for the location that did the work, not your main or flagship address, otherwise the review lands on the wrong profile and you'll be troubleshooting a review that technically exists but isn't where anyone's looking for it. If someone else manages your profile, an office manager, a marketing person, ask them for the link directly rather than requesting separate access just to grab one URL.

3. Manual path: build it from your place ID

If the app isn't cooperating, you can build the link yourself. Every business on Google Maps has a place ID, a string of letters and numbers that uniquely identifies that listing. Look yours up with Google's Place ID Finder tool, then drop it into this pattern:

https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOUR_PLACE_ID

Swap in your actual place ID and the link opens your review form directly. Test it yourself in a browser before sending it to anyone: paste the finished link, confirm it lands on your business and not a similarly named one across town, and only then start using it. This is the same method the generator above runs for you automatically, so unless you enjoy doing it by hand, option 1 gets you there faster.

4. How to actually send it

Timing: send it right after the job or visit, while the experience is still fresh. A same-day text outperforms a request sent a week later, once the details have faded and the "I'll get to it" pile has grown.

Channel: text first. Most people read a text within minutes; most people let a business email sit in an inbox for days, if they open it at all. Email works fine as a backup for customers you don't have a phone number for.

Frequency: one ask, one reminder a few days later if they haven't clicked, then stop. A third or fourth nudge stops reading as friendly and starts reading as nagging, and it's not going to change someone's mind if the first two didn't.

What to say: keep it short, personal, and low-pressure. Two you can copy directly:

For the full sequence, including a check-in message and a reminder for people who meant to and forgot, the review request templates page has the whole set, free to copy.

5. The QR code option

For places where a customer is standing still, the front counter, the invoice, a job-site sign, a QR code beats a text you'd have to send later and might forget to. Scan it once yourself before printing anything, to confirm it lands on the actual five-star form. Put it somewhere a customer already has a reason to pause: the receipt they're waiting on, the truck door while a driver finishes paperwork, a small table tent by the register. A QR code nobody notices doesn't get scanned, so treat placement as half the job. The same generator above builds the QR code alongside the link.

What not to do

Never sort customers before sending the link, sending it only to the ones you're confident were happy and quietly skipping the rest. That's called review gating, and it's against Google's policies. It's also drawn attention from the FTC, which has fined companies for steering customers away from leaving public reviews based on how they answered a private survey first. Send the same link to everyone. The customers who had a bad experience are also the ones most likely to tell you directly if you give them the chance, which is worth more than a filtered star average anyway.

Also skip the discount or gift card for leaving a review. Beyond the policy risk, it stops being a genuine opinion once it's paid for, and Google's own filters watch for language that suggests an incentive was involved. WellEarnedReviews never gates: every customer in the sequence gets the identical link, no pre-screening step, no exceptions, no gift card attached.

Once you're sending links, it's worth knowing what happens after a customer clicks one, since Google's own review a few days later doesn't always show up right away. If that happens, here's why a Google review might not be showing up and what's actually worth checking.