How to get more Google reviews (and why they matter more than your website)

I build websites for a living, so it might sound odd for me to say this: your Google reviews probably matter more than your website does.

Here's why. When someone finds you, whether it's from a recommendation, a search, or your site, one of the first things they do is glance at your reviews. The star rating, how many you've got, and how recent they are. That glance happens in about two seconds, and it often decides whether they get in touch at all. You can have the best website in the world, but if you've got four reviews and the last one's from 2022, you've lost people before they've read a word.

So getting more reviews, and keeping them coming, is one of the highest-value things you can do. The good news is it's not complicated. It just takes a bit of intent.

Why reviews carry so much weight now

Three reasons.

First, they're trust you didn't have to claim. Anyone can say they're great on their own website. A stack of real reviews from real customers says it for you, which counts for far more.

First impressions aside, reviews also feed the systems that decide who gets seen. Google leans on review count, rating and recency when it decides which local businesses to show. And the AI tools people are starting to use to find businesses lean on them too. More good, recent reviews doesn't just reassure people, it helps you get put in front of them in the first place.

And recency matters more than people think. In the same survey, 74% of people said they only pay attention to reviews written in the last three months. Twenty reviews with the newest one two years ago reads as "was good once." Twenty with a few from this month reads as "busy and still good." Same business, very different impression.

Reviews aren't a nice-to-have any more. They're the bar you have to clear to even be considered.

The honest problem

Here's the thing nobody says out loud: happy customers almost never leave a review on their own. They're pleased, they move on with their day, and they forget. The people most likely to go out of their way to post something are the unhappy ones. So if you leave it to chance, your reviews skew worse than your actual work deserves.

The fix isn't clever. It's simply asking. Most people are glad to help if you make it easy and you ask at the right moment.

How to actually get more of them

• Ask everyone, not just the ones who gush. The quietly satisfied customer leaves a perfectly good review too, they just need prompting. Make asking a normal part of finishing a job, not something you only do when you're fishing for a compliment.
• Ask at the peak. The best moment is right when they're happiest, when the work's just done and they're pleased with it. A day later the moment's gone.
• Make it one tap. Don't tell people to "find us on Google." Send them a direct link to your review page (Google gives you a short one from your Business Profile). A link in a text after the job, or a little QR code on your invoice or van, removes all the friction. The harder it is, the fewer you'll get.
• Reply to every single one. Thank the good ones, and answer the odd bad one calmly and politely. It shows anyone reading that there's a real, professional person behind the business, and Google likes to see an active profile.
• Make it a habit, not a campaign. A couple of fresh reviews a month, forever, beats twenty in one week and then silence. Build the ask into your routine and it looks after itself.

One line on what not to do

Don't buy reviews, don't write them yourself, and don't offer people a discount in exchange for one. Beyond it being dishonest, it's against Google's rules and it can get your reviews wiped or your profile penalised. Fake reviews also read as fake, and people are better at spotting them than you'd think. The whole value of a review is that it's real. Keep it real.

Where the website comes in

Reviews and a website aren't either/or, they pull in the same direction. Your reviews convince someone you're worth choosing, and your website is where that conviction lands, the place that shows your work, answers their questions, and makes it easy to get in touch. Reviews get you the look. The site closes it.

If you do one thing this week, sort your review link and start asking every customer. It's free, it takes a minute, and it's the closest thing there is to a sure bet.

Blair