How-to · Google reviews · UK 2026
How to ask for Google reviews in 2026 without them being deleted
Most of the review tricks the trade has used for years became against the rules on 17 April 2026. The QR sign at the counter, the "give us five stars and I'll knock a tenner off" deal, the quiet habit of only asking the customers you knew would rave: Google now bans all three, and its enforcement removes reviews that broke the rules even years after they were left. Asking the wrong way no longer just fails to help; it can cost you the reviews you already have.
The good news is that asking still works, and the compliant way is simpler than the tricks it replaced. Get one plain process in place and you collect detailed, genuine reviews that Google now rewards more than ever, with no risk of a sweep wiping them. This is the exact method: when to ask, what to say, what never to do, and how to make sure a review you earned stays earned.
To ask for Google reviews in 2026 safely, finish the job and send the customer a direct link to your profile with a short, neutral message asking for an honest review of the work. Ask every customer, screen no one, and never script, name staff, incentivise or pressure on site. Those tactics were banned in the April 2026 policy update and can get reviews deleted. A plain link sent after the job produces the detailed, genuine reviews Google now ranks highest.
Get the timing right: ask after you leave
The safest and most effective time to ask for a review is shortly after the job is finished and you have left, by sending a link, because asking a customer to review while they are still on the premises was banned in April 2026.
Why on-site asks are now a trap
Handing someone a tablet at the kitchen table or pointing them at a QR sign on the van feels efficient, but Google now treats pressuring a customer to review while they are still in front of you as a violation. Beyond the rule, on-site reviews tend to be rushed one-liners written to be polite, and those count for almost nothing now. A message sent an hour or a day later, when they can sit and think, gets you the detailed review that actually ranks.
The window that works
Send the ask while the job is still fresh, the same day or the next, when the relief of a fixed leak or a finished bathroom is at its peak. Leave it a week and the moment, and the reply rate, fades. One message is plenty; a single polite follow-up a few days later is acceptable, but do not chase. The point is to make leaving a review easy and timely, not to badger.
Make it one tap: send a direct link
Sending a customer your Google review short link by text or email, so leaving a review takes one tap, is fully compliant and dramatically lifts the number of reviews you get compared with asking them to search for you.
Where to get your link
Inside your Google Business Profile there is a "Ask for reviews" option that generates a short link pointing straight at the review box. Google's own review guidance confirms sending customers a direct link is allowed. Save that link in your phone so you can fire it off by text the second you are back in the van. The easier you make it, the more reviews you get; most people will not hunt for your profile themselves.
Text or email, not a sign
A text gets read; an email works if that is how you already talk to the customer. Both are fine because the customer is away from you and free to write honestly. What is not fine is anything that applies pressure in person. If you currently rely on a printed QR code, replace it with a saved link you send afterwards. You lose nothing and you drop the compliance risk entirely.
Word it so it stays compliant
A compliant review request thanks the customer, asks for an honest review, and invites them to mention the work, but it never tells them what to write, never names a staff member, and never offers anything in return.
A script you can actually use
Keep it plain: "Thanks again for having us out today. If you have a couple of minutes, an honest review on Google really helps a small business like mine, it would be great if you could mention the job we did and how it went. Here's the link: [your link]." That asks for detail without scripting the words, names no one, and offers nothing. It is friendly, human, and inside every line of the 2026 policy.
The lines that break the rules
Cut anything that steers the content or the reward. No "could you mention Dave?", because naming staff is banned. No "leave a five-star and we'll sort you out next time", because incentives are banned. No "let me know if you're happy first", because gating by sentiment is banned. Our wider guide to getting more Google reviews as a tradesman has more on phrasing that pulls detail without crossing any of those lines.
Ask everyone: why gating now backfires
Review gating, screening customers by how happy they seem before sending the link, was banned in April 2026, so you must ask every customer the same way, and for a trade doing good work that produces a stronger, more believable profile anyway.
What gating was, and why it is gone
Gating meant quietly only asking the customers you were sure would give five stars, sometimes via a "are you happy?" filter that routed unhappy ones away from Google. It manufactured a fake-looking perfect rating, so Google banned it. The breakdown from Launchcodex lists gating among the practices now actively enforced against.
Why asking everyone is fine if your work is good
The fear is that asking everyone invites a bad review. In reality, if you do good work, a wide ask produces a profile full of genuine praise with the odd honest niggle, which reads as far more trustworthy than a suspicious wall of perfect five-stars. A measured reply to the rare critical review does more for trust than hiding it ever did. Ask everyone, reply like a grown-up, and let the average speak.
Protect the reviews you earn
Because Google can remove reviews retroactively and change its rules without warning, the only way to make a review you earned permanent is to mirror it onto a website you own, alongside photos of the real job.
1. Save your Google review short link in your phone now, before you forget where it is.
2. On the day each job finishes, send the plain script above by text to every customer, no exceptions, no QR sign, no incentive.
3. Screenshot each new review and keep it, so you have your own copy if a future sweep ever removes it.
Don't let one platform hold your reputation
You can do everything right and still lose reviews to a policy you did not see coming, as the April 2026 sweeps proved. The fix is to keep your strongest reviews and the photos that back them on a site you control. That way Google reviews become one source of trust, not your only one. What that page needs is covered in what a tradesman website should include, and the running cost is on the tradesman website cost page.
The bottom line, and a free mockup
Asking for reviews in 2026 is simple once you drop the banned tricks: ask everyone, after the job, by a plain link, and keep your own copy. Do that and you build a genuine profile that Google rewards and a sweep cannot gut. I'll build you a free mockup of your actual business before you pay anything, with a reviews section that shows your real ones off. Like it? A one-pager is £50/month, a full site £100/month, with hosting, SSL and unlimited edits included on every plan and zero setup fee. Usually live in about a week. Apply at sitework.uk/#apply.