Google reviews in 2026: what changed and what to check

Plenty of salons, clinics and garages run a little internal game: whoever brings in the most Google reviews this month gets a treat, and if the review mentions them by name, even better. Until recently that sat in a grey area. Since April 2026, Google's rules say it in writing: don't.

This is for you if your business has a Google Business Profile and a good chunk of your new customers find you through its reviews. We'll go through what has actually changed this year, with Google's own sources in front of us, what's being sold as "new" but isn't, and what's worth checking in your business this week.

What changed: two new lines in the policy

Google has a Maps user-generated content policy with a section on rating manipulation. In April 2026 two new examples were added to it, spotted by local search expert Amy Toman and reported by Search Engine Roundtable on 17 April:

• A business asking its staff to collect a set number of reviews.
• A business asking its staff to collect reviews with specific content, including reviews that name a member of staff.

In practice: "ten reviews each per month" targets, leaderboards of who brings in the most stars, and the classic "if you enjoyed it, mention that Laura looked after you" are now explicitly out. Asking for reviews isn't the problem — Google openly allows it as long as they reflect a genuine experience. Quotas and scripts are, because they push staff to ask selectively and make every review sound the same, which is exactly what Google's filters look for.

One honest caveat: Google hasn't clarified how far "specific content" reaches. Does a counter sign saying "if Laura did a great job, tell people" count? Nobody knows for sure. Until Google says more, the safe line is not to script anything the customer writes.

What changed: Google now steps in before a review goes live

On 16 April Google announced new protections for businesses on Maps. Three of them affect you directly:

1. Catching review scams before they publish. The usual pattern: a flood of one-star reviews, followed by a message offering to "get them removed" for a fee. Now, when a profile sees a sudden spike of fake reviews, Google removes them, temporarily pauses new reviews, alerts the owner, and shows customers a banner explaining why reviews are paused.
2. Gemini screening suggested edits. Changes anyone proposes to your profile — hours, phone number, name — go through an automated check before they appear.
3. Email alerts for owners so you can see important edits suggested by other people before they go live.

Google's 2025 figures show why it's taking this seriously: more than 292 million policy-violating reviews blocked or removed, posting restrictions on more than 782,000 accounts, and over 13 million fake Business Profiles taken down.

What isn't new (even if it's being sold that way)

You'll see plenty of "Google's new 2026 review rules" posts that lump together things that have been in the policy for years. Old doesn't mean unimportant, but it helps to know which is which:

• Offering something in exchange for a review — a discount, a prize draw, a free coffee — was already banned.
• Only asking happy customers, or discouraging negative reviews, was too. Google calls it selectively soliciting positive reviews.
• Pressuring customers to review on the premises, tablet in hand, isn't allowed either.

What happens if you're caught is spelled out on the Business Profile restrictions page: Google can stop you receiving new reviews for a period, unpublish your existing ones, and show customers a warning that fake reviews were removed from your profile. You get an email first and you can appeal, but a few weeks with that banner is hard to undo.

If you trade in Spain, there's also the law: since late 2025, reviews must relate to a purchase or service from the previous thirty days. We covered that here.

What to check this week

You don't need an audit. Half an hour with these questions covers most of it:

1. Is any staff reward tied to reviews? Bonuses, leaderboards, star-based "employee of the month". If so, swap it for something that doesn't depend on how many reviews each person brings in — the business's average rating over the quarter, say, which rewards the whole team without anyone chasing customers.
2. What exactly does your team say when they ask? If there's a script, strip out anything that suggests what to write or who to name. "Would you mind leaving us a Google review? It really helps" is plenty.
3. Who gets asked? If someone decides "yes to this one, not that one" based on how happy the customer seemed, that's selective soliciting. The cleanest fix is to ask every customer who completed a service, the same way, no filtering.
4. Which email is on your profile? Google's new alerts — suggested edits, review pauses, restrictions — go to the owner's email. If it's an account the agency that built your website set up five years ago and nobody checks, change it today.
5. How do you reply to reviews? Replying is good and helps. Stuffing offers or keywords into replies adds nothing and reads like an advert to anyone browsing.

If all five answers leave you comfortable, there's nothing else to do. If one doesn't, a message to the team usually sorts it.

If a wave of fake reviews hits you

The difference now is that Google tries to stop it earlier. If it still happens: don't pay anyone who offers to remove them — it's often the same person who posted them. Report the reviews from your profile's review management tool, keep screenshots and any extortion messages, and don't fire back at every one. A short, calm reply on two or three of them ("We have no record of this visit and have reported it to Google") is worth more than twenty rebuttals.

Where an agent fits (and where it doesn't)

What the policy rewards is exactly what a simple automation does best: send the same message, at the same point, to every customer who has finished a service. No quotas, no picking who to ask, no telling anyone what to write. An agent that sends the request the day after each appointment, worded so it sounds like your business, stays inside Google's rules and Spain's thirty-day window almost by design.

Where it doesn't belong: deciding who to ask based on how the conversation went, or posting automatic replies to negative reviews without you seeing them first. The first is precisely the selective soliciting Google bans, just done by software. The second is your public reputation; there, let the agent draft and you decide.

If you'd like review requests off your plate without worrying whether they comply, our operations agent handles that kind of recurring task — you approve the message once.