Google's 2026 review policy change, in plain terms

If your technicians have been asking for five stars at the door, or your office manager has a monthly review target, the rules changed underneath you in April. Nothing here is legal advice; it is what Google's policy page now says, translated into what it means on a job site.

What changed

Google updated its business review policies in April 2026. Most of the old rules were already there — no fake reviews, no reviews from employees, no review gating. The update spelled out several practices that a lot of home services companies had been doing in good faith, and named them as violations:

The last two are the ones that catch contractors. "Selective solicitation" means the common trick of sending a survey first and only sending the Google link to the people who scored you well. And "on the premises" is a technician standing in a kitchen saying "could you do it now while I'm here?"

What it can cost you

Google's stated remedies range from removing the affected reviews to placing a warning on the profile or restricting it. For a company whose phone rings because of its map position, a restricted profile is a bad month. The reviews you already have are not automatically at risk, but the ones you collected using a quota or an incentive are the ones most likely to be removed if Google looks.

What you can still do

Everything that matters is still allowed. You can ask every customer for a review. You can send them the link. You can remind them once. You can reply to every review, good or bad. What Google wants is that the ask goes to everyone, that nobody is paid or pressured, and that the customer writes it on their own time.

Still fine: asking every customer, one at a time, and letting them write it when they get to it.

The system that works, and stays inside the lines, is boring. After the job, the technician tells the customer a text with the review link is on its way, and sends it from the truck — not "while I'm here," just "it'll be in your messages." The text is short, says thank you, and includes the direct review link. If nothing happens in three days, one reminder, then stop. Every customer gets the same text. Nobody has a number to hit. The reply to each review comes from the owner or office within a day or two.

Why this is a gift if you take it seriously

Most of your competitors will not read the policy. Some of them will keep running quotas and incentives, and some of those will lose reviews. Meanwhile the companies that switch to asking everyone, plainly, tend to collect more reviews than before, not fewer — because the ask finally goes to every customer instead of the ones the tech felt comfortable asking. In the 63 markets we searched this month, the top three map positions carried a median of about 1,200 reviews. That number is built one job at a time, over years, by whoever asks most consistently.

A checklist for the office

Pull the direct review link from your Business Profile (the "Ask for reviews" share link), not a Google Maps search URL. Write one text template and give it to every technician, with the link already in it. Print the link as a QR code on the invoice or a card — a card the customer takes home is fine; a tablet held out at the door is not. Remove any review target from anyone's job description or bonus. Stop any survey-first or "happy customers only" filter. Reply to every review, and keep a log of who was asked and when so you can show your process is even-handed if you ever need to.