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You can find people selling Google reviews, but buying them breaks Google's policy. Google removes paid reviews and can restrict the profile that received them. Two of the 20 business owners our team spoke to recently wanted to buy reviews anyway. Here is what we told them, and the process we use to get genuine reviews from real customers.
Can you buy Google reviews for your business? Sellers will take your money, but buying reviews breaks Google's rules for Maps. Google removes paid reviews when it finds them, and it can put restrictions on the profile that received them. A review from a real customer, collected through a QR code at your counter or a WhatsApp message after a sale, stays up and tells the next customer something true about your shop.
This article covers what two business owners asked our team, what Google's policy says about paid reviews, and the process we use to collect genuine reviews for our clients.
A disclosure before we start: MARQOD is an agency based in Indore that sells Google Business Profile services. We don't sell reviews, and our own services and prices are listed near the end.
Our sales team recently spoke with 20 business owners in Indore about their Google Business Profiles. Two of them said they didn't need optimization. They wanted to buy reviews, and asked what we charge per review.
One of them had already paid a few people who sell reviews. He told us the reviews showed up on his profile and then dropped off.
Two out of 20 is a small group and tells you nothing about how common this is across India. We're writing about it because the question keeps coming up, and because the answer affects the profile of anyone who acts on it.
We told both owners we don't sell reviews, explained why, and walked them through how we get real ones.
No. Google's policy doesn't allow it, and that includes paying in kind.
Google's Maps policy on prohibited and restricted content lists reviews or ratings that were paid for, directly or in kind, as fake engagement. Google says fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed. The same policy covers reviews posted in return for a discount, free product or free service.
Google's help page with tips to get more reviews repeats the rule for business owners. Offering an incentive for customers to post a review, change a review or remove a negative one is prohibited. So you also can't give customers a discount, a free item or cashback for a Google review.
The policy also bans reviews posted from several accounts by one person or at one person's request. So a paid review breaks the rules whether it comes from a review seller or from a set of accounts someone runs for you.
If you bought reviews and they disappeared, this is the likely reason. Google removes content that breaks this policy, so paid reviews can disappear some time after they appear. That matches what the owner told us. Google hasn't published how it detects them.
Reviews can also be removed for other breaks of the same policy, such as reviews posted by the owner or staff, which Google treats as a conflict of interest.
The money spent on removed reviews doesn't come back. A seller who offers to "refill" dropped reviews is selling you the same problem a second time.
Losing the reviews is not always the end of it. Google's page on Business Profile restrictions for policy violations says a business that breaks the fake engagement policy may face restrictions on top of having the reviews removed. The examples Google gives are:
A warning like that is visible to every customer who looks you up on Google. For a shop that depends on people nearby picking it on Maps, that costs far more than the reviews were worth.
Google's policy is not the only rule. In November 2022 the Bureau of Indian Standards published IS 19000:2022, a standard for collecting, moderating and publishing online consumer reviews. At the launch, the government said reviews that were purchased, or written by people hired for that purpose, should not be published. The chief commissioner of the Central Consumer Protection Authority called such reviews "fraud reviews".
The standard was announced as voluntary for platforms at the time. The Consumer Affairs Secretary also pointed to penal provisions for unfair trade practices under the Consumer Protection Act. We aren't lawyers, so check with one if you need a legal answer for your business. What is clear is how the government views bought reviews.
Many satisfied customers never leave a review because nobody asked them, or because finding the review form on Google takes too many taps. The process we explained to both owners fixes those two problems.
Google gives every verified Business Profile its own review link and a QR code for that link, at no cost. Many shop owners call this QR code a "review scanner". Google's help page explains how to create a link or QR code to request reviews. We place the QR code where customers can see it in the shop, such as at the billing counter, so they can scan it and reach the review form on their own phone.
Most local shops already have the customer's phone number from a bill, a delivery or a booking. After the purchase or service, we send a WhatsApp message that thanks the customer, asks how the product or service was, and includes the review link. For a clothing shop, the message might read:
Namaste! Hamari dukaan se shopping karne ke liye dhanyavaad. Aapko kapde aur hamari service kaisi lagi? Agar aap Google par apna experience likhna chahein, to is link par apna honest review de sakte hain.
The review link goes at the end of that message. Every customer gets the same message, whether we expect them to be happy or not.
We reply to reviews, including unhappy ones. Google's own tips page recommends replying and says honest, balanced reviews help customers decide. A polite reply to a two-star review shows the next customer how the shop handles a problem.
A funnel built for real customers can still break Google's rules if it's set up carelessly. Google's policy says businesses must not:
The mistake we see most often is a WhatsApp flow that asks for a star rating first, sends only 4 and 5 star customers to Google, and sends everyone else to a private feedback form. That is selective solicitation, and Google's policy doesn't allow it. The QR code and the message should send every customer to the same Google review form.
We don't sell reviews at any price, and we'll say so to anyone who asks.
Setting up the review system described above is part of our GMB optimization work. If your profile hasn't been set up correctly yet, our ₹2,000 plan covers creating or claiming it, setting the correct location, setting up the whole profile and basic optimization. All our prices are on the pricing page. If you're comparing agencies, our article on what a Google Business Profile costs in India lists what to check before you pay anyone.
The information about the 20 businesses comes from conversations our sales team had with business owners in Indore. We aren't naming the businesses because we didn't ask for permission to publish their identities. We gave our notes to an AI tool to produce a first draft, and the article is published under Anmol Jat's name.
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Send the business name and city and we come back with how to set up review requests for your shop. No obligation.