Google Reviews UK: The key to strengthening online reputation in 2025

Customer trust is one of the most valuable assets in a competitive market, but building and maintaining it has become increasingly difficult. However, there is a surefire way for businesses to establish credibility and attract customers online —Google reviews. UK businesses can ensure potential customers’ trust and choose them over their competitors by showcasing and building a strong reputation via Google reviews.

Most UK consumers admit to reading online reviews before making a purchase decision, making your Google reviews strategy more critical than ever. Google ensures robust processes to maintain the authenticity of these reviews, helping customers make the best possible choices when researching businesses on Google Search and Google Maps.

However, generating, managing, and marketing Google reviews can be challenging, especially for large multi-location businesses.

In this blog, we’ll explore everything you need to know about Google reviews in the UK—from their impact on your business to UK-specific guidelines for review solicitation. You’ll also learn actionable steps to improve your Google reviews strategy while ensuring compliance with UK consumer law.

Why Google reviews matter for UK businesses

Google reviews directly affect how potential customers perceive your business and how Google ranks it in local search results. They aren’t just nice to have—they’re essential for growing your business and staying competitive in the UK market.

Here is how it helps:

Boosts local SEO: Google reviews are one of the top local ranking factors. Businesses with higher star ratings, recent reviews, and overall positive feedback are more likely to appear in Google’s Local Pack, boosting online visibility in your target locations.

Increases customer trust: Reviews act as social proof by allowing potential customers to evaluate the pros and cons of working with your business. It removes the uncertainty in the purchase process and encourages customers to trust your business. Seeing review responses (for both positive and negative reviews) shows potential customers that you care about feedback, improving customer engagement and brand reputation. 

Enhances click-through rates: A business with a 4.5-star rating and glowing customer reviews will naturally get more clicks than one without reviews or with a low rating. You can also showcase these reviews and ratings on local service ads or other paid campaigns, increasing clicks.

For UK businesses, Google reviews improve local SEO, customer trust, and business growth. Stay ahead by understanding UK-specific review guidelines and adopting innovative review strategies.

How to get more Google reviews in the UK

This section covers the few basic steps that can help you strengthen your review generation strategy and get more Google reviews for your UK-based business.

Claim and optimise your Google Business Profile

To collect and manage Google reviews, your business must have a claimed and verified Google business profile. This is the first step before sending review requests to your customers/clients.

Here is how you can do that:

1. Claim and verify your profile: Locate your Google Business Profile and ensure you claim and verify it. If no profile exists, you may have to set one up from scratch. For more details, check out our guide on claiming and creating a Google Business Profile in the UK.
2. Add accurate and consistent information: Ensure your business name, address, phone number (NAP), and website are correct. This consistency improves your local SEO efforts and allows potential customers to find you easily.
3. Add Photos and updates: High-quality photos and regular posts keep your profile engaging and up-to-date. An active profile is more likely to get more reviews, as clients are more likely to leave reviews if they see you actively managing your profile. .

Proactively ask customers for reviews 

The simplest way to get more reviews is to ask—but comply with UK regulations (more on that later). Send personalised review requests via email or SMS after a purchase.

According to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), businesses aren’t allowed to:

• Incentivise reviews
• Rewarding positive reviews
• Selectively posting only  positive reviews on the platforms while blocking  negative ones from going public.

Pro tip: Violating review guidelines can result in legal action and harm your reputation. Always play by the rules to ensure your business profile is not blocked or removed by Google due to legal issues.

Pick the right timing for best results 

Ask for reviews at the right moment, when the experience is fresh in your customer’s mind. The ideal time is after a positive interaction or a successful service delivery.

The more timely the request, the higher the likelihood of a review. Delayed requests often result in missed opportunities or inaccurate reviews.

For a seamless review generation process, consider using an automated AI review management tool like Birdeye that integrates with your CRM, shooting off a request with a custom template as soon as a transaction is complete.

Simplify the review process

To encourage customers to leave reviews, include a direct link to your Google review page across your website, email signatures, and social media profiles.

Don’t leave it to chance—invite customers to share their feedback. Use email, SMS, or in-store QR codes to encourage reviews. Always personalise your request, share templates, and use tools that enable one-click review so that clients don’t spend too much time with the review. 

Respond to all reviews

Acknowledge and respond to every review, whether positive or negative. This shows you value customer feedback and builds trust with potential customers. Make sure you personalise your response, thanking customers for their feedback and agreeing to fix any issues they may have had.

Pro tip: Scaling review responses can be challenging when you get hundreds of reviews across multiple locations and platforms. Birdeye Reviews AI helps you automate responses with pre-written templates and use AI to personalise your response for every Google review you receive.

Offer excellent customer service

The best way to earn positive reviews is by providing an exceptional experience. Happy customers are more likely to leave glowing reviews without being asked. Birdeye’s study on multi-location businesses indicates that 54% of customers will likely leave online reviews after a positive customer experience.

Providing a superior customer experience sets you apart from your competitors and allows you to generate a higher volume of reviews.

Use review management tools

Manually managing reviews can be overwhelming, especially for UK businesses with multiple locations. It requires constant tracking, timely responses, and ensuring staff leverage positive feedback effectively.

However, an AI-powered review management tool like Birdeye simplifies the entire process. It can automate review requests, ensure timely responses and set auto-sharing of positive reviews to social media from a centralized dashboard.

UK regulations on review solicitation and marketing

Businesses in the UK must adhere to strict guidelines for collecting and promoting reviews to ensure transparency and fairness. These regulations, enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), help maintain consumer trust and prevent deceptive practices

Key rules to follow:

1. No fake or misleading reviews: Writing fake reviews or paying others to post positive reviews is illegal. Businesses must also avoid suppressing or deleting negative feedback.
2. Be transparent: Always be honest about how reviews are collected and displayed. If you incentivise reviews (which is generally discouraged), disclose it clearly.
3. Avoid undue pressure: While asking for reviews is okay, never coerce or pressure customers into leaving one.

For detailed guidance, refer to the CMA’s online review guidelines. Staying compliant protects your business and builds long-term trust with customers.

How to respond to Google reviews

The way you respond to reviews can significantly impact your brand image. Here are some tips:

Positive reviews

“Thank you so much, [Customer Name], for your kind words! We’re thrilled to hear you enjoyed [specific detail]. Hope to see you again soon!”

Negative reviews

“Hi [Customer Name], We’re sorry to hear about your experience. We’d love to make things right. Please reach out to us at [contact info].”

Pro Tip: Always take the conversation offline when addressing serious complaints. The intent is to make sure the customer feels heard and your team works to solve the issues proactively. 

Check out our guide on review response templates for more guidance on this subject.

Leveraging Google reviews for marketing

Once you’ve built a solid collection of Google reviews, use them in your marketing efforts. Here’s how:

1. Showcase reviews on your website: Highlight positive reviews to build trust with potential customers.
2. Use social proof in Ads: To boost conversions, incorporate review snippets and star ratings in Google Ads or social media ads.
3. Share customer testimonials on social media: Turn positive reviews into graphics and post them on social platforms.

Monitoring and analysing your Google reviews

Regularly monitoring and analysing your reviews helps you identify trends and areas for improvement.

Looking beyond the star ratings can help you understand customer behavior, such as:

• What do they like the most in your establishments?
• What issues occur frequently in some locations but are absent in others?
• How are your competitors faring against your locations, as evidenced by their Google reviews?

And so much more.

The more Google reviews, the stronger your reputation

Google Reviews UK is a powerful tool for enhancing your business’s online presence, improving local SEO, and building customer trust. You can turn reviews into a competitive advantage by adopting smart review strategies and staying compliant with UK regulations.

FAQ Section: Google Reviews UK

Supercharge your Google reviews in the UK with Birdeye’s GenAI tools

In the competitive UK market, effectively managing your online reputation is crucial. Birdeye offers AI tools to help businesses like yours seamlessly generate, manage, and market Google reviews.

Birdeye offers:

• Reviews AI – Automatically request, monitor, and respond to reviews across multiple platforms from a single dashboard. AI-driven responses save time while ensuring compliance.
• Insights AI – Analyse customer sentiment, identify trends and get actionable recommendations to improve your business based on review data.
• Competitors AI – Benchmark your reviews and ratings against competitors to uncover opportunities and stay ahead in the UK market.

Get started with Birdeye today to enhance your reputation, attract more customers, and grow your business. Watch a free demo to learn more.