Rules for asking for reviews
What the review sites and the FTC say about asking customers for reviews, review gating and incentives, quoted from their own pages.
Most review sites let you ask customers for reviews, as long as you ask every customer the same way, offer nothing in return, and never stand between a customer and a bad review. This section sets out those rules in the review sites' and the FTC's own words, with a link to the sentence each quote comes from, and then says how GetSetReply handles them.
What the rules agree on
Ask everyone, not only the customers you expect to be happy. Asking only satisfied customers is called review gating, and the FTC and most major review sites reject it. The FTC's guide for businesses puts it in one line:
Don't ask for reviews only from customers you think will leave positive ones.
Give nothing in exchange for a review. No discount, freebie, prize or payment, and that holds whatever the rating. Google calls it fake content:
Reviews and other user contributions to Google Maps must reflect a genuine experience. Offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited.
Never discourage or stop a bad review. Google lists it beside selective asking as something merchants may not do:
Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers
Know each site's own rules before you ask. They differ, and the FTC tells businesses to check them first:
Before you ask people for reviews, know the rules of the platforms and websites on which those reviews may appear.
Two sites ask you not to ask at all. Yelp asks businesses never to request reviews, from anyone:
Businesses should never ask customers to write reviews.
DoorDash says the same about reviews on DoorDash:
At this time, DoorDash prohibits direct content solicitation from merchants. Stores should not request ratings, reviews, photos, videos, or other content directly from customers or offer incentives in exchange for content, as this constitutes a conflict of interest.
Everywhere else, asking is welcome when it follows the rules above.
Do and don't
Do ask every customer the same way, at the same point in their visit. Trustpilot, among its do's for review invitations:
inviting everyone in the same way, and at the same point in the customer journey, regardless of whether they've had a positive or negative experience with your business
Do give every customer the same path to your review sites, whatever they thought of their visit. TripAdvisor is the strictest about this, and asks for an identical path:
If any survey or external website ultimately directs users to submit a review on Tripadvisor, the user interface and experience for submitting positive and negative reviews must be identical. For example, directing a guest to one review page if they indicate a positive experience but directing them to another path (such as an internal customer support channel) if they indicate a negative experience is against our review guidelines.
Do let customers review in their own time. Google asks merchants not to press customers for a review on the spot:
When soliciting reviews, merchants should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises, nor should they request that specific content be included.
Don't send unhappy customers to a private form and only happy ones to the review site. Trustpilot names this exact pattern among its don'ts:
Pre-screening people who leave a review by directing customers who have had a good experience to leave a review and those with a bad experience to contact you directly
Don't offer anything for a review, even for an honest one of any rating. TripAdvisor:
It is against our guidelines to offer or promise anything in exchange for any reviews, irrespective of rating.
Don't tie a reward to a positive review. Under the FTC's consumer reviews rule that is a violation, and even a reward that is not tied to the rating should be disclosed in the review:
If you offer an incentive for a review, don't condition it, explicitly or implicitly, on the review being positive. Even without that condition, the review should disclose the incentive, because its offer may introduce bias or change the weight and credibility that readers give the review.
Don't threaten or pressure someone over a review they left. The FTC's rule names legal threats, physical threats, intimidation and false public accusations:
For anyone to use an unfounded or groundless legal threat, a physical threat, intimidation, or a public false accusation in response to a consumer review that is made with the knowledge that the accusation was false or made with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity, in an attempt to
Don't review your own business, or have managers post reviews without saying who they are. The FTC's rule:
It is an unfair or deceptive act or practice and a violation of this part for an officer or manager of a business to write or create a consumer review or consumer testimonial about the business or one of the products or services it sells that fails to have a clear and conspicuous disclosure of the officer's or manager's material relationship to the business
Don't ask for Yelp reviews. Yelp's support center:
Don't ask anyone to review your business, be it customers, mailing list subscribers, friends, family, etc.
In this section
- What each review site allows: the rules of each review site, quoted in full, one site at a time.
- The FTC rules on consumer reviews: the consumer reviews rule that took effect in October 2024, and the Endorsement Guides.
- How GetSetReply handles the review rules: what the review funnel and review requests do, and where they fall short of a site's rules.
Official sources
Every quote in this section was read on the official page it links to on October 4, 2026. These pages are the ones that count: if anything here disagrees with them, they are right and we are wrong.
- Google: Prohibited & restricted content, Maps User Generated Content Policy Help
- Google: Tips to get more reviews, Google Business Profile Help
- Yelp: Content Guidelines
- Yelp: Don't Ask for Reviews, Yelp Support Center
- Yelp: Consumer Alerts, Yelp Trust & Safety
- Tripadvisor: Trust & Safety Review Posting Guidelines
- Tripadvisor: Content Fraud FAQ for Business Owners
- Meta (Facebook): Community Feedback, Terms and Policies
- Trustpilot: Guidelines for businesses
- DoorDash: DoorDash Content Guidelines, DoorDash Help Center
- US Federal Trade Commission (eCFR): 16 CFR Part 465, Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials
- US Federal Trade Commission (Federal Register): Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 89 FR 68034
- US Federal Trade Commission (eCFR): 16 CFR Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
- US Federal Trade Commission: Soliciting and Paying for Online Reviews: A Guide for Marketers
Related
Review requests and the review funnel
Ask customers for a review by text or email, share your review funnel link and QR code, and keep your contacts in one list.
What each review site allows
Each review site's own rules on asking for reviews, review gating and incentives, quoted word for word and linked to the page each rule comes from.