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Can you reward customers for a review?
No. The review policy prohibits incentives, meaning discounts, gifts, money or prize draws in exchange for a review. That applies not just to positive reviews, but to soliciting reviews with a reward in general. Google no longer sees such a review as a genuine experience but as a transaction, and that is exactly what the policy aims to prevent. The full consideration, including the legal side, is in can you offer a reward for a review.
Watch out for the subtle forms: a prize draw open only to reviewers falls under it just as much as a direct discount. What matters is the link between reward and review.
What is review gating and why is it not allowed?
Review gating is pre-filtering customers: you first ask whether someone is satisfied, and only send the happy customers to Google while catching the unhappy ones internally. It seems clever, but it violates the policy because it makes the review picture artificially positive. You may invite everyone to write a review, but you may not select who goes to the public platform based on their verdict.
The line is: encouraging is allowed, steering on outcome is not. You lower the threshold for everyone, you do not filter on satisfaction.
Which reviews can you get removed?
Only reviews that violate the policy, not reviews you consider unfair. Google removes reviews that are spam, fake, offensive, off-topic or written by someone with a conflict of interest, such as a competitor or a former employee. A fair but negative review does not qualify; you cannot get it taken down, only answer it professionally. How to recognize and deal with fake and policy-violating reviews is covered in spotting and dealing with fake reviews.
Do not expect a miracle cure either: even a justified removal request is not always honored, and the process takes time. Counting on removal as a strategy does not work; a good response almost always works better.
Can employees or you yourself post a review?
No. Reviews from yourself, your staff or via fake accounts are prohibited as a conflict of interest, and Google is good at detecting them. Asking your team to quickly leave a review from home falls under this too. The risk is not just that the review disappears, but that structural abuse affects your entire profile.
How do you stay within the rules in practice?
By setting up your process so violations do not creep in by accident. Ask everyone for an honest review, without reward and without filter, and keep an overview of what comes in so you spot fake reviews or policy violations quickly. With Repmanager you send invitations to all customers without gating, and you monitor all reviews in one place so a suspicious or violating review stands out immediately instead of weeks later. That is how you build a profile that lasts, within the guidelines. How to set up that collection properly is in how to structurally get more reviews.
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