One question, one answer, checked against Google’s own pages
This is where we write down the answers we give clients every week. Each article takes one question that people actually type, answers it in the first two sentences, and then shows you where to look and what you will see. Every claim about Google comes from a Google help page, quoted and dated. Where we say something from our own work, we say so.
Browse the knowledge base
205 published articles. Choose a category or browse the complete index.
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Should a business respond to reviews on employee review sites?
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Can you reuse a customer review in an advertisement?
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Should customers leave reviews on a shared device at your business?
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What should you do if someone demands money to stop negative reviews?
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Can you tell whether a review campaign brought new customers?
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Should a customer complaint stay public or move to a private conversation?
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Who should approve review replies in a multi-location business?
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Should you pause review requests during a service outage?
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What should you do when your reply to a Google review does not appear?
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Why can’t your customers leave a Google review?
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Why are Google review stars not showing?
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Why is a Google review not showing up?
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Should you buy negative Google reviews?
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What does Google’s review policy allow?
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Can I remove a Google review I posted?
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Google review link generator
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Is your online reputation the same as your star rating?
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Why your staff do not ask customers for reviews
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How many good reviews do you need to survive a bad week?
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How to check your own online reputation properly
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Someone offered to remove negative reviews for money
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Should you reply to a negative forum thread about your business?
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How to handle a Google review that names an employee
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What happens to Google reviews when two profiles are merged?
How these are written
Every article names the Google help page it draws on, with the date we read it, because those pages change. Button names are quoted exactly as Google prints them. We do not publish techniques for gaming the system, we do not promise positions or dates, and we do not invent examples. Where a paragraph starts “from our practice”, it is an observation from our own work with clients, not a rule of Google’s, and it is labelled as such.
If you would rather have somebody read your listing and tell you what is wrong with it, that is what the audit is.