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Guides to the work that happens around reviews. Asking without breaking a rule you did not know existed, answering the ones that arrive, and putting them where they do some good. Every rule here is quoted from the policy page of the platform that enforces it, with the day we read it. Every instruction is ours, and is marked as ours.

How these guides are written

Every rule is quoted from the policy page of the platform that enforces it, with the date we read it. Where the platforms disagree with each other — and on whether you may ask for a review at all, they flatly do — the guide says so instead of picking one answer and hiding the rest.

Instructions are ours and carry no source. They are set as numbered steps precisely so that nobody mistakes our advice for somebody's published policy.

We make review software. Where a guide touches what our own product does, that is stated inside the guide, next to the rule it is being measured against, not in small type at the bottom.

Each guide is written for the person doing the work, whether that is the owner of one shop or an agency running it for forty clients. What an agency can automate is the last section, not the whole page.

Guides

What review gating is, and how to ask for reviews without itReview gating is screening customers for how they feel before deciding who gets asked for a public review. Google and Trustpilot both forbid a form of it, Yelp forbids asking at all, and the FTC rule reaches the incentive version. What the policies actually say, and how to ask everyone without drowning in one-star reviews. How to respond to reviews: what to say, when, and what you may not write89% of consumers expect a reply and half are put off by a templated one. What Google and Trustpilot allow you to write, which replies they delete, how long a reply takes to appear, and how to answer a one-star review without making it worse — every rule quoted from the policy that sets it. How to share customer reviews on social media, and what the rules allowGoogle says the review belongs to the customer and you need their consent. Trustpilot sells the right to display its stars and bans quotes out of context. The UK bans publishing reviews in a misleading way outright. What you may post, what has to travel with the quote, and why a widget will not get you stars in search. Fake and unfair reviews: what you can actually get removedGoogle removes only reviews that break its policies and says so twice. Trustpilot keeps any review that reflects a genuine experience, however unfair. What the published grounds for removal actually are, how to report a review so the report works, what to do about extortion, and what to do with the review that is staying up.