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Hey, all!
If you read my newsletter back in April about Google's review policy changes, consider this the sequel. And it's a big one.
Google is now directly asking your patients whether your business offered them rewards in exchange for a review.
When someone goes to leave a Google review for a local business, a prompt pops up that says: "Does this business offer rewards in exchange for reviews?" with a big green "Yes" button right there. One tap and you're flagged.
This is Google crowdsourcing review enforcement at scale. They're not just using AI to detect patterns in your reviews anymore. They're asking the actual humans leaving them.
Here's why this matters for dental practices specifically.
A lot of practices have been running some version of the "Leave us a review, get something in return" playbook for years. Free whitening. A gift card drawing. A discount on your next visit. Entry into a monthly raffle. It felt harmless. Some marketing companies even built their entire service around it.
That's now a direct path to having your reviews removed and in the worst case, your Google Business Profile suspended.
Google's guidelines have always prohibited incentivized reviews. But enforcement was inconsistent and most businesses got away with it. That era is ending. Between the April policy update (no more review contests, no more asking patients to mention staff by name) and this new patient-facing prompt, Google is making it very clear: They're serious about cleaning this up.
Think about it from Google's perspective. Their entire local search product depends on reviews being trustworthy. AI Overviews, Ask Maps, AI Mode, all of it pulls from reviews to make recommendations. If those reviews are bought, the recommendations are garbage. Google has every incentive to crack down hard.
So what do you do instead?
The same thing I've been telling you for months. Ask every patient for a review. Make it easy with a direct link or QR code. Let them say whatever they want in their own words. And never, ever tie a reward to the ask.
"We'd love to hear about your experience" is perfectly fine. "Leave us a 5-star review and get 10% off your next cleaning" is a ticking time bomb.
If you have any active promotion that ties an incentive to a Google review, shut it down today. It’s not worth the potential risk.
Your reviews should reflect real patient experiences. That's what Google wants. That's what patients trust. And honestly, that's what works best anyway.
— Kyle / Founder, Search-To-Seat™
