QR Code for Google Reviews - Setup, Placement and the Rules

How to find your Google review link, turn it into a QR code that lasts, and stay inside Google's review rules - including the April 2026 changes that banned staff quotas.

A card on the counter that takes someone straight to your Google review form is one of the highest-return uses of a QR code. It removes the search-find-scroll friction that stops most people leaving a review at all.

Two parts to getting it right: finding the correct link, and staying inside Google's rules — which changed in April 2026 in ways that catch a lot of businesses out.

Step 1: Find your review link

Your profile must be verified first. Review links don't work on unverified profiles.

The easy way. In your Google Business Profile (via Google Search or Maps while signed in as the owner), find Ask for reviews. Google gives you a short link like:

https://g.page/r/CdJpEc0IW5rkEBE/review

Copy that. It opens the review dialog directly.

The fallback. If you can't find the button, use your Place ID:

https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOUR_PLACE_ID

Place IDs look like ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4, and Google's Place ID Finder will give you yours.

Both formats work. The short one makes a less dense QR code, which matters more than you'd think — see step 3.

Worth knowing: Google's official Marketing Kit, which used to hand out free "Review us on Google" stickers and posters, went offline in 2024 with no replacement. If you came looking for the official sticker, making your own code is now the route.

Step 2: Test the link before you encode it

Open it in a private browser window, signed out. You should land on the review dialog for your business — check the name and address carefully.

This catches the most expensive mistake in this whole process: a code that points at a similarly-named business two towns over. Once it's printed on 500 table cards, it's printed.

Step 3: Make the code

Paste the link into the generator and use these settings:

• Error correction Q. Counter cards and receipts get handled, spilled on and shoved in pockets. Q survives about 25% damage.
• Black on white. Maximum contrast. Brand colours are a false economy on something scanned in variable lighting.
• At least 2.5–3 cm for a counter card, larger for a window.
• SVG if a printer is involved, PNG for anything on screen.

Which link you encode has a real effect on how scannable the printed result is. Measured at error correction Q, on a 3 cm card:

Scanners want 0.4 mm per module as a hard floor and 0.6 mm to be comfortable. The long Place ID form is already close to the edge on a small card, so prefer the short link — or your own redirect, which is better still. Full detail in the print size guide.

Consider pointing it at your own URL

Encoding the Google link directly works, and it's what most people do. But it ties your printed cards to a URL format Google controls.

The more durable option: encode yourbusiness.com/review and redirect that to the Google link. If Google ever changes the format — or you want to send people somewhere else later — you edit a redirect instead of reprinting everything. This is the same reasoning as in do QR codes expire.

Step 4: Where to put it

• Counter or till point — the highest-converting spot. The moment of payment is when goodwill peaks.
• Table tents for hospitality, ideally arriving with the bill.
• Receipts and invoices, printed or emailed.
• Packaging inserts for anything shipped.
• Business cards for trades and service visits.

Add a short line of context. "Scan to leave a Google review" converts better than a bare code, because people won't scan something they can't predict.

The rules — this is the part that bites

Google's review policies changed materially in April 2026, and the penalties are steeper than most businesses realise. What follows applies regardless of whether you use a QR code.

Banned: review gating

Screening customers by predicted sentiment — sending happy ones to Google and unhappy ones to a private feedback form — is prohibited.

The penalty changed too. It's no longer just the gated reviews that get removed: enforcement can now strip all of a profile's reviews. Years of genuine reviews, gone because of the collection process around them.

Practically: your QR code must go to everyone, not just the customers you expect to be pleased.

Banned: incentives

No discounts, free items, gift cards, loyalty points, or prize-draw entries in exchange for a review. This includes "leave us a review and get 10% off", however casually it's phrased on the card.

Banned since April 2026: staff quotas and naming employees

This is the new one, and it catches businesses that thought they were fine:

• You cannot set review targets for staff. Telling your team to collect a certain number of reviews is now an explicit violation.
• You cannot ask customers to name a specific employee. If a customer mentions someone by name of their own accord, that's fine. Asking them to is not.

If you run a "review of the month" staff incentive, or your card says "mention who served you", both need to go.

And in the US, the FTC

Beyond Google's own rules, the FTC's Consumer Review Rule (in force since October 2024) makes fake, paid, or suppressed reviews a civil matter, with penalties running to tens of thousands of dollars per violation (the exact figure is adjusted for inflation annually). Review suppression is explicitly included — which is another reason gating is not worth the risk.

What you can do

Plenty, and it's the stuff that actually works:

• Ask everyone, plainly. "If you've got a minute, a Google review really helps us" is entirely allowed.
• Make it effortless. This is exactly what the QR code is for.
• Ask at the right moment — immediately after a good experience.
• Reply to every review, including the critical ones. It's visible to future customers and it's a ranking signal.
• Train staff to ask — just without quotas attached.

The distinction Google draws is between asking and engineering. Asking is fine. Filtering, paying for, or manufacturing reviews is not.

Before you print

1. Scan the printed proof and confirm it lands on your review dialog.
2. Test signed out, on a phone that isn't yours.
3. Check the wording on the card doesn't promise anything in return.
4. Check it doesn't ask for a staff name.

Make your review code in the studio — free, no sign-up, and the live preview shows exactly how dense the code is before you commit to a print run.