Business Growth

How tradies get more Google reviews (without nagging)

Reviews are the cheapest performance upgrade in trade marketing. A simple same-day ask beats every clever automation.

5 min readWritten by the The Tradie Code team

Review count and rating affect your map-pack ranking, your paid ad click-through rate and your quote close rate simultaneously. It is the only marketing activity that improves three channels at once, and it costs nothing.

The system

  1. 1
    Ask on site, before you leave

    "If you were happy with today, would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? I'll text you the link now." Say it out loud, in person.

  2. 2
    Send the link within 60 seconds

    Use a short direct review link. Every extra tap loses reviews.

  3. 3
    One reminder, 48 hours later

    Friendly, short, and then stop. Two asks is plenty.

  4. 4
    Respond to every review

    Including the bad ones, calmly and factually. Prospects read the responses closely.

  5. 5
    Track it weekly

    Reviews per job completed is the metric. Aim for one in three.

Never offer an incentive for reviews
Paying for or incentivising reviews breaches Google's policies and Australian Consumer Law expectations around genuine testimonials. It also risks your whole profile. Ask well instead — it works better anyway.

What good looks like

Business stageReview countEffect
Starting out0–20Ads carry all the trust burden
Established50–100Map-pack visibility improves noticeably
Dominant150+ at 4.8+Roughly double the conversion of a low-review competitor

Handling a bad review

  • Respond within 24 hours, publicly and without defensiveness
  • State the facts briefly, offer to resolve it offline, give a direct contact
  • Never argue details or blame the customer in public
  • Then get back to collecting good ones — volume dilutes a single bad review fast

Frequently asked questions

Want this working for your business?

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