Glossary
What is Review gating?
Asking customers how they feel first, then sending only the happy ones to public review sites. Google's policies prohibit it.
Also written as gated reviews, review screening.
Review gating is the practice of screening customers before asking them for a public review. A typical setup sends a quick survey first: customers who rate their experience highly are sent to Google to leave a review, while unhappy customers are sent to a private feedback form instead.
It sounds clever, because it seems to keep bad reviews off your profile. The problem is that it paints a misleading picture for future customers, and Google’s review policies prohibit it.
Why it matters for a small business
If Google decides your profile is collecting reviews this way, reviews can be removed and your listing can be affected. Review tools that offered gating features have largely moved away from them for this reason.
What to do instead
Ask every customer who had a good experience in the same simple way, with a direct link to your review page. If you want private feedback too, collect it separately, not as a filter in front of the public review. When someone is unhappy, fix the problem directly and reply to any negative review calmly and publicly. An honest mix of reviews, with thoughtful replies, tends to earn more trust than a wall of perfect ones.
