Local SEO
Reputation management for local businesses, built on real reviews
This page is about one thing: the reviews a local customer reads before deciding whether to call you. It is not about burying search results or cleaning up an executive's name. Good businesses end up with thin review counts for a dull reason, which is that nobody asks consistently. We build a system that asks every customer, watches what comes back, and helps you answer it well.
Federal rule, not an opinion
What the FTC reviews rule bans
The Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials was announced in August 2024 and took effect on 21 October 2024. It applies to businesses and to the agencies working for them.
Fake reviews and testimonials
Including reviews attributed to people who do not exist. The rule names AI-generated reviews specifically.
Incentives tied to sentiment
Buying reviews where the incentive depends on the review being positive, or on it being negative about someone else.
Undisclosed insider reviews
Reviews written by officers, managers and employees without the relationship being disclosed.
Company-controlled review sites
A review site you control cannot present itself as an independent one.
Suppressing reviews by threat
Groundless legal threats, intimidation and false accusations used to get a review taken down.
The FTC's own guidance says agencies, review brokers and reputation management firms can be held liable for writing or selling fake reviews and for incentives conditioned on sentiment. Sources: FTC announcement and FTC questions and answers.
Google's review policy, in practice
Google's rules sit on top of the federal ones and are stricter in places. Both lines below are the whole basis of how the system gets designed.
You can
- Ask customers for a review, using a link or a QR code.
- Ask all of them, in the same words, at the same point in the job.
- Reply to reviews. Google advises personal, specific and professional replies, including to negative ones.
- Flag a review that breaks Google's policy and ask Google to look at it.
You cannot
- Offer payment, a discount or free work in exchange for a review.
- Collect reviews from employees, former employees or anyone in a contractual or consulting relationship with the business.
- Pressure a customer into reviewing while they are standing in front of you.
- Ask only the customers you expect to say something nice.
Sources: Google prohibited and restricted content policy and Google Business Profile help, reviews.
How the system gets built
The point of a system is that it does not depend on anyone remembering. With the right tools in place, review requests go out to customers automatically.
- 1
Audit
What your reputation looks like now, where reviews sit, and how the business asks for them today.
- 2
Build the request
One message, one moment in the job, sent to every customer. Same wording whether the visit went well or badly.
- 3
Monitor and respond
Watching what arrives, guidance on replies, and reporting that shows the trend rather than a single bad week.
What can be challenged, and what cannot
Reviews that break Google's policy
A fair review you disagree with
Spam and off-topic posts
A bad review from a real customer
Reviews with a conflict of interest
A review about a problem you did cause
Competitors posing as customers
Anything, in exchange for a payment
Flagging is a request. Google decides, and it does not report back on a timetable.
The part that often gets skipped
A negative review with a calm, specific reply does less damage than the same review sitting there in silence. The reply is not really for the person who wrote it. It is for the next customer reading the page and deciding what kind of business this is.
Replies also belong to the listing itself, so they sit alongside Business Profile management in practice.
Flow Air Duct Cleaning, Hallandale Beach. Local SEO and reputation management from June 2026, alongside a new website. Its review count went from 30 to more than 80, and three months in it ranked first in the Google Maps three-pack for its service and city search.
Read the case studyWhat is not on offer
Fake or purchased reviews
Not at any price. They are against Google's policy and against federal law, and the agency that writes them carries liability too.
A guaranteed rating
We cannot promise positive reviews or a particular star average. What the system does is make sure every customer gets asked, which is the step that usually goes missing.
Review and reputation questions
How do you get more reviews without breaking the rules?
By asking everyone, the same way, every time. Google allows businesses to ask customers for reviews with a link or a QR code. What it does not allow is choosing who gets asked, or paying for the answer.
Can you remove a bad review?
Only Google can remove a review, and only when it breaks policy. We can flag those and make the case. A fair review from a real customer who had a bad day is not going anywhere, and paying anyone to make it disappear is a route we will not take you down.
Should I offer a discount to customers who leave a review?
No. Google's policy prohibits offering payment, discounts or free goods in exchange for a review, and the FTC rule targets incentives that are conditioned on the review being positive. A discount for a five-star review is the exact thing the rule was written about.
What about a funnel that screens customers before the review request?
That is review gating, and Google says businesses must not selectively ask only happy customers for reviews. Plenty of tools still market it as a feature. We do not use it.
Do reviews affect my Google Maps ranking?
Google names review count and review score among the things that feed prominence, which is one of the three main factors in local results. How that plays out against competitors and distance is covered on the Google Maps ranking page.
Reviews touch everything else
Reputation is one of five services inside our local SEO practice.
Start asking every customer, properly
Take the free growth assessment. We will look at your current reviews, how you ask for them today and what a compliant system would change.