The review practices that used to be standard and are now policy violations in 2026

If you have not looked at Google's review policies recently, there is a good chance your current process violates them. On April 17, 2026, Google added new rules to its review policy. The update did not just tighten the obvious rules around fake reviews. It explicitly banned practices that have been standard operating procedure in the home services industry for years.

Review quotas are now banned. Google's policy now lists "merchants requesting that staff solicit a certain number of reviews" as a violation. If you have ever told your team they need to collect a certain number of reviews per week or per month, that is now a policy violation.

Directing your team to ask customers to mention a specific employee by name is also now banned. This was a common tactic in HVAC and plumbing businesses where owners wanted to recognize high-performing technicians. Google now treats it as steering the content of a review. A customer who names your technician on their own is still fine.

Incentivized reviews remain banned. This means no discounts, no free inspections, no loyalty points, and no gifts in exchange for a review. It also means you cannot offer an incentive for a customer to change or remove a negative review. Any exchange of value connected to a review is a violation.

The one thing that is still completely fine is simply asking. Sending a customer a direct link to your Google review page and asking them to share their experience is exactly what Google suggests. The key is that the ask must go to every customer, not just the ones you think will say something positive: Google's policy does not allow businesses to selectively solicit positive reviews.

PorchPrompt is built around that principle. Every job marked done triggers the same review text to every customer. No screening. No filtering. No quotas attached to it. Just a straightforward ask sent at the right moment, fifteen minutes after the job is marked done, while the customer's experience is still fresh.