Just opened your business? Here's how to get your first Google reviews the right way

You just opened your own shop. Maybe you spent ten years working for someone else, and now your name is on the truck. You know you do good work. The problem is your Google profile doesn't show it, because it has zero reviews.

That first stretch matters more than any other. Northwestern University's Spiegel Research Center found that a product with five reviews had a purchase likelihood 270% greater than one with no reviews, and that the benefit of each additional review drops off quickly after those first five. The research was on online retail, but the lesson carries over: going from zero to a handful is the biggest jump you'll ever make.

Five gets you noticed. Twenty gets you considered. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that 47% of consumers won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and only 9% are willing to use one with five or fewer. Your first goal is to get off zero. Your next goal is twenty.

Here's the trap new owners fall into: asking friends and family to fill the gap. Don't. Google's policy prohibits reviews based on a conflict of interest, including family relationships and current or former employment. That rules out your spouse, your cousin, and the guys on your crew. Reviews like that break Google's rules and can be removed.

The right place to start is your real customers, including past ones. If you did jobs under your own name before your profile existed, those customers had a genuine experience, and you can ask them for a review. The same goes for every job from here on. Ask every customer, the same way, every time. Google prohibits asking only the customers you expect to be happy, so the habit you build now keeps you compliant later.

Make it easy. Send a short text with a direct link to your review page soon after the job is done. Don't offer a discount or anything else in exchange. Google strictly prohibits incentives for reviews, even well-meaning ones.

PorchPrompt takes care of the asking for you. Every time a job is marked done, your customer gets a text with a direct link to your Google review page. You focus on the work. The reviews build up one real job at a time, from your first five to your first twenty and beyond.