Incentivized reviews.In plain English.

Google's policies don't allow offering incentives such as payment, discounts or free goods or services for posting, changing or removing a review, and Google treats incentivized reviews as fake and misleading content.

US federal rules also ban rewards that depend on the review being positive or negative. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to offer compensation or incentives in exchange for, or conditioned on, reviews expressing a particular sentiment.

The FTC's Endorsement Guides go further on disclosure. Paying people for positive reviews is deceptive even if the payment is disclosed, and free or discounted products count as a material connection that should be disclosed, whether or not a review is required in return.

Platform rules are stricter than the law. Yelp's terms ban incentives of any kind, such as discounts, freebies, refunds, gift cards or contest entries, for posting, preventing, removing or changing reviews.

The approach that fits both is a simple, honest ask after every job, with a direct link that makes it easy.

Example: a med spa that offers 10% off the next visit for a five-star review breaks Google's policy, Yelp's terms and the FTC rule all at once. Offering it for any review still breaks Google's and Yelp's rules.