Review gating is a reputation management strategy in which a business deliberately hides review links for customers who have expressed negative sentiment towards them but makes them plainly visible for customers who have expressed positive sentiment.
It goes against Google’s policies and may result in a fine of up to $53,088 per violation as it goes against the Federal Trade Commission’s rules and regulations on review collection.
In this post, I explain what review gating is and how to collect reviews without violating policies set by Google and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
What is Review Gating? Overview
Review gating is the deliberate act of only asking for reviews from customers who are most likely to give your business positive scores.
Common review gate methods include:
- Review funnels: The business creates a review funnel to generate new reviews. If a customer expresses positive sentiment toward that business, the customer is shown a call to action to leave a review. If they express negative sentiment, they’re shown a feedback submission form instead.
- Prescreening: Customers are asked to rate the business. Review links are deliberately hidden for customers who rate the business poorly.
- Rewards for positive reviews: The practice of incentivizing customers to leave positive reviews by offering discounts, free gifts or even money.
The reason why businesses choose to review gate is simple: it results in fewer negative reviews. Not only that, it encourages dissatisfied customers to reach out to your support staff for reconciliation.
However, review gating is frowned upon in the industry as it’s seen as an unethical way to manipulate ratings.
After all, if you only encourage happy customers to leave reviews, you’ll end up with a disproportionate number of positive reviews and a suspiciously low number of negative reviews.
What is the Difference Between Review Solicitation and Review Gating?
Review solicitation is the practice of asking for reviews. Review gating is the practice of deliberately not asking for reviews from customers who feel negatively about your business.
Google doesn’t mind if you ask for reviews. In fact, it encourages it. But it does not allow you to ask for reviews in a way that prevents disgruntled customers from leaving them.
What are Google’s Policies On Review Gating?
On Google’s page for prohibited and restricted content, under Fake & Misleading Content & Reviews → Rating Manipulation, they state that they “do not allow merchants to discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers.”
The warning at the bottom of the page states that engaging in any prohibited behavior listed on this page may result in an account suspension or termination, meaning it’ll suspend or terminate your Google Business Profile account if you deliberately discourage customers from leaving negative reviews.
Is Review Gating Illegal?
Yes. Review gating is illegal as it directly violates rules and regulations set by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Specifically, it violates Part 465.7, which states that review suppression is an “unfair or deceptive act or practice and a violation of this part,” specifically if a business were to “prevent a review or any portion thereof from being written or created.”
To make this ruling more clear, this document later states that:
“Moderation of consumer reviews that results in the suppression of some of them based upon their ratings or their negative sentiment could violate § 465.7(b).”
This ruling was announced in August 2024 on the FTC’s website, at which point it stated:
“The rule prohibits…Review Suppression: The final rule prohibits a business from using unfounded or groundless legal threats, physical threats, intimidation, or certain false public accusations to prevent or remove a negative consumer review. The final rule also bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews on a review portion of its website represent all or most of the reviews submitted when reviews have been suppressed based upon their ratings or negative sentiment.”
As Part 465.7 is included in Section 5 of the FTC act, violating it may result in a maximum penalty of $53,088 per violation.
What are the Risks of Review Gating?
- Being fined by the FTC
- Having your Google Business Profile account terminated
- Losing the trust of your customer base
The biggest risk of review gating is being fined by the FTC. The maximum penalty of $53,088 could be devastating for a small business.
The second biggest risk is having your Google Business Profile account suspended or terminated.
Discovery through local searches and Google Maps is very important for businesses. While your business will still appear on Google, you won’t be able to manage your profile or respond to reviews if you can’t access your account.
Lastly, if your customers notice you’re deliberately hiding review links from dissatisfied customers, you’ll lose their trust. They’ll begin to suspect your high review score and may wonder how many negative reviews your business should really have.
What to Do Instead of Review Gating
- Get more positive reviews to outweigh negative reviews
- Respond to all reviews
- Create support channels that are easy to access
- Add support channels to your review funnels
- Take action when customers give constructive feedback
Get More Positive Reviews
A review funnel is a powerful marketing tool that can increase the number of reviews you receive from customers, especially from a customer who never planned to leave a review in the first place.
While this does mean that some reviews will be negative, it doesn’t mean you should avoid review marketing altogether.
To ensure negative reviews hold less weight, do your best to get more positive reviews.
Improve your products, services, customer service and amenities so that satisfied customers actually want to leave reviews. Make the customer experience as unique and memorable as possible.
Related: The Psychology Behind Why Negative Reviews are So Influential
Respond to Reviews
Respond to all reviews you receive. This strategy is most effective when replies are written by you (the owner), a manager or team members who work with customers.
Use templates, but don’t copy and paste canned responses.
When responding to positive reviews:
- Thank the customer for writing a review
- Make note of something the customer mentioned in their review
- Invite the customer to return
- Make a suggestion on a product or service the customer should try
When responding to negative reviews:
- Thank the customer for leaving feedback
- Own up to mistakes. Don’t make excuses
- Let the customer know how you plan on improving your business to avoid making the same mistake again
- Invite the customer to speak with you (the business owner) directly to reach a resolution
Create Easy-Access Support Channels
Customers leave negative reviews for a variety of different reasons, one being a desire to express their dissatisfaction with your business.
A reaction like this is often made in response to companies making support channels harder to find. When you combine that with the number of companies relying on AI chatbots for support, you begin to understand why some customers choose to leave negative reviews rather than contact support.
Encourage unhappy customers to get in touch with your support staff by making support channels easier to access.
Clearly list your support contact information on your footer, Contact and Customer Service pages.
Also, offer the best support channels your company can reasonably handle. For instance, phone and live chat support might not be a good idea for your business if you don’t have an employee that’s able to manage support requests in real time.
Add Support Channels to Your Review Funnel
This is very important. While you can’t remove review links from your review funnel without violating the law, you can encourage unhappy customers to get in touch with your support staff instead.
If a customer chooses the negative response in your review funnel, showcase your review links, but also showcase your support information with a simple “Get in touch” heading. Add links to support channels as well.
Finally, add feedback form so customers can leave feedback on funnel pages.
Related: How to Create a Google Review Link
Take Action with Customer Feedback
Like I said, you can’t control what customers do. If a customer is unhappy with your service, they’re going to let other consumers know how they feel.
What you can control is how you respond to customer feedback.
Take customer feedback in stride by allowing it to influence what changes you make to your business.
Evaluate issues customers point out, and come up with ways to eradicate them.
How to Build a Google-Friendly Review Funnel
Note: If you build a funnel with the Starfish Reviews WordPress plugin, you have the option to disable review gating.
Keep your review funnel Google friendly by giving unhappy customers equal access to review links.
These are the stages in a typical email-based review funnel:
- Initial Email – Includes a call to action that leads to your funnel page
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- Example: “How did we do? Let us know!”
- Funnel Page – Asks customers a question designed to group them into one out of many categories
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- Example: “Were you satisfied with your order?”
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- Includes a positive response (such as a thumbs up button) and a negative response (such as a thumbs down button)
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- Dynamic Content – Custom content for each response type
It’s the dynamic content stage that gets businesses in trouble.
For a positive response, include this content:
- Google review link
- Heading that says “Rate us on Google!”
For a negative response, include this content:
- Google review link
- Feedback form
- Support links
- Support information
- Heading that says “Get in touch with our support staff”
You don’t need to draw attention to your review link, but you do need to include it.
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