Google review link: how to find yours and shorten it

Every review request a contractor sends, whether it is a text after a service call, a line at the bottom of an invoice or a QR code on a leave behind card, ends in the same place: one link that opens Google’s review form for your business. Get that link wrong and every request after it is wasted. Get it right once and you can reuse it for years.

This guide covers where Google keeps the link, how to check it, and what to do if you want it shorter.

Where Google keeps your review link

Google lets every Business Profile owner create a link or a QR code that asks customers for a review (Google). The steps, as Google describes them:

1. Go to your Business Profile. Google’s help page sends you to business.google.com, signed in with the account that manages the profile.
2. Select Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
3. To copy the link, select Copy.
4. To save the QR code, right click it and select Save image as.

One limit matters for anyone who runs the business from a phone: “Currently, reviews QR codes can only be generated on a computer browser, not on mobile devices.” Google’s page documents the computer route only, so the simplest path is to do this once at a desk, then email the link to yourself or paste it into a note on your phone.

Do not confuse it with a different link Google offers. On its page about managing reviews, Google explains how to share a link to one existing review, through Share review in Google Maps (Google). That link shows a past customer’s words to a future customer. It does not open the review form, so it is the wrong link for a request.

Copy it, do not build it

Google’s help page does not show what the review link looks like, and you do not need to know. Copy it and paste it. Retyping a link from a screenshot is the most common way to end up with one that opens nothing.

You will also find guides that tell you to build a review link by hand from your “place ID”. A place ID is real: Google’s developer documentation calls it “a textual identifier that uniquely identifies a place”. The same page adds a warning that matters here: “Place IDs may change over time” (Google for Developers). Google’s Places API can also hand software a “Write review” link for a place (Google for Developers), which is how some review tools fetch yours. That is plumbing for software builders. For a contractor, the link from Get more reviews is the one to use.

Test it before a customer does

A broken link fails silently. The customer taps, sees an error or the wrong screen, and gives up without telling you. Before you send it to anyone:

• Open it on your own phone. The review form should open with your business name on it.
• Open it in a private browser window, where you are not signed in. You should be asked to sign in to Google. That is normal: customers must be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review, though they can create one with an email address that is not Gmail (Google).
• Ask someone in the family to try it on a different phone.

Then put a reminder in your calendar to test it again every few months, and after any big change to your profile, such as a new business name.

Do you need to shorten it?

Paste the link into a text to yourself and look at it. If it fits comfortably in the message, there is nothing to fix. Shortening matters in three places: a printed card or invoice where someone might type it, a link you want to read out on the phone, and a truck or yard sign. For print, Google’s QR code is usually the better answer, and we compare the options in QR code vs text vs email.

If you still want a shorter link, know what a free public shortener costs you.

Links can die

A short link only works as long as the company behind it keeps it running. Google itself is the cautionary tale. In July 2024 it announced that links made with its own shortener, goo.gl, would “no longer return a response after August 25th, 2025.” In August 2025 it softened the plan and kept actively used links alive, deactivating only links that had shown no activity in late 2024 (Google Developers Blog). If a company that size can pull a shortener, a smaller one can too, and the cards you printed will point nowhere.

Filters do not like them

Shared shorteners are used by legitimate businesses and spammers alike. The wireless industry’s messaging guidelines, published by CTIA, ask business senders that use a shortener to use one “with a web address and IP address(es) dedicated to the exclusive use of the Message Sender” (CTIA). Those guidelines are written for business texting platforms more than for a texter with one phone, but the logic carries: a shared short link is a weaker signal than your own.

Customers are wary of them

Your customers have been taught to be careful. The FTC warns that “scammers often try to get you to click on links in text messages” (FTC). A link that shows a random string tells the customer nothing about where it goes. A link that shows Google, or your own company name, does.

The better option: a redirect on your own website

If you have a website, set up a simple address on it, such as yourcompany.com/review, that forwards straight to the link Google gave you. Most website builders and domain providers let you add a redirect in their settings without touching code; ask whoever built your site if you cannot find it.

What you gain:

• Your name in the link. A homeowner who sees your company name knows who sent it.
• Control. If Google’s link ever changes, you update the redirect once. Every card, invoice and saved text keeps working.
• No third party that can shut down or change its terms.

One rule: the redirect must go straight to Google. A page in between that asks “how did we do?” and only passes happy customers on is review gating, which Google bans when it rules out merchants that “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers” (Google). We explain what that means for software in review gating is banned.

An example

A two person electrical contractor copies the link from Get more reviews on the office computer, emails it to both phones and saves it in a text shortcut. The owner also adds yourcompany.com/review on the company website, forwarding to the same link, and prints that shorter address with the QR code on the back of the invoice. Texts carry the full Google link, paper carries the company address, and both land on the same form.

Your checklist

1. On a computer, open your Business Profile, then Read reviews and Get more reviews.
2. Copy the link and save the QR code.
3. Send the link to your phone and save it where your thumb can reach it.
4. Test it signed in and signed out.
5. If you need a shorter version, make a redirect on your own domain rather than using a public shortener.
6. Test again every few months.

Then use it. Message wording is in how to ask for a Google review by text, and if you were told you need a tap card to collect reviews, read how to get Google reviews without an NFC card first.