Do online reviews affect whether AI recommends my business?

Google files reviews under prominence, which its local ranking help page describes as how well known a business is. It says the number of Google reviews and the review score count towards local ranking, and that more reviews and positive ratings can improve it. The same page tells businesses to reply to reviews, because a reply shows customers that you value them and their feedback.

Google gives no weighting, no number of reviews that guarantees a place, and nothing on whether replies count towards ranking, so nobody outside Google knows how a 4.6 compares with a 4.8. What can be said is that genuine reviews are one of the things Google itself names.

Much less. OpenAI’s help page on shopping includes reviews, with price, in its example of what ChatGPT may weigh when it suggests products, but gives no weighting. Neither OpenAI nor the other companies behind the main assistants publish how reviews count when they name a local business, so anyone selling you the formula is guessing.

Google has documented one thing worth knowing. Its developer documentation for Google Maps describes AI-powered review summaries: a short overview of a place, generated from its user reviews and labelled “Summarized with Gemini”. That is a machine describing a business in its customers’ words, which is a reason to care what your reviews say, not only how many stars they give.

The rest is reasoning, not documentation. A review is public text about your business, in a customer’s own words, sitting where people look you up. “Family portraits in Llandeilo, relaxed, and the photos arrived within a week” names the service, the town and how it went, which a star rating cannot. Whatever an assistant makes of it, the next customer reads it.

Asking is allowed, and it is the honest way to get more reviews. Google’s advice is to remind customers to leave one, and your Business Profile gives you a review link and a QR code for exactly that. Put them where the job ends: on the receipt or invoice, in the thank-you email, on a card by the till.

Google’s rules let you encourage reviews of a genuine experience, as long as you offer nothing for them and do not try to steer the rating or what is written. So no “we’d love five stars”, no suggested wording, and no asking only the customers who seemed pleased. If you serve customers in Welsh, ask in Welsh.

Once your Business Profile is verified, you can reply from Google Search or Maps. Replies are public, Google tells the reviewer when you reply, and they can then update their review. Google checks each reply against its content policies, and asks you to edit one it does not approve.

Thank people for good reviews in a sentence or two. With a bad one, write for the next customer as much as for the reviewer: thank them, correct the facts if they differ, say what you have changed or offer to talk by phone or email, and stop. Leave out anything personal about the customer, and reply once rather than trading messages in public.

If a review breaks Google’s policies, for instance because it is not about a real experience, flag it from your profile instead of arguing. If it is genuine and you disagree, reply. The CMA’s guidance draws the same line: a review is not fake just because the business it is about disagrees with it.

Google’s fake engagement policy says a review must reflect a genuine experience, and that fake engagement is removed. It names the shortcuts: reviews paid for directly or in kind, reviews posted from several accounts by or for one person, and discounts, free goods or services offered for a review, or for changing or removing a bad one.

It also rules out review gating: discouraging negative reviews, or asking only the customers likely to leave positive ones. The usual form is a “How did we do?” message that sends happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private form, filtering out complaints before they can be posted.

Google also says it may restrict the profile of a business that breaks the policy: blocking new reviews for a set period, unpublishing existing ones for a time, or showing a warning that fake reviews were removed. A few bought reviews can leave your genuine ones hidden and a warning on your profile.

Since 6 April 2025, fake reviews have been a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and so have concealed incentivised reviews, where the reviewer was paid or rewarded and that is not made clear. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published guidance on the ban that month, with a short version for businesses.

GOV.UK’s guidance for businesses is blunt: do not post reviews of your own business, or a rival’s, while posing as a customer, and do not pay others to write fake reviews, because you may be liable for what they do. It says misleading practices can lead to a fine of up to 10% of global turnover, and may be a criminal offence.

For a small business, two points matter. Under the CMA’s guidance, an incentivised review is allowed if it is clearly labelled, usually as an advert, but Google allows no incentives at all, so offer nothing. And the rules cover any business that publishes reviews, testimonials on its own website included: the CMA warns that suppressing genuine negative reviews, or selectively promoting positive ones, may break the law.