← Blog · Business · 4 min read
A QR code that asks for a Google review
The code is the easy part. The link is what matters: it should open the review box, not your listing.
The link has to open the box, not the listing
A link to your Google Business Profile drops the customer on your listing, where they then have to find the reviews section, scroll, and tap "Write a review". Every extra step loses some of them.
What you want is the link that opens the review dialog directly. Google provides it: in your Business Profile, look for "Ask for reviews" or "Get more reviews" and copy the short link it gives you. That link is the one to encode.
Our generator has a review type that builds this for you from a place ID, which avoids copying the wrong URL.
Which link, and how dense a code it makes
The link's length decides how fine the code is, and a review code is usually printed small. Measured with this site's encoder:
| Link | Level | Modules across | Module at 2 cm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Place ID link (this generator), 79 characters | H | 49 | 0.35 mm |
| Place ID link (this generator), 79 characters | M | 37 | 0.44 mm |
| Google's write-a-review link, 93 characters | H | 53 | 0.33 mm |
| Google's write-a-review link, 93 characters | M | 41 | 0.41 mm |
At 2 cm, the size of a receipt corner, the longer link at level H gives modules of 0.33 mm. The single generator always uses H; the bulk generator lets you choose M, which brings the same link down to 41 modules across. If Business Profile's share link is shorter than either of these, it makes a coarser code still, and the generator shows the module count for whatever you paste.
Where the code goes
Timing beats placement. Ask while someone is pleased and not yet gone — on the receipt, on the card that comes with the bill, on the counter beside the till.
A code on a poster by the door catches people already leaving. It works, but far less well than something they are holding.
Say what it does
An unlabelled QR code is easy to ignore, and easy to distrust: codes in public places are sometimes not what they claim. "Leave us a Google review" scanned from a receipt is clear about where it leads.
Adding a line like "it takes thirty seconds" can help, because the hesitation is often about effort rather than unwillingness.
What not to do
Do not offer anything in exchange for a review. Google's policies prohibit incentivised reviews, and reviews obtained that way can be removed along with the goodwill you were trying to build.
Do not filter. Showing the code only to happy customers, or sending unhappy ones somewhere else, is selectively asking for positive reviews, which Google's content policy prohibits.
Ask everyone, and let the average be the average.
Print it properly
This code is usually small — a corner of a receipt, a business card. Small is where the quiet zone matters most: keep the white border, and do not let it sit flush against a printed edge.
Receipt printers are also low resolution and the paper is often slightly grey. Print a real one on the real paper and scan it before committing to a run of five thousand.
Paste your Place ID and the code opens Google’s review form.
Make a review QR code →