Reviews and reputation. Reviewed October 29, 2026
Review gating
Also called: Review filtering
Review gating is asking customers how they feel first and sending only the happy ones to Google, which Google's policies forbid and which can get reviews removed.
In practice
The tools that offer a thumbs up or thumbs down before showing the Google link are gating. Ask everyone for the review in the same message and handle the unhappy ones by phone. A few three-star reviews with good replies read as honest.
A profile that shows only five stars and sudden drops is what Google's filters look for.
Related terms
- Review velocityReview velocity is how many new reviews a business earns each month, and a steady flow of recent reviews outweighs a large total that stopped growing two years ago.
- Review responseA review response is the public reply a business posts under a review, and replying to every one, including the bad ones, is read by both future customers and Google.
More reviews and reputation terms
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