Can You Put Your Google Reviews on Your Own Website?

The short answer: Yes, but the rules depend on how you obtain and display them. If you use Google Maps Platform services, its terms restrict scraping and storing review content; a live Google-provided element with attribution is one supported approach. Those API customer terms should not be treated as a blanket rule for every independently obtained testimonial or reuse scenario. Reviews about your own business, shown on your own site, are also ineligible for Google's self-serving LocalBusiness or Organization review stars, however the markup is written.

Three rule books apply, not one

How you collect the reviews, how you display them, and what Google shows in search are governed by three separate documents. A setup can pass one and fail another.

How you collect them

Google's contribution policies prohibit "Reviews or ratings that have been paid for, directly or in kind", and tell merchants not to offer incentives such as "payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" in exchange for reviews. Content "posted due to an incentive offered by a business" is prohibited, including content posted after you ask someone to revise or remove a review in exchange for something.

The clause businesses trip over is the next one. Merchants may not "Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". That rules out the common follow-up survey that routes happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private inbox. Google's guidance on asking for reviews points you at a plain review link or QR code, and calls offering free or discounted goods to a customer who posts, changes or removes a review "strictly prohibited".

Asking every customer, with the same wording and no filter, is allowed. Asking only the people you expect to be kind is not.

How you display them

For a build using Google Maps Platform services, two clauses matter. Section 3.2.3(a), No Scraping, says the customer will not "pre-fetch, index, store, reshare, or rehost Google Maps Content outside the services", and names "copy and save business names, addresses, or user reviews". Section 3.2.3(b), No Caching, allows caching only where the service specific terms expressly permit it. Those terms permit caching place ID values, and latitude and longitude "for up to 30 consecutive calendar days". Review text is not on the list. These restrictions apply to content obtained through those services; separately obtained testimonials require their own permissions and applicable terms to be checked.

Attribution is its own requirement. Section 3.2.2(b) says you will display the attribution Google provides and "will not modify, obscure, or delete such attribution", so stripping Google's branding to match your site colours breaks the terms.

There is also a map rule. Places API content must not be used "in conjunction with a non-Google map", while the Places UI Kit may be used "with or without any map". Google's Place Details element "renders details such as opening hours, website, and reviews for a selected place", and the advanced versions that add a rating and a review summary sit in a paid preview on the Pro tier.

Why the stars do not follow

Google's review snippet documentation limits the star feature on LocalBusiness and Organization markup to "sites that capture reviews about other local businesses" and other organizations. A review about an entity placed on that entity's own website, including through an embedded third-party widget, is self-serving and not eligible. Aggregating ratings from other websites is also not allowed, ratings must come directly from users, and human editors "must not create, curate, or compile" them.

A reviews section on your home page is a trust signal for the person reading it, not a path to stars in search. If someone has quoted you review markup to get stars on your service pages, that documentation is the reply to send.

What Canadian law adds

Canada regulates who writes the review, not where it sits. In January 2024 the Competition Bureau warned that businesses could be liable for online reviews posted by employees, including honest opinions, where the employment connection is not disclosed. The guidance covers reviews about the employer and about competitors, and extends to social media testimonials. Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell put it plainly: "When employees post reviews without disclosing their relationship with the business, consumers are misled."

Under section 74.1 of the Competition Act, the maximum administrative monetary penalty for a corporation is the greater of $10 million for a first order ($15 million for subsequent orders) and three times the benefit derived from the deceptive conduct—or, when that benefit cannot reasonably be determined, 3% of annual worldwide gross revenues. Those are maximums, not a forecast. We are not lawyers, and an exposure question belongs with counsel.

For a small team the practical version is one page of policy: do not solicit Google reviews from staff, contractors or family where a conflict of interest exists. Google's contribution policies prohibit conflict-based reviews; disclosure alone does not make them permissible. For testimonials elsewhere, disclose material connections and follow that platform's rules. Nobody runs a draw for reviews.

Take a property manager

Take a property manager with 40 Google reviews and a 4.6 average. Their developer copies review text obtained through Google Maps Platform services and pastes the 12 best onto a testimonials page with reviewer names, then adds aggregate rating markup showing 4.9 out of 5.

Three things are wrong. The review text copied from Google Maps Platform services is stored content of the kind the no-scraping clause names. The 4.9 does not match the 4.6 a reader sees on Google. And those self-serving LocalBusiness or Organization review stars are ineligible for search, because the reviews are about the entity hosting them.

The version that works loads a live Place Details element with attribution intact, links to the full profile, and states the real average and count beside the enquiry route.

A checklist for this week

1. Find every review on your site, and note which are pasted text and which load live from Google.
2. Check how they were collected. Any flow that filters out unhappy customers before the ask comes out.
3. Strip incentives from your review request. One link or QR code, same wording, to every customer.
4. If a reviews block loads from Google, confirm the attribution is visible and has not been restyled away.
5. Compare any aggregate rating markup against your live Google average and count, then decide whether it belongs there.
6. Write the one-page rule: avoid conflict-based Google reviews, disclose material connections in testimonials elsewhere, and follow each platform’s rules. Put the booking link beside the reviews block.

Where Lumin fits

• Our business applications and connected workflow work covers the website pieces around an enquiry, including how proof, response routes and booking flows sit together on a page. A first engagement starts with scope, access requirements and a practical first step.
• A connected workflow can send one review request after every job closes, with no filter on who receives it, which keeps collection inside Google's policy.
• We do not write reviews, remove reviews, or promise star ratings in search results. Book a discovery call if you want the enquiry path looked at with the rest of the page.