How to leave a Google review, on your phone or your computer.

Somebody did good work for you and you want to say so where it counts. Leaving a Google review takes about a minute once you know where the button is, and the button moves depending on whether you’re on a phone, a computer, or a link the business sent you. Here’s every path.

What you need before you start

One thing: a Google account, signed in. It doesn’t have to be a Gmail address (any email can be attached to a Google account), but there’s no reviewing without one, because reviews can’t be anonymous. Your review posts publicly under your account name and profile photo, alongside every other review you’ve written.

That’s worth knowing before you post, not after: anyone who taps your name can see your other reviews. Write like it’s signed, because it is.

On your phone

The fastest path runs through Google Maps or plain Google Search — both work, same result.

• Open the Google Maps app (or google.com in your browser) and search for the business by name.
• Tap the business to open its profile, then tap the Reviews tab.
• Tap the row of empty stars; the moment you pick a rating, the review box opens.
• Write what happened, add photos if you have them, and tap Post.

If you found the business through Google Search instead of Maps, scroll the profile panel to the reviews section. The same empty-star row is there, and it behaves identically.

On your computer

• Go to Google Maps and search for the place, or search the business name on Google.
• In Maps, the business panel opens on the left; click "Write a review." In Search, the button sits in the reviews section of the profile on the right.
• Click the stars to rate, add your text and any photos, and click Post.

If the business sent you a link

Many businesses text or email a direct review link after a job. That link skips every step above: it opens the rating box for the right business in one tap, already signed in if your phone is. If you were sent one, use it. It’s the shortest path there is, and it guarantees your review lands on the right profile rather than the franchise two towns over with the same name.

How to write a Google review worth reading

Stars alone help the average, but the written part is what helps the next customer, and the next customer is who reviews are for. Writing a Google review isn’t a composition test; the useful review is just specific:

• Say what you hired them for and roughly when. "Replaced our water heater in March" beats "great service" every time.
• Name one concrete detail: the thing they did that a mediocre business would have skipped.
• If something went wrong and got fixed, say both halves. A solved problem is the most trustworthy story a review can tell.
• Add a photo if you have one. Real photos of real work carry more weight than any adjective.

A review is a sixty-second favor to a stranger making the same decision you just made.

Why your review might not show up right away

Most reviews appear on the profile almost immediately. When one doesn’t, it’s usually moderation, not malfunction. Google now screens reviews before they publish, and a review can sit in that screening for a while before it appears.

A few things reliably get a review blocked or removed: links or phone numbers in the text, profanity, reviewing a business you work for or compete with, and anything you were paid or rewarded to post (Google prohibits incentivized reviews outright, in both directions). A very new Google account with no other activity also draws more scrutiny than an established one. If your review is clean and still missing after a few days, it may simply have been filtered; you can try reposting a plainer version, but there’s no appeal channel for reviewers.

Changing your mind: edit or delete a review you wrote

You can edit or remove your own review any time. On a computer, open Google Maps → Menu → Your contributions → Reviews, click More next to the review, and choose Edit or Delete. In the Maps app it lives under Contribute → your profile → See all reviews. One quirk worth knowing: if you edit a review, its displayed date updates to the edit date.

If you’re a business owner reading this

Be honest: you searched this so you could send the steps to a customer. The instinct is right and the method is wrong. Any process that requires your customer to follow steps loses most of them at step one. The businesses that accumulate reviews steadily send a direct review link, automatically, right after the work is done, when the goodwill is at its peak.

The difference compounds fast. People checking out a business want to see a healthy pile of reviews, and recent ones, and a manual ask delivers neither. The system that does is described in how to get more Google reviews, and the replies that make each review count are in how to respond to Google reviews.

The wiring behind all of it (request, reminder, alert, reply) is what we build under reputation management. If your review count is stuck while your work is good, book a strategy call.