Google Review QR Code: How to Make a Card or Sign People Actually Scan

Make your review QR cardDownload the review card print checklist (PDF)

What the QR code should open

A review QR code is just your direct review link, drawn as a pattern a phone camera can read. When it is scanned, the phone opens the link and the customer lands on the star rating and comment box for your business. If the link underneath is wrong, the code is wrong, so start by getting the link right. Our guide on how to get your Google review link covers both ways of finding it.

There are two free places to get the code. If you manage your Business Profile, Google's page on creating a link or QR code to request reviews explains that the review QR code appears under Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and that you right-click it to save the image. It can only be made in a browser on a computer. The other route is our free review link generator, which takes a Place ID or a profile link and gives you the QR code as a PNG or SVG file, plus ready-to-print cards. It doesn't need access to the profile.

An image file is enough for a menu or a flyer you are designing yourself. If you want something to hand over today, the printable cards save the design step.

Make the card in the free generator

1. Get your direct review link

Paste your Place ID, a Maps link that contains it, or your profile's g.page review link into the first box. The link and the QR code appear on the right. Press Open to test before you go any further.

2. Add your name, logo and colour

Type the business name exactly as customers know it. The logo is optional; if you add one, use the version with the clearest outline. The accent colour draws the line at the top of the card. The code itself stays black on white, which is the combination every phone camera reads best.

3. Write a neutral headline

The card has a headline and a line under it, and you can change both. The next section explains why the wording matters and gives safe options.

4. Choose paper and layout

Pick US Letter or A4, then either four cards per sheet or one sign per sheet. With four per sheet, each card is a quarter of the page: 4.25 × 5.5 inches on US Letter, or 105 × 148.5 mm (A6) on A4. The single-sheet layout makes a full-page sign for a wall or a stand. Press Download card PDF. A card PNG and the plain QR code are there too.

5. Print one sheet and test

Print a single sheet on the paper you plan to use and cut along the light grey lines. The page keeps everything about 0.3 inches in from each card edge, so ordinary office printers don't clip it. Then scan, as described below, before you print the rest.

6. Place the cards

Where the card sits decides how often it is scanned. That has its own section further down.

Wording that keeps you inside Google's rules

Google's policy on prohibited and restricted content for Maps is specific about how businesses may ask. It allows a business to encourage reviews that reflect a genuine experience, without incentives and without trying to influence the rating or the content. It does not allow a business to:

• offer incentives, such as payment, discounts, or free goods or services, in exchange for a review;
• discourage negative reviews, or selectively ask for positive ones;
• require or pressure people to leave a rating or review while they are on the premises;
• ask for specific content to be included in the review.

On a card, the second point is the one people break by accident. "Loved it? Leave us a review!" sounds harmless, but it only invites the happy customers. So does a card with two codes, one for happy customers and one for complaints. A neutral headline such as "How did we do?" invites everyone, and that is what the policy asks for. The generator's default headline is "Enjoyed your visit?"; change it to something neutral if you want the card to read as an invitation to every customer. The checklist with this post has four lines you can copy.

Incentives are the other trap. A free drink for a review, a raffle entry, 10% off the next visit: Google treats all of them as fake engagement and can remove the reviews. In the United States, the FTC's rule on consumer reviews also makes it unlawful to offer an incentive conditioned on the review being positive or negative.

Print it so it scans

QR codes are robust, but a few print habits stop them working:

• Keep the white margin. DENSO WAVE, the company that invented the QR code, explains on its guide to the code area that a QR code needs a clear margin, the "quiet zone", four modules wide on every side. A module is one of the small squares. Don't let a border, a photo or a fold run into that margin.
• Dark on light. Keep the code black on white or close to it. A code printed in a pale brand colour, or on a dark background, scans less reliably.
• Matte beats gloss. A glossy lamination can reflect overhead lights straight into the camera. If the card will be laminated, test it laminated.
• Size for the distance. A quarter-page card scans comfortably from arm's length. A sign across the room needs the full-page layout.

Then test. Scan the cut card with an iPhone camera and an Android camera, from where a customer would actually stand or sit, in the dimmest light the card will live in. Check that each scan opens your business and the review box.

Where to put the cards

Google's own suggestions include printing and displaying the QR code in your store. The best spots share one trait: the customer has just seen the finished result and has a free moment.

• With the finished work. In the folder with the invoice, taped inside the box, left on the counter of a finished kitchen, in the bag with a takeaway order.
• Where people wait. A table tent in a waiting room or on restaurant tables, where someone has their phone out anyway.
• At the counter. Visible, but not something staff point at while the customer pays. The policy line about pressure on the premises is the reason: a card that is there to scan later is fine; a staff member standing over a customer until they post is not.

A card reaches the people standing in front of you. The customers you only deal with by email need the link in a message instead, and our review request email and text templates cover that. If you want those emails to go out without anyone remembering, Fynl's Starter plan sends them to the contacts you choose, with reminders until the link is clicked. The cards themselves stay free. More free tools are on the free tools page.

Questions people also ask

Sources

• Google Business Profile Help — Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews
• Google Maps — Prohibited and restricted content
• DENSO WAVE — QR Code: points for determining the code area
• eCFR — 16 CFR Part 465, Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials