You know that email you send after a job — the one that says "leave us a Google review and get 10% off"? In this country, that might now be illegal. Not "Google's a bit annoyed with you" illegal. Actually illegal, with a fine on the end of it.

Hi, I'm Nikki Pilkington. My site is https://nikki-pilkington.com/ and in this episode of "SEO F**king What", I'm talking about the thing the SEO industry has completely missed. Everyone spent July losing their minds over one line Google added to its review snippet documentation. It's a documentation update. It isn't the story. The story is a British law that came in over a year ago and that almost nobody in this industry has mentioned, because most of what you read about SEO is written by Americans about America.

Here's what I'm covering:

— What Google actually added on the 24th of July, and why where they put that line matters more than what it says

— Why fake reviews have been illegal in the UK since April 2025 — not against the rules, not frowned upon, illegal

— Why the CMA no longer needs to take you to court, and can investigate, decide and fine you all by itself

— The numbers: up to £300,000 for the business, and up to £150,000 for the actual human who set it up

— Why "leave a review, get 10% off" is perfectly legal right up until the moment nobody reading it can see the discount existed

— Review gating, which loads of review software does by default and sells to you as a feature

— Your staff, your mates, your mum, and that untraceable "JS, Manchester" testimonial sat on your homepage

— Eight ways to get reviews properly, including the one that changes everything and almost nobody bothers with

I also give you a proper piece of homework. Not the "might do that one day" kind. The do-it-before-your-coffee-goes-cold kind.

If you know someone still running "review for a discount" campaigns, or using software that quietly filters out the unhappy customers before they ever reach Google, send them this. It might save them a very expensive letter.

Get found. Make money. Stop stressing. And go and ask a customer for a review — properly.

Links mentioned:

Non-Wanky SEO Courses — the On-Page SEO toolkit is completely free right now: https://nonwankyseo.com

The CMA's own fake reviews guidance (free, and worth twenty minutes of your life): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67eeb64fe9c76fa33048c790/CMA208_-_Fake_reviews_guidance.pdf

Google's review snippet documentation: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/review-snippet

How to get your short Google review link: https://support.google.com/business/answer/16816815

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13

Follow Nikki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkipilkington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikkipilkington/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nikkipilkington.bsky.social

Mentioned in this episode:

ICN Network

you offering discounts for reviews?

That might actually be illegal.

Not Google's annoyed, a slap on the hand.

Illegal.

This is SEO Fucking What.

I'm Nikki, 30 years in SEO, and today I'm gonna ruin your review strategy

and then hand you a better one.

Because most small businesses are doing this wrong.

Not just slightly wrong.

Wrong in a way that, in this country, now carries a fine.

And the reason no one's told you is that most of what you read

from the SEO industry is American, and this is a British problem

with British law attached to it.

So the small thing that got all the attention was that on the

24th of July, Google updated its review snippet guidelines.

That's the documentation covering the code on your website that produces those

little star ratings in search results.

They added one line.

" Don't include fake or undisclosed incentivized reviews on your

page or in your structured data markup." They gave two examples.

Reviews not based on a genuine experience of the product or service,

and reviews written in exchange for money, discounts, vouchers, or free

products where the incentive isn't clearly and prominently disclosed.

Now, where they put that line matters more than the line itself.

It sits in the section that decides whether you're eligible for star

ratings at all, which is the section where breaking the rules

can earn you a manual action.

And as predicted, the SEO industry lost its mind.

There were blog posts and LinkedIn posts everywhere.

Blah.

Google cracks down.

Urgent action required.

Look, it's a documentation update.

It's Google writing down something that was already true.

If you're panicking about this specifically, you're panicking

about the wrong thing entirely.

Because this is the real problem, the thing that can actually fine you.

Fake reviews have been illegal in the UK since the 6th of April, 2025.

Not against the rules, not frowned upon, illegal.

That's the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.

Under it, writing, commissioning, or submitting fake reviews, or

helping someone else do it, is what's called automatically unfair,

Which means nobody has to prove it influenced a single customer.

Doing it is the offense.

Concealed incentivized reviews are in there too.

That's reviews that you paid for, discounted for, or gave something

away for, where the customer reading it doesn't know that that happened.

And not just the fake reviews.

The act also covers publishing genuine reviews in a misleading way.

Hold that thought, because that's the one that's gonna catch some of you.

Here's the part that should make you sit up.

The Competition and Markets Authority used to have to take a business to court,

which took years and rarely went anywhere.

Under this act, they don't.

They can investigate, decide the law's been broken, order you to

change it, and fine you themselves.

And for a business, that fine is up to £300,000 or 10% of global annual

turnover, whichever is bigger.

For an individual, it's up to £150,000.

That's the director who signed it off or the marketing person

who set up the automated email.

That's a person, not a company.

And this isn't theoretical.

In March this year, the CMA opened five investigations into fake and

misleading reviews across funerals, food delivery, and car sales.

So why does anyone care this much?

because the CMA says that £23 billion of UK consumer spending every year

is influenced by online reviews.

£23 billion.

That's why there's a law.

Obviously, I'm an SEO, I'm not a lawyer.

If any of the next bit sounds like you, go and read the CMA's own guidance.

It's free.

Or go and talk to someone with a legal qualification and a

much duller job than mine.

So let's talk about what this actually captures, because when I say fake

reviews, you're probably picturing some bloke in a bedsit buying 500

five-star ratings from a Facebook group and thinking, "Well, that's not me."

But here's what is you.

The discount for a review.

Leave us a Google review and get 10% off your next order.

Every business in Britain has done this.

That's an incentivized review.

It's legal, but only if the person reading it can clearly see the incentive existed.

And burying that in your terms and conditions or in the small

print of an email doesn't cut it.

It has to be clear and prominent where the review appears.

Review gating.

This is a sneaky one.

You send a message asking how it went, and if they say great,

they get the Google link.

And if they say the job was late and the invoice was wrong, they get an

apology and a phone call instead.

Loads of review software does this by default and sells it as a feature.

That's against Google's rules on its own.

And when you're deliberately filtering so only the good ones ever reach the

public, you're publishing reviews in a way that gives a misleading

impression, Which is a bit of the act that I told you to hold on to.

Then we have your staff and your mates, your mum.

Not a genuine customer experience.

That's a fake review.

I know your mum was only being supportive.

It's still a fake review.

we have testimonials on your own website that nobody can trace.

"Great service. Highly recommended. JS, Manchester." Who?

When?

For what job?

If you can't evidence that a real customer said that about a

real piece of work, take it down.

And if you've got a star rating code wrapped around testimonials

you host and control yourself, that's a separate Google problem.

Reviews you control about yourself aren't eligible for stars anyway.

This one happens a lot, chasing the star average instead of the reviews.

If you're deleting, hiding, or burying the bad ones to keep the number pretty, it's

the same problem, Misleading presentation.

So that's the bad news, and it's a fair bit of bad news.

But in a minute I'm gonna give you the good news, which is that everything

you're supposed to do instead works better than what you were doing anyway.

Stay with me.

Right.

Here's how to get reviews legally, properly, and without bribing anyone.

One, ask at the moment of maximum goodwill, not at the end of

the month when you remember.

On the day you solve the problem.

The hour after they said, "Honestly, thank you. That's such a weight off."

That's when people say yes.

Two weeks later, they've forgotten and moved on

Two, ask like a human, one at a time.

The bulk automated request gets bulk ignored because everyone recognizes it.

A short personal message from the person who did the work using their

name, referencing the actual job, gets a response rate that will surprise you.

Yes, it takes longer.

You need 12 good reviews, not 400.

You can find 12 minutes.

Three, send them the direct link.

Don't tell someone to search for you on Google and find the review button.

They won't.

Google Business Profile gives you a short review link.

Grab it, save it somewhere, paste it into every request.

One tap and they're in the box.

Four, tell them what to write about.

This is the one that changes everything and almost no one does it.

"Please leave us a review" gets you a blank box and a blank mind,

and if you're lucky, four words.

Instead, ask a question.

"Would you mind mentioning what the situation was before you called us?"

If you could say a bit more about how long it took, that'd be really useful."

Now they've got something to write about and you get a review that describes an

actual problem being solved. which is the kind of review a future customer

reads and thinks, "Oh, that's me.

That's my exact situation."

Five generic five-star reviews saying great service sell nothing.

Five, ask everybody, not just the delighted ones.

Ask the ones where it went fine.

Ask the ones where it was a bit bumpy and you sorted it because a review that

says there was a hiccup and they fixed it in a day is worth more than perfection.

Nobody believes a flawless page of five stars.

They believe 4.8 Six, if you're going to incentivize, disclose it properly.

Best answer is don't.

Don't incentivize.

But if you're running a prize draw or offering a voucher, the disclosure

of those where the review appears in plain words where a customer will

see it, not in the terms, not in the footer, and you offer it whatever they

write, not just for the nice ones.

Seven, reply to all your reviews, including the bad ones.

especially the bad ones.

Not defensive, not an essay.

Acknowledge it, say what you did about it, move on.

future customers read your replies to work out what you're like when

something goes wrong, which really is the thing they're worried about.

And lastly, spread them out.

Google Business Profile first because that's what shows up in search.

Then LinkedIn recommendations if you're B2B because your buyers are on there,

and a recommendation from a named person with a real job title carries

more weight than an anonymous star.

And then whatever platform your industry uses.

The thing to take away, the legal route and the effective

route are now the same route.

A real review from a real customer describing a real problem outsells

a bribed one every single time.

You are never getting much out of the 10% discount anyway.

If this was helpful, follow SEO Fucking What in whichever app you're listening

in so the next one turns up on its own.

And if you want to sort out the rest of your website while

you're at it, my On-page SEO toolkit is now completely free.

10 short lessons, no cost, no catch, nonwankyseo.com.

Until next time, get found, make money, and go and ask a

customer for a review right now.

Not later, now