How to Make a Google Review QR Code in 2026: Find Your Link in 2 Minutes and 6 Places to Put It (Google, Canva, Bitly, Jobbit)

Two plumbers cover the same postcode. One has four Google reviews, three of them from 2022. The other has 140, the newest from last week, and gets the call. The difference is rarely the quality of the work; it is that one of them asks every customer at the right moment and makes it a ten-second job. A Google review QR code on the counter, the van and the invoice is how a small firm asks without nagging, and it costs nothing to make.

The numbers behind it come from BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026: 97% of people read reviews online, 41% say they always read them before choosing a local business (up from 29% a year earlier), and 31% will only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher, almost double the 17% of 2025. Google is still the place most of them look, even as its share slipped to 71% from 83%. This guide gets you from "where is my review link" to a printed code that scans first time, inside Google's rules, with the free tool page that does the code and the sign in one message.

Find your Google review link in 2 minutes

You need the link that opens the review box with five empty stars, not the link to your Maps listing. Google gives it to you in three places, all free, all requiring that you are signed in to the account that manages the business profile.

Route 1: the Business Profile dashboard

Go to business.google.com, sign in, and on the Home tab click "Ask for reviews". A box opens with your review link and a Copy button. The link usually starts with g.page/r/ and ends with /review, and it never expires as long as the profile exists.

Route 2: Google Search

Search for your exact business name while signed in. The management toolbar appears above the results for your own profile; click "Ask for reviews", then Copy. Same link, no dashboard needed.

Route 3: the Google Maps app

Open your profile in the Maps app, go to Customers, then Reviews, then "Get more reviews", and copy the link. Handy when you are on site and someone asks how to leave one right now.

One change to know about: Google stopped letting businesses create or edit the short "g.page/yourname" names. Old ones still work, but a new business gets the longer link, and that is fine, because nobody types it; they scan it. Before you print anything, open the link in a private browser window. It should land on a Google page with your business name and an empty five-star rating box. If it opens your listing instead, you copied the wrong link.

Make the QR code on Jobbit in one message

Open the free QR code page, paste the review link, and choose where the code will go: menu or table card, business card, poster or flyer, sticker or packaging, screen, or just the file. Pick a style (black on white, with your logo, or your brand colour) and press the button. There is a ready example called "Google review sign" that fills the choices for you. The page turns your choices into a message, you create a free account with an email address, and the agent sends back a large PNG for print, an SVG that scales to any size without blurring, a scan check where it reads its own code back to confirm it opens the right address, and print advice on size and white space.

The code encodes your link directly. It does not pass through a redirect service, which is why it cannot expire, start charging, or stop working when a subscription lapses. If you would rather type the message yourself, this is the one the page writes:

1Make a QR code for this Google review link: [paste the link]. It will go on an A6 card by the till and on a sticker in the van window. Give me a PNG at least 2000 px wide and an SVG, black on white with my logo in the middle if that still scans, check that the code opens the link, and tell me how big to print each one.

Then ask for the card itself: "design the A6 card around it with the words 'Enjoyed the service? Scan to leave us a Google review', our logo and our phone number, print-ready with 3 mm bleed". The sign and the code come from the same chat, and the next message can be the table tent, the invoice footer and the van sticker in matching style.

6 places a review QR code gets scanned, and 3 where it never does

The six that work share one thing: the customer is standing still, holding a phone, at the moment the service has just been good. The three that never work put a QR code on a screen, where a link is the right tool.

Print it so it scans first time

The rules are the same as for any QR code, and they are worth repeating because a review code is the one you print 500 of:

• Minimum 2 cm by 2 cm for a code scanned from a hand's length away. Smaller than that and older phones give up.
• The 10 to 1 rule. Divide the scanning distance by ten to get the code size: 20 cm away needs a 2 cm code, 1 metre needs 10 cm, 5 metres needs 50 cm.
• White space around it. The standard asks for a quiet zone of four modules on every side; in practice, leave a margin of about 10 to 15% of the code's width and never crop into it.
• Dark on light. Black or a dark brand colour on white or cream. Inverted codes (white on black) fail on many phones.
• Add 20 to 30% if the code will sit in poor light, on a curved surface, or behind glass.
• Print from the SVG for anything bigger than a business card; a small PNG enlarged for a window goes soft and stops scanning.
• Test with two phones (one iPhone, one Android) before the print run, in the actual spot, under the actual lights.

The deeper rules, including why a code under a spotlight fails and what to do about it, are in How to Make a Free QR Code That Never Expires.

Ask the right way: Google's review rules in 2026

Google rewrote its prohibited and restricted content guidance in early 2026, and its enforcement now runs on automated systems that remove reviews, and in bad cases every review on a profile. The lines are clear:

• No incentives. No discount, prize draw, free coffee or gift for a review. In the UK this is also consumer law since the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 took effect in 2025: fake reviews and hidden incentivised reviews are banned practices, and the Competition and Markets Authority can fine businesses directly.
• No gating. You cannot send happy customers to Google and unhappy ones to a private form. Ask everyone the same way. The card wording "if anything was wrong, call me first" is allowed because it is an invitation to complain, not a filter on who gets the link.
• No staff, family or bought reviews. They are detectable and the penalty is the profile's whole review history.
• Ask, and make it easy. Asking is allowed and expected. A QR code at the right moment is exactly what Google means by making it easy.
• Reply to every review, good and bad, within a day or two. Replies are visible to the next customer and they show Google an active, managed profile.

A review that arrives through a code is a normal review; what you must not do is pay for it, filter who gets asked, or write it yourself.

What to say when you hand over the card

The code does the mechanics; the sentence does the asking. Keep it short, specific and about them:

• Trades, at sign-off: "That's everything working. If you are happy with the job, there is a code on the invoice for a Google review; it takes thirty seconds and it is how a one-van firm gets found."
• Cafe or shop, at the till: "If you enjoyed it, scan that and tell Google. It helps us more than a sign in the window."
• Salon or clinic, at the end: "There's a code on the mirror. If you love it, a review really helps the girls here."
• Online order insert: "We are two people and a spare room. If the parcel made you smile, the code on this card takes you to our Google reviews."

Two hours later, a text with the link ("Thanks again for today. If you have a minute: [link]") catches the people who meant to and forgot. The agent writes these messages in your voice and, on paid plans, can send the follow-up for you on a schedule.

From reviews to the bigger job: what the same agent does next

Sheila, 63, is a mobile hairdresser who went self-employed after thirty years in a salon. She had four Google reviews and a diary full of regulars. The first message made the review code and the appointment card. The second message built her a one-page site with her prices, her areas, a booking form and her reviews pulled in, hosted on her own domain on the Go plan for £7 a month. The third set up a weekly job that drafts replies to new reviews in her tone for her to approve. The QR code was the smallest thing the agent did; the site is what turned reviews into bookings.

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse will all draft a review request or a reply, and some will make an image of a QR code. Where Jobbit differs is that the code, the card, the site and the follow-up come out of the same chat as real files and a real hosted page, and when the job needs a person (a signwriter for the van, a printer for 500 cards, a photographer for the site), Jobbit can bring a UK freelancer in from the same place, with payment held in escrow until the work is done. If you want to count scans without a paid dynamic-code plan, How to Track QR Code Scans shows the free UTM method, and if you are wondering whether a QR app subscription is worth it at all, Do You Need a QR Code App? does the ten-year maths.

Mistakes that kill a review QR code

• Pointing at the listing, not the review form. The customer lands on your Maps page, scrolls, gives up. Test the link in a private window first.
• A code that goes through a shortener. Bitly's free links and dynamic-code subscriptions can expire or start charging; the code then opens an error page on 500 printed cards. Encode the Google link directly.
• Canva as the generator. Canva's QR tool is fine and sits inside Canva Pro at £13 a month, but the sign needs a code that is checked to scan, not just a pretty one. Test it.
• Too small on a receipt. Under 2 cm on thermal paper is a grey smudge.
• Laminated card under a spotlight. The glare blinds the camera. Matt finish, or move the card.
• Moving premises. The review link belongs to the profile; a new address can mean a new profile and a reprint. Check before you move.
• Asking while watching. Standing over someone as they type a review feels like gating and reads like it. Hand over the card and step away.
• Replying angrily. The next 30 customers read your reply, not the review.

A 7-day plan from four reviews to a steady flow

• Day 1: the link. Find it by any of the three routes, test it in a private window, save it in your notes.
• Day 1: the code and the card. One message on the QR code page; check the PNG and SVG, print one card at home and scan it with two phones.
• Day 2: the places. Counter, invoice footer, van or window, packaging insert. Print the SVG for anything bigger than a card.
• Day 3: the sentence. Write the one line each person on your team will say, and the two-hour follow-up text.
• Days 4 to 7: ask everyone. Every customer, same words, same card. Reply to each review the day it lands.
• Day 7: count. Reviews this week versus last month. Then ask the agent for the site that shows them off.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get my Google review link?

Sign in to business.google.com, click "Ask for reviews" on the Home tab and copy the link; or search your business name while signed in and use the same button in the management toolbar; or use Customers, then Reviews, then "Get more reviews" in the Google Maps app. Test it in a private window: it should open a five-star rating box, not your listing.

Can I make a Google review QR code for free?

Yes. The Jobbit QR code page is free on the Free plan (100 credits a day, no card) and returns a PNG and an SVG with a scan check and print advice. Free QR sites also work for a static code, as long as you avoid the ones that route your link through a redirect that can expire.

Does a Google review QR code expire?

A static code that encodes the Google link directly never expires; it works for as long as your Business Profile exists. Codes made through a dynamic-code service or a link shortener can stop working when the free plan ends or the subscription lapses.

Is it against Google's rules to ask for reviews with a QR code?

No. Asking is allowed and Google provides the link for exactly that. What is prohibited is offering an incentive, filtering who you ask based on how happy you think they are, and writing or buying reviews. In the UK the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 makes fake and hidden incentivised reviews a banned practice as well.

What size should a Google review QR code be?

At least 2 cm by 2 cm for a card or invoice, 3 cm on a counter card, 10 cm for a window read from a metre away, and 20 cm or more for a banner. Divide the scanning distance by ten, keep white space around the code, and add 20 to 30% in poor light.

Can I track how many people scan my review QR code?

Not through Google, which does not report where a review came from. You can add a UTM tag to a link on your own site, but the Google review link itself should be encoded as it is. The honest measure is the review count before and after the code went up, which is the number that matters anyway.

What is the quickest way to get the review code and the sign to put it in?

One message on the Jobbit QR code page: paste the link, pick where it goes, and ask for the card around it. The code, the card and the van sticker come back in matching style, and the same chat will build the website that shows the reviews off. Start free at jobbit.uk, no card needed.