Narsil SEO · Pro tool
Ask for reviews inside the rules. Answer the bad ones well.
Make sure the way you ask for reviews follows Google's rules, and get step-by-step help, including ready-to-send responses, when a bad or fake review lands.
Included with Pro, along with every tool that ships after it.
The two lines most businesses cross without knowing
Review gating is the common one: send a survey, and only route the happy answers to the review link. It feels like quality control. It violates Google policy. The other is paying or discounting for reviews, which runs into Google policy and FTC rules together. Both are easy to build by accident when someone sets up a review funnel that looks sensible.
Where we stand
We don't write fake reviews, buy them, or help anyone bury real ones, on any plan or any retainer. If a tactic couldn't survive being published, it isn't a tactic. The Toolkit exists to keep an honest process honest, and to give you something useful to say when a review goes wrong.
The response is for the next reader
A one-star review is rarely won back. The person reading it next week is the one still deciding, and what they judge is how you answered: whether you sounded defensive, whether you took responsibility, whether you sounded like someone they'd want to deal with. That's the job the ready-to-send responses are for, and it's why writing them at 11pm while angry is the worst plan available.
And when it's not a real customer
Fake reviews land on local businesses, sometimes from a competitor, sometimes from someone who has the wrong company. There's a process for reporting those, and it goes better when you follow it precisely rather than furiously. The Toolkit walks you through it step by step. Nobody can promise a removal, and we won't.
Reviews are half the profile
On a Google Business Profile, reviews and primary category carry the most weight. The Toolkit handles the review half; the Google Business Profile Grader grades the rest and ranks the gaps by what they're costing you. Both are included with Pro.
Our scoring approach for profiles, including the compliance lines above, is published free in the GBP Audit Kit. Take it whether or not you ever buy anything.
Questions about reviews
- Which plan includes the Toolkit?
- Pro, at $99/month, which includes all fifteen tools and every tool that ships later. On Starter the tools are visible but locked.
- Can you get a bad review removed?
- Not on demand, and treat anyone who promises that carefully. Google removes reviews that break its policies, not reviews you dislike. Where a review looks like it breaks the rules, there's a process to follow and the Toolkit walks you through it. Where it's a real customer having a bad day, the answer is a good public response, which is worth more to the next reader anyway.
- What are the rules I could break by accident?
- Two catch most people. Never filter by sentiment before asking, which means no 'how did we do, and only happy people get the review link': review gating violates Google policy. And never pay or discount for reviews, which runs into Google policy and FTC rules both. Asking every customer, every time, is both the compliant move and the one that works.
- Do reviews really move rankings?
- On your Google Business Profile, reviews are one of the two heaviest levers, alongside primary category. That's why we grade them, why the ask needs a process rather than good intentions, and why we publish the whole scoring approach free in the GBP Audit Kit.
Build the asking habit, keep it clean
Pro is $99/month with all fifteen tools and the weekly website audit. Cancel from the billing portal, no call, no retention flow.