Why does the review itself have to stay on Google?
Because only reviews on your Google Business Profile count towards your star rating and your position in the local results. A quote on your own site convinces the visitor already there; the review on Google brings in the visitor who has yet to hear of you. The website display sits on top of that.
So always ask for the review on Google, and treat your website as the shop window for what lands there. Someone who fills in a form on your own site first rarely writes the same words a second time on Google.
That keeps the order simple: your review link points at Google, and your site pulls in whatever arrives.
Which ways are there to show reviews on your site?
There are four: the badge or widget Google provides, a paid widget from a third-party service, quotes you copy across by hand with the first name and date, and your own feed pulled from the Google Places API and stored on your server.
| Method | Setup effort | Upkeep | Effect on speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google badge | Small: copy and paste the code | None | Limited, one external script loads |
| Third-party widget | Small: an account and one script tag | Keep the subscription current | Noticeable, often the heaviest script on the page |
| Hand-copied quotes | Moderate: retype and proofread | Refresh them yourself | None, it is ordinary text |
| Own feed via the Places API | Heavy: key, code and cache | Watch the key and the usage | None, if the text lives on your server |
The Places API returns a limited number of recent reviews per profile, which puts a full history out of reach along that route. Google also bills per request, so keep the results on your own server and refresh them once a day.
Which method suits your site?
It depends on how much upkeep you accept. A badge or widget goes up in ten minutes and never goes stale, at the cost of some speed and some control over the design. Hand-copied quotes read best and load instantly, provided you refresh them every quarter.
- 1Decide first where the reviews appear: the home page, the service pages, or both.
- 2Pick three to five reviews that together cover your whole offering.
- 3Keep the first name, the surname initial and the date exactly as they appear on Google.
- 4Add one line explaining where the reviews come from and how you collect them.
- 5Link to your Google Business Profile so anyone can read the full set.
- 6Put a quarterly reminder in your calendar to refresh the selection.
For most small Belgian businesses the third route is enough. Five carefully chosen quotes with a clear link to the profile do the same job as a two hundred kilobyte script.
What does Belgian law require when you display reviews?
Book VI of the Code of Economic Law requires you to be able to explain whether the reviews you display come from real customers, and what steps you take to check that. The explanation belongs beside the reviews, visible, in plain language.
For Google reviews the explanation is straightforward: the reviews come from your Google Business Profile, anyone can read them there, and the authenticity checks are carried out by Google. Put those three sentences under your review block and the information duty is met.
Claim more than that, for example that every review is verified or that every author was genuinely a customer, and you have to be able to demonstrate it. A claim of that kind sits on the blacklist of unfair commercial practices as soon as it is inaccurate.
May you show only your five-star reviews?
You may show a selection, provided you say that it is a selection and explain how you put it together. Showing only your best quotes while implying that this is the full set misleads the consumer and falls under unfair commercial practices.
In practice one sentence and one link handle it. Say that these are a few of your recent Google reviews, alongside your average score, the total count and a link to the profile.
A few of our recent Google reviews. Rated [score] across [number] reviews, all of them readable on our Google Business Profile.
- State your average score and the total number of reviews.
- Leave a four-star review in the set, it reads more credibly.
- Keep the date visible, so nobody wonders whether this is from 2019.
- Link through to the profile, where every review sits.
Can you show stars in Google with schema markup?
For reviews you collected on Google, no. Google refuses an aggregateRating you place yourself for reviews taken from its own platform, and reviews you gather about your own business count as self-serving markup. Stars in the search results come from your Business Profile.
The Google rule is that reviews about your own organisation, collected on your own domain or lifted from another platform, do not qualify for a star rich snippet. Marking them up anyway puts the whole site at risk of a manual action.
The stars you see when someone searches your business name come from your Google Business Profile. They appear on their own once you have enough reviews, without a line of code.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I show Google reviews on my website for free?
- Yes. The badge Google provides and hand-copied quotes cost nothing. A third-party widget runs on a subscription, and your own feed through the Places API is billed per request. For a small site the free routes are usually enough.
- Can I choose which Google reviews appear on my site?
- Yes, as long as you say it is a selection. State your average score, the total number of reviews and a link to your Google Business Profile. Showing only your best quotes while implying that is everything misleads the visitor.
- Do I need the customer's permission to publish their review on my site?
- A Google review is a public text the customer published under their own name. You may quote it as it stands on Google, with the same name and date and with a link to the source. If the customer asks you to take it off your site, remove the quote.
- Do review widgets slow a website down?
- Usually yes. A widget loads extra JavaScript, fonts and sometimes images from another domain, and all of that counts towards your load time. Measure the page with PageSpeed Insights before and after, and choose text on your own server when the gap is wide.
- Will I get stars in Google if I put reviews on my site?
- No. The stars next to your business name come from your Google Business Profile. Reviews you collect yourself about your own business do not qualify for a star rich snippet, and marking them up anyway risks a manual action.