Google Reviews for Tradesmen: What Changed in 2026, and the One Sentence That Gets You More

For years the advice was simple: get a few good reviews and you're sorted. That advice is out of date. The biggest yearly survey on how people use reviews came out in February, and three numbers in it should change how every trade thinks about their Google listing. It's a US survey of just over a thousand adults, but people search the same way on both sides of the Atlantic, and Google runs on the same rules here.

97% of people read reviews before using a local business. That part isn't new. What's new is who else is reading them. The share of people using an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode or Gemini to find a local business went from 6% in 2025 to 45% in 2026. And 97% of those AI users still double-check what the AI told them against real reviews.

So the customer reads your reviews, the AI reads your reviews to decide whether to recommend you, then the customer reads them again to check the AI wasn't making it up. Three reads, same reviews. A trade with a thin or stale review profile loses at every step and never finds out.

31% of people will now only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17% the year before. 74% want to see a review written in the last three months, and a third look for one from the last fortnight. 92% say the star rating matters to them.

A 4.9 rating from twenty reviews in 2023 and nothing since doesn't read as "brilliant electrician". It reads as "is he still trading?"

A steady trickle beats a pile. Two new reviews a month keeps the "last three months" box ticked all year round. Twenty reviews in one week and then nothing for a year looks odd to customers, and it looks odd to Google.

Ask at the end of the job, when the customer is happiest, before you've left the drive. This line works:

"If you're happy with the work, the biggest favour you could do me is a quick Google review. I'll text you the link now so it's one tap."

Then text the link while you're stood there. Your review link lives in your Google Business Profile: open the profile, tap "Ask for reviews", copy the short link and save it in your phone so it's always ready. Most reviews come from people who were asked while the job was fresh. Almost none come from a text sent a week later.

Two rules. Never pay for a review, knock money off for one, or write your own. Google removes them, and since 6 April 2025 UK law bans fake reviews and reviews that hide that they were paid for, with the CMA able to fine businesses that do it. Asking is fine. Asking everyone is best.

81% of people expect a business to reply to their review within a week, and 19% expect a reply the same day. Two lines is enough: their name, the job, a thank you. A bad review gets a calm reply with the facts and an offer to put it right, never an argument. The reply isn't really for the person who wrote the review. It's for the next customer reading it.

Most trades have their best reviews sitting on Google or Checkatrade, and not one of them on their own website. So someone lands on the site, sees a photo of a van and a phone number, and has to go back to Google to check you out. Half of them don't come back.

Put your best reviews at the top of your website, real ones with real names and towns, pulled straight from Google. Every site we build at Nero Engine has the reviews at the top of the page for exactly this reason, and the AI receptionist answers the call the review just earned you. It's part of the £299 a month system, and one extra job a month covers it.