Your Google Business Profile: being found and collecting reviews
Why your own profile
Do you work as a pro in a public-facing role at one location, and are you reachable during opening hours at that verified location? Then you may create your own Google Business Profile there in your own name.
If several pros work at the same club, the club has its own profile, and a profile in a person's name carries only the personal name of that one pro. This is the condition for the rest of this article: without your own, verified profile you also have no review link to collect or share.
Finding your review link
Before you set anything up in Golfly, you need the review link from your own Google Business Profile. Here is how to find it.
- Log in to business.google.com and open the Business Profile.
- In the left-hand menu, click Read reviews.
- Click Get more reviews.
- Copy the link that appears there, for example
https://g.page/r/.../review.
This screen only works in a browser on a computer. On a phone this option is not in the menu of the Google Maps app or the Google app, so do not look for it there.
Putting the link in Golfly
Go to Admin → Site settings and find the Google reviews card. Paste the review link into the Review link field and save.
As soon as the link is saved, the button Show QR code and print card appears. It takes you to the reviews screen with a large QR code and a printable card. If the field stays empty, Golfly asks for a review nowhere, not in the app and not on a card.
How to ask
Ask everyone, at the end of every lesson, regardless of how the lesson went. Have the student scan the QR code with their own phone: the review is then written later, in their own time and on their own device.
Never hand over a phone with the review form already open. To a student that feels like pressure, and reviews that all come from the same device or the same location are more likely to stand out to Google as a suspicious pattern.
What is not allowed
These things are not allowed, with the reason.
- Only asking satisfied students. Google prohibits selectively asking for only positive reviews. So always ask everyone, regardless of how the lesson went.
- Giving something in return for a review. Google's policy states this literally: "payment, discounts, free products and/or services" may not be linked to leaving a review.
- Asking people to mention a name in the review. Since 17 April 2026 this is named as a violation in Google's policy.
- Setting review quotas for staff. That same change of 17 April 2026 also prohibits targets, contests or bonuses per review for the people who ask for them. If you work with other pros at the same location or have an assistant, this is the rule that is most easily broken by accident.
- Having family, friends, business partners or colleagues post reviews. These are removed because of conflict of interest. If it happens systematically, it counts towards an assessment of the whole profile as fake engagement, and this is the most common way for a new coach to get themselves sanctioned.
- Assuming the sanction only affects the reviews. Google can place a public warning on the profile that fake reviews have been removed, visible to everyone who visits the profile. On repeat offences Google can even suspend or restrict the profile. That costs not a few reviews, but the profile itself, including the visibility in Google Maps that you have built up with it.
"But then I'll get a bad review sooner or later"
That effect is small, and the benefit far outweighs the risk. Review company GatherUp studied about 10,000 locations that stopped asking only satisfied customers and began asking everyone. The number of Google reviews rose from over 32,000 to over 53,000, while the average only dropped from 4.66 to 4.59 stars.
Responding to reviews, positive and negative, helps on top of that. Research into hotel reviews showed that responding yields on average 0.12 stars and 12% more reviews, although that research was about hotels and not golf coaches. Consumer research by BrightLocal also shows that 80% of consumers are more likely to choose a business that responds to all reviews than one that does not.
Frequently asked questions
How many reviews do I need?
There is no hard minimum, but SEO agency Sterling Sky measured a noticeable rise in Google Maps ranking between the ninth and the tenth review, and no comparable rise between the tenth and the eleventh. After that, simply keep going; every lesson is a new chance.
How long before a review is visible?
That varies from case to case and is outside Golfly's control.
What if a review does not appear?
Google filters out a considerable share of incoming reviews. That is normal Google behaviour and not a fault in Golfly or in the link. In that case, simply ask the student again at a following lesson.
Related
Connecting Google Calendar to Golfly
What the Google Calendar connection does (only from Golfly to Google), what Golfly can access, what is in the appointments, what you see when a lesson fails, and how it works with ProAgenda.
Group requests: company outings, clinics and tournaments
Turn on the group outing request form, add a partner, manage requests and keep the status up to date.