TL;DR: Google updated its reviews policy to crack down on staff quotas, employee-name asks, on-site pressure, and incentives, so review programs need a quick audit. At the same time, Google is testing a swipeable carousel that lets searchers compare nearby locations inside a single paid ad, which makes location-level data and reviews more decisive than brand recognition alone.
Google made moves on multiple fronts this month — and two of these changes in particular are set to impact multi-location brands.
One tightens the rules around how reviews can be requested. The other reshapes how local results appear inside paid search. Neither is dramatic on its own, but together, they shift the visibility playbook for any brand with physical locations.
Here's what marketers need to know.
Google tightens its reviews policy
What changed
Google updated its Maps and Business Profile reviews policy with new language around how reviews can be requested.
The shift? Merchants should not require staff to collect a set number of reviews, ask customers to mention employees by name, pressure people for reviews while they are on-site, or offer incentives to write, edit, or remove reviews. Existing rules against fake engagement, biased content, and conflicts of interest still apply.
What brands need to know
This sharpens enforcement rather than changing the entire framework: you can still ask for honest feedback. But the risk starts the moment a request steers content, rating, or wording. A 5-star quota for the team, or a script that asks customers to shout out "Brittany at the front desk," both fall on the wrong side of the new line.
How to respond
Start by auditing any review prompts your individual locations might send through email, SMS, in-store signage, or post-visit scripts. Strip out staff names, specific star-rating asks, and team incentive language.
A safe pattern reads more like: "Thanks for visiting. If you'd like, share an honest review of your experience." Then keep responding to what comes in. Reviews remain a strong signal in local and AI search, so reply cadence still matters for driving visibility — and building trust.
Read more about how reviews impact customer trust and decision-making.
Google tests a swipeable location carousel in search ads
What changed
Google appears to be testing a new format that lets searchers swipe through multiple business locations directly within search ads. The carousel pulls in details like distance, hours, and ratings, letting users browse locations without leaving the search results page.
What brands need to know
Paid local results are starting to look less like a single-store callout and more like a side-by-side comparison.
The impact? This shift could change the math on what earns a click. When users can flick through multiple nearby options in one place, then the attributes of an individual location matter a lot. Strong brand-level recognition may no longer carry a thin profile across the line. If your location has stale photos, missing attributes, low review volume, or a poor star rating next to a sharper neighbor, you could lose the comparison battle before anyone reaches a landing page.
How to respond
The fix is at the location level. Pressure-test every Google Business Profile against the signals customers compare at a glance: review volume and recency, response cadence, accurate hours, complete attributes, current photos, and consistent name, address, and phone.
Make sure to loop in your paid search team, too. When the ad unit is a comparison view, profile health and media spend stop being separate budgets.
Read more here about how to optimize local listings for AI search.
The takeaway
Both updates point in the same direction. Visibility belongs to brands that keep their data accurate, their reviews authentic, and their request scripts clean. The brands winning this month are the ones already operating that way.
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