Business owners who want to display their Google reviews on their website sometimes hesitate because they are not sure whether it is allowed. The short answer is yes, it is allowed. The longer answer is that there are specific conditions that govern how reviews can be displayed, and understanding those conditions protects you from practices that could cause problems.
As the founder of ReputationRiser and a digital marketing professional with USA Marketing Pros, I want to give you a clear, practical answer to the legal question so you can move forward with confidence. This post covers what Google’s policies actually say, what counts as compliant display, and what to avoid.
Note: this post covers the policy and compliance question specifically. For the full how-to on displaying reviews, see how to embed Google reviews on a website and how to add Google reviews to your website.
What Do Google’s Terms of Service Actually Say About Displaying Reviews?
Google’s Terms of Service and the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service govern how content from Google’s platforms, including reviews, can be used. The relevant principles for businesses displaying their own reviews on their own websites are:
Accurate display is permitted. Displaying your reviews as they appear on Google, without modification to the content or star ratings, is within permitted use. This is the basis on which authorized review widget tools operate.
Modification is not permitted. You cannot alter review text, remove words from a review to change its meaning, or change a star rating. The review must be displayed as the customer wrote it.
Fabrication is not permitted. You cannot create fake reviews and display them as if they were real Google reviews. The reviews you display must be actual reviews from your Google Business Profile.
Misrepresentation is not permitted. You cannot display a selected set of reviews in a way that creates a false impression of your overall rating. For example, selectively displaying only 5-star reviews is standard practice and compliant; presenting a cherry-picked subset while claiming it represents your overall rating in a misleading way is not.
Using an authorized third-party tool that pulls reviews directly from your Google Business Profile via the Google API and displays them without alteration is explicitly within these parameters. This is how ReputationRiser works, and it is how most legitimate review widget tools work.
“A client held off adding reviews to their site for months because they’d heard secondhand that it might violate Google’s terms. It doesn’t, as long as you’re doing it the right way, and that hesitation cost them months of missed conversions for no real reason.”
Can You Legally Show Only 5-Star Reviews on Your Website?
Yes. Filtering your display to show only 5-star reviews is standard industry practice and is not a violation of Google’s Terms of Service. You are not misrepresenting your overall rating by doing so, any more than a restaurant is misrepresenting itself by featuring its best dishes in advertising rather than its worst.
A review widget that shows only 5-star reviews is presenting a curated positive view of your reputation, which is a normal and accepted business communication practice. Visitors who want to see your full review profile can always navigate to your Google listing directly. What the widget provides is a display of your best verified social proof at the moment of decision on your website.
What would cross a line is claiming “all of our reviews are 5 stars” when that is not true, or altering a 4-star review to display as 5 stars. Filtering to show only 5-star reviews while displaying them accurately is compliant.
Do You Need Permission From Reviewers to Display Their Reviews on Your Website?
No additional permission beyond the platform terms is required. When a customer posts a review on Google, they agree to Google’s Terms of Service, which govern how that content can be used by Google and authorized parties. Displaying your reviews through authorized tools does not require going back to each reviewer for individual consent.
This is the same principle that applies to any platform where users post public content subject to a terms of service agreement. The reviewer posted publicly on Google and agreed to Google’s terms, which establish the framework for how that public content can be used by the business being reviewed.
Does Displaying Google Reviews on Your Website Violate Any Copyright?
This question comes up occasionally, and the practical answer for business review display is no. Review content posted by customers on Google is governed by Google’s Terms of Service, which grant Google and authorized parties the ability to use and display that content. The authorized use of your own reviews through Google’s API or authorized tools is within this framework.
Wholesale copying of large volumes of reviews for purposes unrelated to displaying your own business reputation, or republishing reviews in ways that violate the API terms, is a different matter. For the straightforward use case of displaying your own business’s reviews on your own website, copyright is not a practical concern.
What Is the Safest Way to Display Google Reviews to Ensure Full Compliance?
The safest approach is using an authorized tool that pulls reviews directly from your Google Business Profile via the Google API and displays them without modification. This approach is explicitly within Google’s permitted use framework because it uses the official API pathway rather than scraping or copying review content.
Avoid: manually copying review text and presenting it as if it were a live Google review, altering review text in any way, creating composite reviews, or claiming a rating that does not accurately reflect your profile.
Do: use an authorized widget tool, display reviews exactly as they appear, include the Google attribution that signals the reviews are from Google, and let the widget update automatically rather than maintaining a manually updated copy.
ReputationRiser uses the authorized API pathway, displays reviews exactly as they appear on Google with accurate star ratings, and updates automatically so the display is always current. It is built specifically to operate within Google’s permitted use framework. See also: can you put Google reviews on your website for additional context on this question, and what makes a Google review widget worth using for evaluation criteria. If you are on WordPress, our free WordPress plugin makes compliant setup even easier.
Display Your Google Reviews Compliantly With ReputationRiser
ReputationRiser uses the authorized Google API to pull your reviews and displays them accurately without modification. Done-for-you setup, automatic daily updates, and full compliance with Google’s Terms of Service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it legal to display Google reviews on your website?
Yes. Displaying reviews from your Google Business Profile on your own website is permitted under Google’s Terms of Service, provided the review content and star ratings are displayed accurately and without alteration.
Does Google allow businesses to embed their reviews on external websites?
Yes, within the conditions of Google’s Terms of Service. Accurate display of your own reviews without alteration, using authorized tools, falls within permitted use.
Can I cherry-pick which Google reviews appear on my website?
You can filter reviews by star rating, which is standard practice. What is not permitted is altering review content or misrepresenting your overall rating. Showing only your 5-star reviews in a clearly labeled review widget is compliant.
Do I need permission from reviewers to display their Google reviews on my website?
No additional permission beyond what Google’s platform terms establish is required. When a customer posts a review on Google, they agree to Google’s Terms of Service, which govern how that content can be used.
Are there any restrictions on how Google reviews can be displayed on a website?
Yes. Reviews must be displayed accurately without modification to text or star ratings, and the display must not create a misleading impression of your overall rating. Using an authorized tool that pulls reviews directly from Google and displays them without alteration is the safest approach.
