Google review cards for dental practices: do they work?
A review card is a shortcut to your Google review form, nothing more. Used as a neutral reminder it saves patients a few taps. Used at the desk with a hovering receptionist, it breaks Google's rules.
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Google review cards are small printed cards, usually with an NFC chip and a QR code, that open your practice's Google review form when a patient taps or scans them. They can work well in a dental practice, but only as a neutral reminder. The card does not make anyone more willing to leave a review, and the way some practices use them at reception breaks Google's own policy.
This guide covers what the cards actually do, whether you need to buy them, how to make your own, and the rules from Google and UK consumer law that decide whether they help you or cost you reviews.
What a Google review card is
A Google review card is a physical prompt that carries one thing: the web address of your review form. There are two ways it delivers that address.
- NFC (near field communication). A small chip inside the card holds the link. When a patient holds a phone near it, the phone reads the link and offers to open it. These are sold as NFC Google review cards, NFC review cards or Google NFC cards.
- QR code. A printed square that the phone camera reads. Most cards carry one as a backup, because not every phone has NFC switched on.
Either way, the destination is the same review link that Google gives every verified business for free. Google describes how to create a Google link or QR code to request reviews from your Business Profile. A card is that link in a form a patient can hold.
NFC on iPhone and Android
Apple says iPhones from the iPhone XS onwards can read NFC tags in the background while the screen is on, showing a notification the user taps to open the link. Older iPhones and some Android phones with NFC turned off will not react to a tap, which is why the QR code on the same card matters.
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Do Google review cards work?
They work in the narrow sense that they remove steps. Without a card, a patient who wants to review you has to open Google, find your practice, scroll to the reviews and find the button. With a card, they tap and the form opens.
What a card cannot do is create the willingness to write a review. That comes from the patient's experience and from someone asking them plainly. A card in a drawer does nothing. A card handed over with a sentence like "if you have a moment later, we would value a review on Google" does far more, because the ask does the work and the card just makes it easy.
Two practical limits are worth knowing:
- Google says customers must be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review. A patient without one will hit a sign-in page, though Google notes they can set one up with a non-Gmail email address.
- Patients often tap at the desk, then put the phone away. The form stays open in their browser, but many will never come back to it. A follow-up message with the same link after the visit usually catches more than the card alone.
Are Google review cards allowed?
Yes, asking for reviews is allowed, and a card is just a way of asking. The problems come from how the card is used. Google's Maps content policy is specific about what merchants must not do, and several points apply directly to cards at a dental reception desk.
Google says merchants must not:
- offer incentives, such as payment, discounts or free goods or services, in exchange for a review or for changing or removing a negative one
- discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers
- require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises
- request that specific content be included, including content that identifies a staff member
- ask staff to solicit a certain number of reviews
And Google says what it does allow: soliciting reviews that reflect a genuine experience, without incentives and without trying to influence the rating or the contents.
The reception desk problem
The most common misuse is the tap at the desk. A receptionist holds out the card, the patient taps, and the receptionist waits while they type. That is exactly the pressure on the premises Google describes. Taking the patient's phone to do it for them is worse. Give the card, say one sentence, and let the patient decide later in their own time.
What is printed on the card matters
Many off-the-shelf cards say "Leave us a 5-star review" or show five filled stars with an arrow. That wording tries to influence the rating, which Google's policy does not allow. Choose or design a card that simply asks for a review. "Tell others about your visit" or "Review us on Google" are fine. Do not print a dentist's or nurse's name and ask patients to mention them, because Google specifically lists requests for content that identifies a staff member.
Do not hand them only to happy patients
If cards go only to patients who seem pleased, you are selectively soliciting positive reviews. That is against Google's policy, and the Competition and Markets Authority's fake reviews guidance (CMA208) gives "encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews" as an example of cherry-picking that can make published reviews misleading. Pick a consistent point, such as every patient at the end of a completed course of treatment, and stick to it.
Can you pay people to give you Google reviews?
No. Google treats any review that has been paid for, directly or in kind, as fake engagement and removes it. Its restrictions page says a business that breaks the policy may be blocked from receiving new reviews for a set period, have existing reviews unpublished, or have a warning shown on its profile telling people fake reviews were removed.
UK law now goes further. Since April 2025, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews have been a banned practice under Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which makes them automatically unfair. The CMA's guidance gives offering a customer a free or discounted product in exchange for a five-star review as an example of what is prohibited. A free whitening top-up for a review is that example in a dental setting.
Are Google review cards free?
The link and QR code are free. Google gives them to any business with a verified Business Profile, and you can print the QR code on your own stationery at no extra cost. Google does not make or sell review cards itself. The NFC cards, stands and stickers you see when you search for Google review cards UK, Google review cards for business or cheap Google review cards are made by third-party printers and sellers, and the price depends on the chip, the material and the quantity.
If you buy, three checks matter more than price:
- Where does the link go? Some cards point to the seller's own web address, which then forwards to Google. If the seller closes, or the card relies on a subscription that lapses, every card you have handed out can stop working. A card programmed with your own Google review link does not have that dependency.
- Can it be reprogrammed? If your link ever changes, for example after merging duplicate profiles, a locked chip cannot be updated.
- What does it say? Avoid star imagery and "5-star" wording for the reasons above.
How to make a Google review card
You can make your own in an afternoon. Here is how to create a Google review card from scratch.
- Get your review link. On a computer, go to your Business Profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and copy the link. Google says the review QR code can only be generated on a computer browser, not on a phone.
- Download the QR code. On the same screen, right-click the QR code and choose Save image as. You do not need a separate Google review QR code generator.
- Design the card. Practice name, a plain line such as "Review us on Google", the QR code at a size that scans comfortably, and nothing that suggests a rating.
- Add NFC if you want it. Blank NFC stickers or cards can be written with an NFC writing app on a compatible phone. Write your review link as a web address (URL) record, and lock the chip only once you are sure the link is final.
- Test it on several phones. At least one iPhone and one Android phone, with the screen locked and unlocked. Check it opens your form, not another practice's.
- Brief the team. One sentence, every patient at the agreed point, no waiting while they type.
Cards, stands, stickers or a text message?
A card is one format among several. They all carry the same link, so pick by where your patients are when they are most likely to act.
| Format | How the patient uses it | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| NFC Google review card | Takes it home, taps later | Cards get lost, NFC may be off on some phones |
| NFC Google review stand at reception | Taps while at the desk | Easy to slide into pressure on the premises |
| QR code poster or Google review QR code stand | Scans in the waiting room or on the way out | Glare on glossy prints, placement next to the payment terminal |
| Link in a text or email after the visit | Taps from their own phone at home | Keep wording neutral and free of clinical detail |
Google itself suggests putting the link on receipts and in thank-you emails, and displaying the QR code in your premises. For most practices, a short message after the appointment carries the ask and the card or poster is the reminder.
How many reviews are you actually aiming for?
Before ordering a box of cards, work out whether reviews are your gap at all. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking, but they are one signal alongside relevance and distance.
In our study of 1,489 UK places on 13 September 2026, the median practice in the local map pack had 113 reviews, and the bottom tenth held their place with 12 or fewer. The number that matters is what the practices in your own town have, which differs widely. Working out your practice's review target walks through it.
When the reviews do arrive, reply to them. Google recommends it, and for a dental practice the reply has its own confidentiality rule, covered in how to reply to Google reviews.
A short checklist
- The card carries your own Google review link, not a seller's redirect.
- It asks for a review, not a five-star review, and names no staff.
- Every patient gets it at the same point, not just the ones who seem happy.
- Nobody waits while a patient types, and nobody takes a patient's phone.
- No discount, gift or prize is linked to leaving or changing a review.
- A follow-up message after the visit carries the same link.
See where your reviews actually stand
Practice Radar's reviews race dashboard tracks your review count and rating against the practices around you, so you can see whether more asking is your fastest lever or not.
Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.