Answer
Is review gating allowed?
No. Review gating — filtering customers so only happy ones are asked to post publicly — violates Google’s policies and the FTC’s rules, and can get your reviews removed.
It’s fine to ask for private feedback and to route customers to a public review — but you must give every customer the same opportunity to post publicly. You can’t selectively suppress negative reviews.
The compliant approach: ask everyone, make it easy, and respond to whatever comes in. Bird Local is built to be FTC-compliant — it collects real reviews without gating.
Ready when you are
Put your reputation on autopilot
Join local businesses using Bird Local to rank higher, win more customers, and grow revenue.
Start Free →No credit card required · 7-day free trial