A Google reviews QR code for the counter

By Tiehl Roberto Matías · 6 min read · Updated 27 October 2026

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Nearly every review QR code sitting on a counter leads to the wrong place: to the business profile, where the customer has to hunt for the button. The right link opens the form with the stars already on screen, and that difference of two taps is what decides whether the review gets written.

The mistake nearly everybody makes

There are three different places a review QR code can point at, and only one of them works well.

The first is the Google search for your business. It is what you get if you copy the address from the browser bar while searching for your own place. The customer lands on a results page, has to work out which one you are, click in, scroll down to the reviews and find the button. People drop out at every one of those steps.

The second is the business profile, with the map, the opening hours and the photos. It is better, but it still means scrolling and finding «Write a review» among everything else.

The third is the review form directly. The customer scans and the first thing they see is five stars and a box to write in. There is nothing to hunt for.

The difference between the first and the third is not cosmetic: it is two or three taps fewer, and every tap you remove is people who reach the end. If you are going to print a piece and leave it on a counter for months, it is worth five minutes on getting the link right.

How to get your correct link

Google gives you that link ready made. You have to go into the Business Profile with the account that manages the business, not just any account.

1. Search for your own business on Google while signed in with that account, or go in from the Business Profile dashboard.
2. Find the reviews section and the option to get more reviews or ask for reviews. The exact wording of the button has changed several times over the years; the idea is always the same.
3. A sharing panel opens with a link ready to copy.
4. Copy that link and paste it into the generator.

The link it gives you has this shape:

https://g.page/r/YOUR-CODE/review

It is short, and that matters more than it looks: a short link means a low-version QR code, with fewer modules, and therefore bigger modules on the same piece. An ordinary review link fits comfortably on a counter piece without going thin.

Check it before printing

This step is not optional. A printed piece cannot be corrected with a pen.

1. Generate the code here and download it first as a PNG.
2. Open it on a computer screen and scan it with your phone.
3. Check that what opens is the stars and the writing box, not your profile and not a map.
4. Repeat it with a phone that is not yours, and if possible one without your Google session signed in, to see what a customer will see.

If scanning brings up the profile instead of the form, the link was not the right one: go back a step.

Which piece and what size

For a counter, the desk stand is the natural choice: it stands on its own, it faces forward and it does not fall over when somebody puts something down beside it.

On size, the sum is the usual one: a code reads comfortably at about ten times its width. A customer paying has the code barely half a metre away, so 50 or 60 mm of code has room to spare. The 70 mm stand covers that case easily and takes little room by a till.

If the piece is going to be further away — on a shelf behind the counter, or on the back wall — go up to 90 or 120 mm. The exact numbers are in the minimum size guide. And if it ends up on the wall, what you fix it with is not irrelevant: the guide to hanging the plate covers it.

On colours: black and white. It is tempting to use your brand colours, but the piece has to read on a counter under shop lighting, sometimes with reflections, and sometimes by an old phone. The filament guide has the combinations that work and the ones that do not; if you are going to insist on your colours, check first that the contrast has room to spare.

And avoid shiny, silk or glitter filaments for this piece in particular. On a counter there is always a spotlight pointing somewhere, and a reflection right over the code turns it into a white rectangle as far as the camera is concerned.

What to write on it

The generator lets you add a line of raised text on the piece. It is worth using: nobody scans a QR code with no explanation, because nobody knows what will happen when they do.

What works is saying what is on the other side, in few words and asking for nothing in return:

• «How was it?»
• «Leave us a review»
• «Tell us how it went»
• «Your review helps us»

The shorter it is, the bigger the raised lettering and the better it reads out of the corner of an eye. A four-word phrase fits well on a 70 mm piece; a ten-word one comes out tiny. And «tiny» has a figure behind it: below about four millimetres of capital height the nozzle can no longer make two passes and the edges come out soft. The maximums for each piece are in the text guide.

What Google's policy does not allow

Worth knowing before printing a hundred pieces with the wrong message. Google has rules about how reviews are asked for, and breaking them can cost you deleted reviews or a penalised profile.

• You cannot offer prizes, discounts or gifts in exchange for a review. Not a coffee, not ten per cent. So nothing along the lines of «leave a review and we will treat you» embossed on the piece.
• You cannot filter who you ask. Asking first whether the experience was good and showing the code only to those who say yes has a name of its own and is prohibited. The code is in plain view of everybody or it is not there at all.
• You cannot write your own reviews or ask employees or family who are not customers to write them.

The short version: put the code where anybody can see it, invite opinions with no conditions and promise nothing in return. It is also what works best in the long run, because bought reviews show and genuinely good ones last.