Google Reviews for Accountants, Lawyers and Financial Advisers

Why this is different from most small businesses

For most local businesses, a review that says "great experience, highly recommend" is a simple win. For an accountant, solicitor or financial adviser, even a warm, well-meaning review can brush up against obligations that don't apply to a café or a tradie — client confidentiality, legal professional privilege, and advertising or client-solicitation rules set by your own professional body or licensee.

Rules here vary by profession, by state, and by licensee, and they change over time. Nothing in this guide replaces reading your own professional body's or licensee's current advertising and solicitation guidance — treat what follows as the general shape of the caution, not a substitute for checking the specifics that apply to you.

Asking for reviews without prompting a testimonial about outcomes

A testimonial that promises a specific result — "they saved me $50,000 in tax" or "they won my case" — is riskier for a regulated professional than it looks. It can set an unrealistic expectation for someone reading it who assumes their own matter will end the same way, and advertising rules for some services (financial products in particular) place specific conditions on using testimonials that reference results.

A safer ask is to invite the client to speak to the experience rather than the outcome — how responsive you were, how clearly you explained things, whether they felt informed throughout — rather than steering them toward a number or a verdict. And whatever the client writes, it should be entirely their own words: don't draft, edit, or suggest specific phrasing for a client's review.

Client confidentiality comes before the reply

Even a reply that seems harmless can say more than it should. "So glad we could help with your custody matter" or "great to hear the audit went smoothly" confirms not just that someone was a client, but the kind of matter they came to you for — information that can be genuinely sensitive, and that a public review page was never meant to broadcast.

The safer pattern is a warm, generic reply that never names the matter type: "Thank you for the kind words — it was a pleasure working with you." If there's more you'd like to say, or more you'd like to understand about their experience, take it to a direct phone call or email after verifying who you're speaking with — not the public reply box.

Negative reviews carry extra care too

The instinct to defend yourself against an unfair negative review is strong, but a public reply is not the place to do it if defending yourself means confirming or elaborating on someone's matter. Don't confirm or deny that someone was a client, and don't get drawn into detail even if the reviewer has already disclosed information themselves — their choice to share it doesn't release you from your own confidentiality obligations.

If a review looks like it's come from someone who was never actually a client — a competitor, or someone with no real relationship to your practice — that's a case for Google's standard fake-review reporting process, not a public rebuttal that risks disclosing more than the reviewer did.

Check your own professional body's rules before you start

Solicitor conduct rules, accounting body codes and financial advice licensee compliance policies each set their own boundaries around client solicitation and testimonials, and they're not identical across professions or states. Before rolling out any review-request process — even something as simple as a standard email asking clients for feedback — check your current professional body or licensee guidance, and for larger practices, loop in your compliance team or professional indemnity insurer. A genuine review is a good thing to have; it isn't worth having if the way you asked for it breaches a rule specific to your profession.