Free tool

Review reply checker

Paste your reply to a Google review: the tool flags what moderation rejects most (hashtags, links, stock phrases) and explains how to fix it. Free, runs in your browser.

What the tool checks

Hashtags, links, email addresses and phone numbers: the biggest rejection risk. Google's policies prohibit advertising and solicitation in content posted on Maps.
Stock phrases in English, French and Dutch: “thrilled to hear”, “your kind words”, “look forward to serving you”, “we strive to”… The ones most common in rejected replies are flagged as important; the merely bland ones (“feel free to”) as a tip.
Business name or city repeated (if you enter them): repetition looks like keyword stuffing.
Capitals and “!!!”, length (under 50 or over 1000 characters) and generic replies: if you paste the review, the tool checks that the reply picks up at least one thing from it.

You get a risk level (low, medium or high), then the list of points to fix, with the excerpt found in your text.

How Google moderates replies

Since 2026, a business reply can be pending, approved or rejected (Thrive, ALM Corp). Users can also report a reply (Search Engine Roundtable).

The analysis of 12,752 rejected replies published by gmbapi shows that 91% of rejections come from a restricted account and 9% from the reply's content. Among rejected replies, 67% contain phrases typical of AI-generated text, all 38 replies with a hashtag were rejected, and identical replies sent in bulk were rejected too.

What makes a good reply

It picks up one specific point from the review, in the customer's words: a dish, a treatment, a team member.
It fits in three or four sentences, with no link, hashtag or contact details.
It changes from one review to the next: not the same opening under every review.
For a negative review, it stays calm and offers to continue in private (responding to negative reviews).

Replying is still worth it: Google recommends it, and a study published in Marketing Science (Proserpio and Zervas, 2017) measured that hotels that reply get more reviews and higher ratings. No measured source, however, shows that keywords in replies improve rankings. The guide to responding to Google reviews covers the method.

Method and limits

The tool flags signals in the text: it doesn't predict Google's decision and can't see your account status.
It doesn't compare your reply with your previous ones: make sure you aren't posting the same reply everywhere.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent or stored, and there's no usage limit.

FAQ

Why does Google reject some review replies?

Google now moderates business replies before publishing them. According to an analysis of 12,752 rejected replies published by gmbapi, 91% were rejected because of a restricted account and 9% because of their content: stock phrases, hashtags, duplicates sent in bulk.

Does the checker guarantee my reply will be published?

No. It flags known signals in the text. It can't see your account status or Google's other criteria, and Google alone decides. A low risk means none of those signals were found.

Do keywords in my replies improve my rankings?

No measured study shows it: in Whitespark's local search ranking factors survey, it's rated low impact. Repeating your business name or city does, however, make the reply look artificial. Write for the customer.

Is my reply sent or stored anywhere?

No. The check runs entirely in your browser: no text is sent to Revys or anyone else, and nothing is stored. There's no usage limit.

Which languages does it support?

Stock phrases are detected in English, French and Dutch. The other checks (hashtags, links, contact details, capitals, length, repetition) work in any language.