How reviews are matched to your Items

The Items page shows how many reviews your physical Items brought in. This article explains where that number comes from, why it can differ from the total number of reviews in Google, and what to do to make the count as accurate as possible.

Google does not tell us where a reviewer came from. A review carries no marker showing that the person tapped your card or scanned your QR code right before writing it. This is how Google's security and privacy rules work: they do not reveal where someone was or which link they followed. The limitation applies to every service, not just ours.

So we look at timing instead. Every time someone uses one of your Items, we record it. When a new review appears for your location, we check whether anyone used an Item shortly before that. If they did, the review is counted for that Item.

If you have several Items, the review goes to the one that was used last before the review appeared.

A match in timing is not a guarantee. Someone could use an Item and never leave a review, while a different customer writes one at the same moment.

So the numbers on the Items page are an estimate, not an exact count. They show which Items are working better, and that is enough to act on: move a stand to a busier spot, add Items where you do not have enough, remove the ones nobody uses.

We only count reviews where someone used an Item first.

Reviews that people left on their own, after finding you in Search or Maps, or after getting your email, are not included here. They are in your Google profile, but they have nothing to do with your Items.

That is why the number on the Items page will always be lower than your total review count, and that is normal.

If you skip this, some of your reviews will simply never be counted for your Items.

Here is why. Google does not publish a review right away: it checks the review first, which takes anywhere from a few hours to several days. Without a connected profile we collect reviews once a week and only see when a review was published, not when it was written. By then the link to the Item scan is gone, and we cannot count that review.

With a connected profile we learn about every new review right away, and we know exactly when it was written. The match is precise, and the count works the way it should.

The difference is significant: without a connected profile your numbers will be noticeably lower than reality, and you will not see the true return on your Items.

You can connect your profile straight from the Items page. The link sits just above your list of Items.

There are two ways to connect an Item: pick your location, or paste a link.

If an Item is connected by a link, we do not know which business is behind that link, so we cannot match reviews to it. Such an Item shows a dash in the Reviews column and the status Not tracked.

Its scans are counted as usual, and it does not affect your overall conversion rate.

To start counting reviews for that Item, open its settings and connect it to your location.