Evaluation 7 min read

Can you show Google reviews on your health practice website?

AHPRA bans clinical testimonials, even true ones, but service reviews are fine. What that means for the Google reviews widget on your practice site.

A psychology practice embeds a Google reviews widget in its website footer. It updates itself, it looks like social proof, and the practice has never given it a second thought. One of the reviews on rotation reads: “I came in with crippling anxiety and after eight sessions I finally feel like myself again. Dr Nguyen is the best psychologist I have ever seen.” Every word of that is true, the patient wrote it freely, and publishing it on the practice website is a breach of the National Law.

The same practice could publish a review that says “easy to book, never kept me waiting, and the reception staff are lovely” without any problem at all. The rule that separates those two reviews is narrower and stranger than most practices assume, and it is the single most misunderstood part of AHPRA’s advertising guidelines.

Why a review on your own site is advertising

Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law prohibits the use of testimonials in advertising a regulated health service. AHPRA’s Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service, in effect since December 2020, define advertising to include websites and social media that promote a regulated health service and seek to attract patients. A review you choose to display on your own website is content you control, so it is advertising, and the testimonial prohibition applies to it.

That is the pivot the widget hides. The review was written by a patient, but the decision to put it on the practice website was made by the practice. AHPRA holds the advertiser responsible, meaning whoever publishes, authorises, or can modify or remove the content. Embedding a feed you chose to embed is publishing.

What counts as a testimonial, and what does not

A testimonial, in the specific sense the National Law uses, is a recommendation or positive statement that refers to the clinical aspects of care. AHPRA’s guidance lists what “clinical aspects” means: the symptom or reason the person sought treatment, the diagnosis or treatment provided, the outcome, or the practitioner’s clinical skill or experience.

Read against that definition, reviews sort into two piles.

These are testimonials, and are prohibited in advertising:

  • “My chronic back pain is finally gone after this treatment.”
  • “She diagnosed the problem three other doctors had missed.”
  • “I can walk without a limp for the first time in years.”
  • “The best physiotherapist in Perth, hands down.”

These are not testimonials, and are not caught by the prohibition:

  • “Easy to find, plenty of parking, and I was seen on time.”
  • “The reception team sorted out my rebate without any fuss.”
  • “Clean rooms, clear pricing, friendly staff.”
  • “Booking online was simple and the reminders were helpful.”

The line is clinical content, not sentiment. A glowing five-star review that praises only the parking, the punctuality, and the front desk is fine. A measured, three-star review that mentions a diagnosis or an outcome is a testimonial. Truth is not a defence here, and neither is the fact that the patient volunteered it. The prohibition is about clinical claims appearing in advertising, not about honesty.

The over-correction is also a mistake

Some practices, having heard “AHPRA bans testimonials”, strip every review from their site and stop asking for feedback altogether. That is more caution than the rule requires, and it throws away legitimate social proof.

Two things remain open to a practice. Service-quality reviews, the parking-and-punctuality kind, can be displayed. And reviews that patients post on platforms you do not control, such as your Google Business Profile or a directory listing, are not your responsibility. AHPRA’s own guidance is explicit that you are not expected to hunt down and remove reviews on independent sites, and a patient writing a clinical review on Google does not put you in breach.

The breach happens at the moment you pull that content onto a surface you control. Embedding the Google feed on your website, screenshotting a review into an Instagram post, or quoting one in a newsletter all move it from a platform you do not control to advertising you do.

Where the widget quietly breaks the rule

The embedded Google reviews widget is the common failure because it removes your editorial control while leaving you responsible. You cannot choose which reviews it surfaces; it streams whatever is newest or highest-rated, and sooner or later that includes a clinical one. The practice that installed the widget to save effort has, without touching it, published a testimonial.

A few patterns concentrate the risk:

  • Auto-updating review feeds on the homepage or footer that you cannot curate.
  • Star-rating aggregates presented next to clinical claims, so the rating reads as a rating of clinical outcomes.
  • A “read our reviews” page that reproduces full patient comments rather than linking out to the independent platform.
  • Case studies and success stories that are testimonials in everything but name, especially when a patient is quoted on their recovery.

If you want the social proof of a strong Google rating, the compliant move is to link out to your Google profile rather than to reproduce the reviews on your own pages. The rating lives on a platform you do not control; the link is a signpost, not a republication.

What this costs if you get it wrong

Breaching an advertising requirement is a criminal offence, not just a professional one. Since July 2024 the maximum penalty in every Australian jurisdiction, Western Australia included, is $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 for a body corporate, and each breach is counted separately. A registered practitioner can also face disciplinary action through their Board. A review widget that has been quietly cycling clinical testimonials for two years is not one exposure; it is a running one.

Reading your own site for this

The practical exercise takes ten minutes. Open every page that displays patient words: the homepage, any reviews or testimonials page, service pages, and your social feeds if they are linked. For each quoted comment, ask a single question: does it touch the symptom, the diagnosis or treatment, the outcome, or the practitioner’s skill? If yes, it is a testimonial and it should come off any surface you control. If it only speaks to service, access, or cost, it can stay.

We built a free tool that does this first pass for you. Submit your practice website and it reviews up to five pages against the advertising guidelines, quotes the exact wording it flags, cites the relevant section, and emails you the report. It reads review widgets and testimonial pages the way a regulator would and tells you which specific quotes carry clinical content. It is general information rather than legal advice, and a clean result is not a compliance guarantee; for advice on your obligations, your professional indemnity insurer or a lawyer is the right door. Check your website here.

The testimonial rule is one of five prohibitions in section 133; the full set, including misleading claims, offers without terms, and the title rules, is covered in what AHPRA’s advertising rules mean for your website. This is the same discipline behind the confidential AI work we do for professional services practices: building systems that respect the rules a regulated profession actually operates under. If your practice is weighing up AI more broadly, start with a conversation.

Published 16 July 2026

Perth AI Consulting delivers AI opportunity analysis for small and medium businesses. Start with a conversation.

Prepared by Claude, directed and approved by PAC.

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