FFP Guides

AHPRA advertising

AHPRA and Google reviews: what a physio can show on their website (2026)

Section 133(1)(c) of the National Law bans advertising a health service with testimonials. Ahpra reads a testimonial as a positive statement about a clinical aspect: symptom, diagnosis, treatment or outcome. A Google review about parking or friendly staff can go on your website. One saying your back pain is gone cannot. Breaches carry up to $60,000 per offence.

Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.

"A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides a regulated health service, in a way that ... (c) uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business;" (Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, section 133(1)(c), as quoted in section 4.3 of the Ahpra Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service). The guidelines add at 4.3.1: "In the context of the National Law, testimonials are recommendations or positive statements about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service used in advertising."

Source

Allowed

  • Patients leaving Google reviews about your clinic, including clinical ones. The ban does not affect patients posting reviews on review platforms.
  • Leaving clinical reviews on your Google Business Profile. Ahpra says you are not responsible for removing reviews on platforms you do not control.
  • Publishing reviews on your website that only talk about non-clinical things, such as customer service, communication style, parking, the waiting room or how easy it was to book, as long as each one is complete and unedited.
  • Showing a star rating, rating badge or review award on your website, as long as you do not republish the clinical reviews behind it. Ahpra's FAQ says a rating or award symbol does not fit the meaning of a testimonial.
  • A plain link or button such as "Read our reviews on Google" that sends visitors to your Google profile. Ahpra's guidance does not deal with links specifically, but a link sends people to Google rather than republishing the reviews on your own site.
  • Replying to a review with a short, neutral thank you that adds no clinical detail and does not confirm the reviewer is your patient. Ahpra only says to take care when engaging with reviews on third-party sites, so keep replies generic.

Not allowed

  • Embedding a Google reviews widget that pulls every review onto your site automatically. Once reviews appear on your website you control them, and any review that mentions a symptom, diagnosis, treatment or outcome ("my knee pain is gone after three sessions") is a testimonial in your advertising.
  • Setting a widget or plugin to show only 5 star reviews, or hand picking the positive ones. Ahpra says selectively including or excluding whole reviews can be misleading.
  • Editing a review to cut out the clinical sentence, or to remove the negative half. Ahpra lists both as misleading.
  • Quoting a patient's recovery story on a service page, in a video, or as a case study ("Jessie's back pain disappeared after three sessions").
  • Sharing, reposting or pinning a clinical review on the clinic's Facebook or Instagram. A clinic page used to promote the service is advertising, and you must remove or disable testimonials on it.
  • Replying to a review in a way that promotes the result ("So glad we fixed your shoulder, our dry needling works wonders"). That uses their review to promote your service and puts clinical detail about them in public.
  • Writing fake reviews or asking staff and family to post them. These are purported testimonials and are also misleading.

What a compliant clinic website does

A compliant physio site has a Reviews section showing the clinic's Google star rating and review count as a badge, a link to read all reviews on Google, and at most a few full, unedited reviews that talk only about the booking, the welcome and the communication. No service page carries patient quotes about pain, injuries or results, the Google widget is either removed or limited to the rating, and the clinic's Facebook page has recommendations switched off or checked for clinical posts.

Penalty: Advertising in breach of section 133 is a criminal offence. The maximum penalty is $60,000 per offence for an individual (such as a registered physiotherapist) and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate (such as a clinic company). These maximums were raised from $5,000 and $10,000 in 2022 and have applied in every state and territory, including Western Australia, since July 2024.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current guideline before you publish.

The test Ahpra uses for any review

Ahpra's guidelines give a three question test. First, is the review about a regulated health service? Physiotherapy is, so yes. Second, is it used in advertising? A review on your own website, your clinic's social media, or anything you share or promote counts. A review sitting on Google that you have not touched does not. Third, does it mention a clinical aspect? That means the symptom or reason for coming in, the diagnosis or treatment, or the outcome, including praise for the practitioner's skill. If the answer to all three is yes, the review cannot be used.

So the same review can be legal in one place and illegal in another. "Sarah fixed my sciatica in two visits" is fine on Google Maps. Paste it onto your homepage and it becomes a testimonial in your advertising.

Why the Google reviews widget is the usual problem

Most review widgets for WordPress, Squarespace and Wix pull in your latest Google reviews and show them in a slider. For a physio clinic, a large share of reviews talk about pain, injuries and recovery, because that is why people came in. The widget puts every one of those on a page you control, and Ahpra is clear that the business owner or practitioner who controls the website is responsible for what it shows.

Filtering the widget does not solve it. Showing only 5 star reviews, or only reviews you have picked, is selective publishing, which Ahpra says can be misleading. The safe options are to show only the star rating and review count, or to show a small number of complete reviews that contain nothing clinical.

Replying to reviews

You are allowed to reply to Google reviews, and Ahpra does not ask you to delete clinical reviews on platforms you do not control. What it does say is that you should take care when engaging with reviews on third-party sites, because engagement can amount to using the testimonial to advertise. Keep replies short and generic: thank the person, invite them to call if anything needs following up, and do not mention the condition, the treatment or the result. Generic replies also protect patient confidentiality, which Ahpra's social media guidance asks every practitioner to guard.

Who gets fined

The advertiser is whoever controls the advertising. That includes content a marketing agency, web developer or receptionist publishes on your behalf, so a widget your developer installed is still your responsibility. In a group practice this is usually the principal, owner or director. Ahpra describes itself as a risk-based regulator that applies only the regulatory force needed to manage the risk, but prosecution is possible and the maximum is $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 for a company.

Sources

  1. Section 133(1)(c) of the National Law prohibits advertising a regulated health service in a way that uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business. Ahpra and the National Boards, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  2. Ahpra defines testimonials as recommendations or positive statements about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service used in advertising; comments about customer service or communication style are not testimonials. Ahpra, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  3. Publishing an award symbol or rating on a website advertising a regulated health service is not likely to breach the testimonial ban unless it republishes the testimonials the rating is based on. Ahpra, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  4. Selectively editing reviews, or selectively including or excluding whole reviews, has the potential to be misleading and breach the National Law. Ahpra, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  5. The maximum penalty for an advertising offence is $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate, raised in 2022 from $5,000 and $10,000, and applying in all jurisdictions including WA from July 2024. Ahpra and the National Boards, checked 25 Sep 2026.
  6. The current Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service took effect on 14 December 2020. Ahpra and the National Boards, checked 25 Sep 2026.