Local SEO Fundamentals
Reviews are the single biggest ranking lever in Local SEO.
Not just the count. Not just the stars. The full signal Google reads from them.
The shape of the signal
Google reads reviews in three dimensions.
Volume
Total Count
How many you have versus the competitors above you in the map pack.
Velocity
Rate
How many you’re getting per month. A dead profile sinks. An active one rises.
Recency
Freshness
A 5-star average from 2019 is worth less than 50 reviews from the last 6 months.
What’s inside them matters too
Google reads the words, not just the stars.
A review that mentions your service (“great tree removal”) and your city (“in Sanford”) tells Google what to rank you for. Reviews are the only place outside your own website where ranking-relevant keywords show up.
How to compound it
What the top-ranked businesses do differently.
- 01
Ask every customer
Not the happy ones. Every customer. Bake the ask into job completion.
- 02
Make it one tap
A direct review link, texted on the spot. Friction kills response rate.
- 03
Reply to all of them
Public, brief, on-brand. Google logs response rate as engagement.
- 04
Never respond to bad reviews emotionally
Report fake ones. Reply factually to real ones. Move on.
The takeaway
A business with 100+ recent reviews outranks a business with 12.
Even if the 12-review business has a better website. Reviews are that heavy.