When you’re searching online for a new business, let’s say a new dentist, where do you start? You’ll either ask a friend for a recommendation or you’ll head to Google.
If you see one office with 3.5 stars and 119 reviews, and another office with 4.5 stars and 42 reviews, which one will you choose? Probably the one with 4.5 stars, right?
Many business owners think the quantity of reviews is the most important part of their Google My Business page. However, the number of reviews you have doesn’t even make the top three things consumers look for when deciding which local business to use.
Quality over quantity
According to the 2022 Local Consumer Survey by Brightlocal, people look for the overall business star rating, higher star ranking than competitors and recency of reviews, in that order.
Your star rating and the recency of reviews are more important to prospects than the total number of reviews. And if you aren’t on the first page of search results when that person is shopping online, they’re unlikely to even view your agency.
So, how many reviews do you need each month to help move you up the Google search rankings?
The optimal review rate is one or two new Google reviews every month. Google’s review algorithm flags businesses that have a sudden influx of reviews all at once because it looks like the business is paying for reviews. And that’s against Google’s terms of use, causing the listing to be penalized in Google search results.
Slow and steady
Because having fresh reviews is important to an agency, it’s best to space out your review requests over time.
If you ask all your promoters willing to leave a review to do it now, who will you ask to leave a review six months down the road? Having at least one new Google review every three months is important to build and maintain trust with prospects.