Local SEO

Review signals

Review signals are the volume, rating, recency and text of customer reviews. They influence local ranking, click-through and, increasingly, what AI assistants recommend.

Charming vintage clothing shop with cactus decor under warm sunlight, illustrating the SEO definition of Review signals
Review signals are the volume, rating, recency and text of customer reviews. They influence local ranking, click-through and, increasingly, what AI assistants recommend.Photo: Arwindo Pratama / Pexels

Velocity matters more than the historical total: a steady trickle reads as a living business, while two hundred reviews in a fortnight reads as manipulation and often is. Responses matter too — publicly and calmly answering a negative review is more persuasive to a reader than a page of five-star ratings.

Never incentivise reviews in a way that breaches platform policy. Removal of an entire review set is a real and common outcome, and it takes the good ones with it. Asking every customer at the right moment, with a link that works on a phone, produces more reviews than any incentive.

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