Reviews aren't just what a homeowner reads before calling, they're a direct local ranking signal Google actively factors in. A trade business with three old reviews is quietly losing to a competitor with thirty recent ones, in rankings as well as trust.
Get my free visibility auditIt's tempting to think of reviews purely as social proof for a human reading them, and they are that, but they're also a factor Google uses directly in local search rankings. Volume, recency, and how a business responds all get weighed. A business that hasn't had a new review in eight months looks stagnant to Google, in exactly the same way it looks stagnant to a visitor.
This also compounds. More recent, positive reviews improve rankings, which brings more visibility, which tends to bring more customers who might leave more reviews. Neglecting this isn't neutral, it's a quiet, ongoing disadvantage against competitors who are actively managing theirs.
Review management runs alongside Google Business Profile work as part of the standard retainer. It's one of the ongoing, regular parts of the monthly work, with no fixed end date.
No. Fake reviews violate Google's policies and put your entire profile at risk if discovered. What's built instead is a genuine, sustainable process for getting real customers to actually leave real reviews.
It gets addressed professionally and specifically, which matters more to future customers reading it than the negative review itself often does. Genuinely policy-violating reviews can also be flagged for removal, though removal isn't guaranteed.
There's no fixed number, but consistency matters more than volume alone. A steady trickle of recent reviews outperforms a big batch from years ago with nothing since.
A free visibility audit covers all of this, and shows exactly what's worth fixing first for your business.
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