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[Case Study] Does Review Recency Impact Ranking? Here’s What Google Won’t Tell You
Everyone wants to know what the key is to ranking well on Google. There are many theories about reviews being a ranking factor, but what is it about reviews? Is it the text in the reviews? Is it the number of reviews your listing has? Or could it be how often you get reviews? In this article, we tested whether review “recency” affects your ranking on Google.
What is Review Recency?
Review recency refers to how recently a business has received customer reviews. It is an important factor for both local SEO and consumer trust. Recent reviews signal that a business is active and responsive, which can improve visibility in Google’s local results and increase the likelihood of customer conversions. To benefit from review recency, businesses should aim to consistently collect new reviews over time rather than in short bursts.
The Discovery:
We have a client for who we noticed rankings went down after the Vicinity algorithm update. So, I started to dig into what could be causing the decline in rankings. Using the GMB Everywhere review audit, one of the things I noticed is that they use to steadily get new reviews, and then all of a sudden it flat-lined (see image below). So, this made me think, does getting new reviews have an impact on ranking?
So, I reached out to the client and asked if he knew what happened. He told me, “Oh I know exactly what happened! I use to reward my staff for getting our clients to leave us new reviews… but I stopped doing that recently!”
It’s actually an interesting idea, and NOT against Google’s guidelines. What he did, was that any time a client left a review about their staff member, he put their name in a drawing for a weekly lottery. At the end of the week, they got to pick randomly out of a stack of cash and might end up with anything from $5 to $50. This really should not cost an owner a ton of money, but it is well worth it if you are consistently getting new reviews for your listing.
The Test & Results:
I told him he should start doing this again, as I wanted to see if a bunch of new reviews coming in would help their rankings. What we noticed was very interesting! As you can see in the image below, rankings improved as they got more reviews.
I have also seen this pattern with other clients of ours. We recently had a client who got filtered back in the summer for keywords they had historically ranked very well for. When I dug into possible reasons why I noticed he hadn’t had a new review in over 3 years. While these are just 2 examples, I have seen this same pattern over and over.
How Often Do You Need New Google Reviews?
We get this question a lot and I know everyone hates this answer, but it depends and it’s all relative. You really need to look at your competitors. If they are getting new reviews every week, then you should be getting new reviews every week as well. If you are in a less competitive industry or are in a smaller market, once a month probably would be fine. What I can say for sure is that you do not want to stop getting new reviews. One tool that I love using for this is Pleper’s chrome extension. With it installed, you can do a search on Google Maps for a keyword and it will tell you how many reviews businesses have, on average, along with the top and least amount.
TL;DR: – Why Review Recency Matters for Local SEO
From our observations and direct experience, review recency significantly influences local search rankings. We’ve consistently seen a correlation between the arrival of fresh, timestamped feedback and noticeable ranking improvements. In other words, timely and updated reviews can act as a trust signal to both users and search engines.
While it’s against Google’s guidelines to offer incentives in exchange for customer reviews, it is not against their policies to motivate your internal team to support review generation efforts. However, be mindful—certain industries may have specific regulations around these practices, so always verify compliance before initiating any internal incentives.
Continuously gathering recent and authentic reviews is essential, as Google’s algorithm appears to prioritize fresh content in assessing the relevance and trustworthiness of a business listing. Updated feedback not only enhances visibility but also reflects the current customer experience, which can influence user decisions and engagement.
Many business owners wonder, “Why can’t I write a Google review?” or why customers report being unable to leave feedback. This often happens due to policy violations, technical glitches, or filters that flag suspicious activity. Understanding these issues is key to ensuring customers can successfully share their experiences and contribute to the credibility of your business profile.
Many business owners already feel overwhelmed by local SEO issues. Between sudden ranking changes, reviews not appearing, and customers saying they cannot leave feedback, it’s common to question what’s actually happening with your listing. Some even ask, is Google calling me, especially when unexpected calls or messages claim to be related to Google Business Profile activity. Understanding how Google really communicates, and what signals actually affect rankings, can help separate real issues from noise.
We publish these case studies to illustrate recurring patterns we’ve observed in the local search ecosystem. Although individual examples may not serve as definitive proof of how Google’s algorithm operates, collectively, they provide valuable insights. The more real-world cases we share as a community, the clearer our understanding becomes. If you’ve conducted similar experiments or have your own case studies, we encourage you to publish and contribute to the broader conversation.
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It makes sense that Google would reward businesses that garner reviews at, or above niche standards. It’s nice to to see this case study that supports the thought 🙂
Is it the reviews or the fact that people are clicking on and engaging with the business profile? I know that people clicking on the business profile has been shown to increase rankings.
I don’t think this distinction matter. I mean, if you want to incentivize people interacting with a GBP specifically, reviews are the most straightforward way to achieve that by an order of magnitude.
This guy has one of the highest review counts in his area/industry. I’m not sure how new reviews would impact the CTR unless you’re starting to get a lot more in comparison to your competitors, which wasn’t the case here. I agree about CTR being a ranking factor – we’ve done lots of testing on that as well (along with reading others that are published).
It makes sense that Google would reward businesses that garner reviews at, or above niche standards. It’s nice to to see this case study that supports the thought 🙂
Is it the reviews or the fact that people are clicking on and engaging with the business profile? I know that people clicking on the business profile has been shown to increase rankings.
I don’t think this distinction matter. I mean, if you want to incentivize people interacting with a GBP specifically, reviews are the most straightforward way to achieve that by an order of magnitude.
This guy has one of the highest review counts in his area/industry. I’m not sure how new reviews would impact the CTR unless you’re starting to get a lot more in comparison to your competitors, which wasn’t the case here. I agree about CTR being a ranking factor – we’ve done lots of testing on that as well (along with reading others that are published).
Wow! This gave me an idea for getting reviews. Thank you!
Wow! This gave me an idea for getting reviews. Thank you!
Yes! Especially post-covid it’s important to have recent reviews – not just for ranking – but to give prospective customers an idea of how you are doing these days. Many hotels may have a decent rating avg but all recent reviews are bad. It’s rough out there!
What should a company do if their competitors are obviously purchasing reviews. I know Google did a sweep but I noticed there were a lot of companies that were not penalized by this.
You mentioned a vicinity algorithm. I’ve seen companies funnel reviews to one location and then rotate to bolster up the reviews. What’s googles policy on that?
Fake reviews are a tough problem to solve. Google is slowly getting better at catching and removing them. I don’t think funneling real reviews to a specific location is something Google could police or enforce whatsoever.
I suspected this was the case. Thanks for the data to back it up. Did the vicinity update include a review component? I thought it was only targeting proximity issues.
Hey Joe,
I do think the vicinity update likely had a review component. I saw a lot of cases where review recency seemed to be more of a factor now than in the past.
Yes! Especially post-covid it’s important to have recent reviews – not just for ranking – but to give prospective customers an idea of how you are doing these days. Many hotels may have a decent rating avg but all recent reviews are bad. It’s rough out there!
What should a company do if their competitors are obviously purchasing reviews. I know Google did a sweep but I noticed there were a lot of companies that were not penalized by this.
You mentioned a vicinity algorithm. I’ve seen companies funnel reviews to one location and then rotate to bolster up the reviews. What’s googles policy on that?
Fake reviews are a tough problem to solve. Google is slowly getting better at catching and removing them. I don’t think funneling real reviews to a specific location is something Google could police or enforce whatsoever.
I suspected this was the case. Thanks for the data to back it up. Did the vicinity update include a review component? I thought it was only targeting proximity issues.
Hey Joe,
I do think the vicinity update likely had a review component. I saw a lot of cases where review recency seemed to be more of a factor now than in the past.
You mean to say if I got reviews from real persons We can rank on top and get more visitors?
This article is talking about the recency of reviews, not the volume.
You mean to say if I got reviews from real persons We can rank on top and get more visitors?
This article is talking about the recency of reviews, not the volume.
Does it matter if the reviews are positive or negative ? I presume just simple interaction with the profile is helping whether it’s negative review or not
And of course you rank higher on search engine results if you have a higher rating.
Hi Lolly, that isn’t something that we tested. If you test it be sure to let us know what you find out!
Does it matter if the reviews are positive or negative ? I presume just simple interaction with the profile is helping whether it’s negative review or not
And of course you rank higher on search engine results if you have a higher rating.
Hi Lolly, that isn’t something that we tested. If you test it be sure to let us know what you find out!
Love that Pleper extension, thanks for introducing it to me. As most people are aware there are so many factors making up the Google algorithm but it does seem reviews make up a big aspect, particularly if you can get clients to use keywords important to your business in their reviews.
Love that Pleper extension, thanks for introducing it to me. As most people are aware there are so many factors making up the Google algorithm but it does seem reviews make up a big aspect, particularly if you can get clients to use keywords important to your business in their reviews.
Joy,
As noted, Google prohibits incentivizing people to leave reviews. What constitutes an incentive? If my restaurant “teases” our patrons with a trivia question that only offers the answer after they leave a review, is that considered an incentive?
Hi Aaron, I would consider that to be incentivizing.
Joy,
As noted, Google prohibits incentivizing people to leave reviews. What constitutes an incentive? If my restaurant “teases” our patrons with a trivia question that only offers the answer after they leave a review, is that considered an incentive?
Hi Aaron, I would consider that to be incentivizing.