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By now, most business owners know the importance of online reviews. According to a recent survey, 97 percent of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 41 percent say they “always” read reviews when browsing for businesses (up from 29 percent the prior year). While consumers are starting to include other review channels in their search (such as AI, Facebook, YouTube, etc.), Google is still the primary source for local business reviews. Even in the age of AI, Google reviews are one of the few ranking signals that help your business show up in both traditional Google search and AI results.
Review velocity vs. review count
What most businesses get wrong is focusing only on the raw number of Google reviews. In the past, the business with the most reviews would have an advantage ranking in Google. Now, both Google and customers care more about the recency of reviews than the number of reviews. Having a lot of reviews is still important, but 74 percent of people surveyed only care about reviews written in the last three months. In other words, even if your business has a lot of reviews, you can’t rely on old reviews to bring in new business.
This is good news for smaller pest control companies. Even if the big player in your market has more reviews than you, you can still compete by getting a steady number of reviews each week and each month.
There is no universal number of reviews to aim for, as it varies by business and by market. To understand how many reviews you need to get in a week or a month to see ranking improvements, you need to look at how many reviews your competitors in the local market are getting. Our company uses a proprietary tool to track these for all locations, but you can also do this manually or with free tools online.
As a general goal, I aim for each of our branches to get an average of at least one to two reviews per day. New branches will typically get less than that and mature branches should get more. Ultimately, you want to be getting more reviews per month on average than your competitors in your area.
Here is an example of a new branch that opened in early February 2026. We figured they needed to get at least 12 reviews a month to beat out the competition. They far exceeded that, and within three months they were ranking better than any competitor in their market for “pest control” and related keywords.
Google review ‘pushes’
Another mistake some pest control companies make is running a big review push a few times a year and then not getting any new reviews for an extended period. It sounds efficient, but it can create an unnatural pattern and hurt rankings. Sterling Sky, a local SEO agency, did a study that showed if you stop getting new reviews for a period of 3 weeks or more, your rankings will go down.
Both customers and Google tend to trust steady, routine feedback more than sudden spikes. And while Google doesn’t publish a specific “too many reviews at once” threshold, big bursts can draw extra scrutiny if the activity looks irregular. Google can even stop your reviews from publishing if its spam filter thinks the review pattern is suspicious. A steady inflow of new reviews is usually safer and more sustainable for long-term rankings than a few short, intense bursts of reviews.
Best practices for Google Reviews
The most reliable way I’ve found to create a steady stream of reviews is to integrate it into our service process and then use automated emails/texts as a safety net. After the service, our process looks like this:
- The technician asks the customer to leave them a review on Google. Nothing pushy, but a quick reminder to the customer that reviews help our local business.
- Our system sends an automated email or text message within 24 to 48 hours of asking for a review.
- Automated follow-up (email or text message) once or twice.
- Monitor review pace by branch. We’ll then compare this to competitors and send each branch manager a report.
A lot of customers are willing to leave a review, but they usually don’t think about it unless you ask.
Bonus tip: If you can get customers to post a photo with their review, that review is more likely to stick to the top of the profile longer than reviews with no photos. This can also help push down any negative reviews you may have received.
Google is constantly making changes to its algorithm, but one thing that will be constant to both Google and to human psychology is reviews and social proof. For a local business, reviews are the lifeblood of your business. If you prioritize consistent review velocity, and not just total review count, you’ll build trust faster, keep your profile looking fresh, and give your locations a better chance to stand out in local search when homeowners are ready to book.
About Douglas Tuft
Douglas Tuft is the Google Business Profile (GBP) Manager at Fox Pest Control. For the past two years, he has managed all of Fox’s local business profiles across Google, Apple, Bing, etc., helping branches increase rankings, generate reviews, and drive more local leads.
