The real question, not the one people ask
Everyone asks: "How many reviews do you have?" Wrong metric.
The right question: "How many do you collect each month?"
Why? Because Google doesn't rank listings on cumulative total. The algorithm weights freshness. A 2022 review barely counts in 2026.
The decay rule
Here's what Google does, simplified:
- Reviews under 90 days old: weight ×1.0
- 90 to 365 days: weight ×0.6
- Over a year: weight ×0.2
Concretely, if you have 200 cumulative reviews but zero in the last 12 months, for ranking purposes you weigh less than a competitor with 30 reviews from the last quarter.
The critical threshold: 4 per month
Across the listings we monitor at Meerkly, the stable freshness threshold is 4 new reviews per month. Below that:
- Your local ranking stalls or drops
- Prospects see a "dead" listing (last review 8 months old)
- You don't have enough recent data for analytics to be useful
At 4/month, you maintain. At 8/month, you progress.
How to calculate your target
The formula we use:
Target = max(4, team_size × 1.5, customers_per_day × 0.05)
Examples:
- Café with 3 staff, 80 customers/day: max(4, 4.5, 4) = 5 reviews/month
- Restaurant with 10 staff, 200 customers/day: max(4, 15, 10) = 15 reviews/month
- Salon with 2 stylists, 25 customers/day: max(4, 3, 1.25) = 4 reviews/month
If you're collecting below your target, you have a demand problem, not a quality problem.
The 5% rule (never exceed)
Important: never ask for reviews from more than 5% of your customers in the same week. Otherwise Google detects an unusual spike and may filter (= hide) some of them.
On 200 customers/week, that's max 10 requests. More than that and you shoot yourself in the foot.
The 3 levers that work
- QR at checkout: 0.8% to 2% conversion on checkout passage. On 100 customers, that's 1-2 reviews.
- Post-visit SMS (24-72h after): 5 to 12% conversion. The strongest channel.
- Physical card in the bag: 0.3 to 1%. Marginal, but accumulates with zero effort.
Combine the three and an average business gets 8 to 15 reviews/month without active asking.
What NOT to do
- Whisper "could you leave us a review?" at the counter: decent conversion but reviews are too short ("great, thanks") and weigh less.
- Offer a discount in exchange: violates Google's terms, risk of suspension.
- Ask employees or friends: Google detects the links (IP, devices) and filters.
The compounding effect
A business going from 1 to 6 reviews/month over 12 months doesn't gain 60 reviews. It gains +0.2 stars on its average (if quality stays constant) and rises an average of 3 positions in local searches.
Calculate your target this week. Measure yourself in 90 days.