How many reviews until you raise your rating?

How it works (and why your real rating isn’t what you see)

Google rounds the rating it shows on the map. You can have a 4.46 and see 4.5, or a 4.44 and stay on 4.4. That’s why it pays to look at your real rating with its decimals: it tells you how far you really have to go.

The maths is simple: we add up the stars from all your reviews and divide by the total. To work out how many five-star reviews you need, we calculate how many it takes to lift that average to your target.

Raise your rating faster (no tricks)

• Ask while it’s fresh: the moment the customer is happy, not days later.
• A QR code on the counter that opens the review form directly, with no steps in between.
• Reply to all of them, bad ones included: it convinces readers and Google likes it.
• Consistency over quantity: 4 a month always beats 40 in one go and then nothing.

Questions

How many 5-star reviews do I need to go from 4.3 to 4.7?

It depends how many you already have: the more you’ve built up, the harder the average is to move. With 50 reviews and a 4.3 you need about 67 five-star ones; with 20 reviews, about 27 will do. The calculator gives you the exact number for your case.

Why doesn’t my real rating match the one Google shows?

Google rounds to one decimal place. You can have a real 4.46 and see 4.5, or a 4.44 and see 4.4. Working with your real rating tells you how far you really are from the next step up.

Is it better to get lots of reviews all at once?

No. An odd spike in reviews can look artificial, and Google values recent, steady activity. A sustained pace of a few every week is better.