The short answer
Reviews are one of the few local search factors Google names publicly: its help center says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. On the customer side, BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 71% use Google to read local reviews, 45% now use AI tools like ChatGPT (up from 6%), 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 74% only care about reviews from the last three months.
- Google is still the main place people check local reviews, but its share dipped as AI assistants and Apple Maps grew fast.
- Review count is a filter before it is a ranking factor: almost half of consumers skip businesses with under 20 reviews.
- Freshness is a hard requirement. Most people ignore reviews older than three months.
- Reviews increasingly reach people through summaries, so the words in your reviews matter as much as the stars.
What Google says about reviews and local ranking
Google does not publish a ranking formula, but its Business Profile Help page on local results names three factors: relevance (how well a profile matches the search), distance (how far the business is from the searcher) and prominence (how well known the business is). Reviews sit under prominence. In Google's words, "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."
Notice what that sentence does and does not say. It confirms reviews are an input. It does not give a target count, a minimum rating, or a weighting against distance. Anyone quoting a precise number of reviews you need to rank is guessing. What Google also says on that page is that a complete, accurate profile helps with relevance, which is the part of local ranking you can fix in an afternoon on your Google Business Profile.
Where people read local reviews in 2026
BrightLocal asked 1,002 US adults which platforms they used to read reviews and recommendations for local businesses. The average consumer now uses six different review sites.
| Platform | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 83% | 71% | |
| AI tools such as ChatGPT | 6% | 45% |
| Local news sites | 48% | 29% |
| Apple Maps | 14% | 27% |
Google remains the default, used by seven in ten. The headline shift is AI: from 6% to 45% in a year, making AI assistants the third most popular source in the survey. Apple Maps nearly doubled. The survey also reports rising use of Facebook, Tripadvisor, BBB, Trustpilot and others, without giving their percentages.
For a local business, the takeaway is not to chase every platform. It is that your Google reviews travel. AI assistants and summaries draw on review content from across the web, and Google reviews are often the largest pool of that content for a local business. Detailed, recent reviews with your replies under them are the raw material these tools work from.
How many reviews a local business needs
- 47%won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews (2026).Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026
- 9%will use a business with five or fewer reviews (2026).Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026
- 56%say a review being backed up by others with similar sentiment is important, the top-ranked review factor (2026).Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026
Twenty reviews is the practical floor. Below it, nearly half of searchers move on regardless of your rating, and only about one in eleven will take a chance on a profile with five reviews or fewer. That is a hard problem for a new location or a business that never asked for reviews, and it is solved by volume, not by any one great review.
The 56% figure explains why. People are not reading a single review, they are looking for agreement across many. Five glowing reviews cannot show a pattern. Fifty reviews that keep mentioning the same friendly technician can. Our guide on strong reviews vs many reviews covers how to build both.
Recency: the filter most businesses fail
| Recency window consumers care about | Share of consumers |
|---|---|
| Only swayed by reviews from the last week | 18% |
| Look for reviews from the last two weeks | 32% (20% in 2025) |
| Only care about reviews from the last three months | 74% |
| Rate "posted within the last month" as an important factor | 44% |
This is where local businesses with decent ratings quietly lose customers. A profile with 150 reviews and a 4.7 average looks strong, until the reader sorts by newest and the latest review is from last spring. To three-quarters of people, everything older than about three months barely counts.
Recency is a steady-flow problem. A burst of 40 reviews after a one-off campaign helps for a quarter and then ages out. A habit of asking every customer, every week, keeps something fresh at the top. Printing a Google review QR code for the counter or receipt is one of the simplest ways to keep the flow going.
AI review summaries are now part of local search
Search engines and maps now show machine-written summaries of what reviewers say. BrightLocal's 2026 survey measured how people use them:
- 82% read AI-generated review summaries; 18% do not.
- 23% would rely solely on the summary.
- 39% read the summary and then a mix of positive and negative reviews.
- 14% read the summary and use the overall star rating.
- 6% read the summary and then search or filter the reviews.
Nearly a quarter of people may never read an individual review of your business, only a paragraph generated from them. Summaries are built from what reviewers actually write, so a pile of five-star ratings with no text gives them little to say. Reviews that mention specifics ("same-day repair", "great with nervous kids", "quiet at lunch") give the summary something concrete. You cannot write your customers' reviews, but you can ask them to mention what stood out, which is allowed as long as you ask everyone and do not steer them toward a positive rating.
What local searchers do after reading reviews
Reviews are a step in the local journey, not the end of it. BrightLocal's 2026 data on what people do after reading positive reviews:
| Action | Share of consumers |
|---|---|
| More likely to use the business | 85% |
| Visit the business's website | 54% (32% in 2019) |
| Read more reviews | 37% |
| Visit the location | 31% |
| Visit its social media | 24% |
| Contact the business | 20% |
| Make an appointment | 20% |
Two in three people do more research after reading, and one in three is ready to buy or book straight away. That second group goes from your review stars to a call or booking without visiting anything else, so the phone number, hours and booking link on your profile need to be right. The first group lands on your website, which should repeat the promise your reviews make rather than contradict it.
A local search review checklist
Get past 20 reviews per location
Treat 20 as the minimum before you worry about anything else. For multi-location brands, check each branch separately; a strong brand average can hide a branch with eight reviews. See multi-location reputation management.
Keep a review in the last two weeks
Make asking routine, not a campaign. A shareable link from our free Google review link generator works in texts, emails and receipts.
Encourage detail, not stars
Ask customers to mention what they came in for. Detailed reviews feed both human readers and AI summaries.
Reply to every review
Replies add your own words to the page and show the profile is active. Responsly drafts each reply in your voice, so even a busy week does not leave reviews unanswered.
Fix the profile basics
Categories, hours, phone and booking links are the relevance side of local ranking and the first thing a ready-to-book customer uses.
For broader consumer research on Google reviews, see our Google review statistics, and for the effect of replies specifically, our review response statistics.
Sources
- BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 — 1,002 US adults, published February 11, 2026. Platforms, review count, recency, AI summaries and post-reading actions; 2025 and 2019 comparisons are the survey's own.
- Google Business Profile Help: local ranking — Tips to improve your local ranking on Google: relevance, distance and prominence.