It's the question we get asked most after 'how much is a website', and the honest answer is less satisfying than a number: it depends on who you're up against, and on where the person searching is standing. So instead of a rule of thumb, here are our own figures, because they show the answer better than any rule does.
Our numbers, as of this week
We have ten Google reviews. On that, we're first in the map results for 'web design Balerno', ahead of a studio with thirty-six. We're third for West Lothian. For 'web design Edinburgh' we're seventh, and the business at the top of that list has ninety-three.
Same ten reviews, very different results. That tells you most of what you need to know: reviews matter, but they are not the only thing deciding where you sit, and in some places they barely decide it at all.
What decides the map results
Google says it ranks local results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is whether your profile says you do what was searched for. Distance is how far you are from the person searching, or from the place they typed. Prominence is how well known you are, and your review count and rating are part of that.
Distance is the one nobody can do anything about, and it's why we beat a business with three times our reviews in Balerno: we're here and they aren't. In central Edinburgh, where dozens of studios are all about equally close, distance stops separating anyone and prominence starts doing the work. That's where ninety-three reviews wins.
In a village, being nearby does most of the work. In a city, where everyone is nearby, reviews start deciding it.
What reviews actually move
- Who gets the call. Someone looking at the map sees stars and a number before they see anything else. Five businesses with good ratings, and the one with 40 reviews looks safer than the one with 4.
- Your position where you're close to everyone else. In a busy town, reviews are one of the few things that separate otherwise similar businesses.
- What people read before they ring. Reviews that mention the job, the town and the person who did it answer the questions a customer is quietly asking.
What they don't
- They won't put you in the results for a town you're nowhere near. No number of reviews in Livingston gets you into the map for Glasgow.
- They won't fix a profile in the wrong category, or with the wrong phone number. [Getting the profile right](/blog/google-maps-for-trades) comes first.
- They won't make a slow, confusing website convert. A review gets someone to click. The site has to do the rest.
So how many?
Look at the three businesses above you in the map for the search you care about. That's your target, not a number from an article. If they have eight, fifteen will make you look like the obvious choice. If they have ninety, you're not going to catch them this year, and it's worth working the towns around the edge where you're closer than they are.
Recent reviews matter too. Ten reviews from this year read better than thirty from 2019, to Google and to the person deciding whether to ring you.
How to ask, without it being awkward
Almost every business with few reviews has plenty of happy customers. They just never asked, or asked once, vaguely, weeks after the job. What works:
- Ask on the day the job's finished, when they're standing in the new room. A week later the moment has gone.
- Send the direct link. In your Google Business Profile, 'Ask for reviews' gives you a link that opens the review box straight away. Every extra tap loses people.
- Send it by text, not email. It gets read, and it's one tap from the link.
- Make it personal and short. 'Thanks again for having us, Sarah. If you've a minute, a Google review would really help a small firm like ours' works better than any template.
- Reply to every review, good or bad. It shows the next person reading that someone's paying attention.
And what not to do
Don't offer anything in return: a discount, a prize draw, a tenner off the next job. It breaks Google's rules, and since April 2025 fake reviews and undisclosed paid-for ones have been illegal in the UK. Don't only ask the customers you think will be happy, either. Google calls that review gating and doesn't allow it, and an honest four-star review with a reply from you reads better than a wall of fives anyway.
We're taking our own advice, and we'll update these numbers when they move. If you want us to look at where your profile sits against the businesses around you, get in touch and we'll tell you honestly whether reviews are what's holding you back.