Why Google reviews will power up your local SEO in 2025

A strong Google review strategy is one of the most effective – and accessible – ways to boost your local SEO.

Unlike other ranking signals that may feel out of reach, reviews are something business owners can actively influence. And their impact is only growing.

Google reviews play a major role in map pack rankings, and yet many businesses still underestimate just how much they matter.

By consistently earning new, high-quality reviews and keeping the momentum going, you can dramatically improve your local visibility and stay competitive in your market.

Learn how to build and manage a Google review strategy that works in 2025 – helping your business grow, rank, and convert more customers.

The kind of Google reviews you want

Any review a business gets is beneficial, but some reviews can outweigh others for SEO purposes.

You always want to make sure customers leave reviews with a lot of text where they are talking about the services they received and their experiences. 

They should mention specifics about their service, like:

• The problem they were having.
• The experience they had with your team in terms of communication.
• Results of the service. (Was their problem solved?)
• Name of the employee(s) they worked with.
• Photos of the job.

The main benefit here is that review justifications are eligible to show up in search results and can provide a nice trust factor when someone searches for a specific service.

Another benefit may be a ranking boost for the keywords in the review. 

We tested this two years ago, and at the time, we could not determine if it had a direct ranking impact for the keywords added to the reviews.

Getting new reviews is a ranking signal itself, so it’s tough to know if the ranking boost is tied to the keywords in the review or just the increase in reviews in general. That said, I wouldn’t rule it out entirely.

Reviews with photos tend to stick at the top longer

Having your customers add photos or videos with their review can amplify the impact significantly.

Visual content adds authenticity and credibility to the reviews. We have also noticed that these reviews tend to stay at the top much longer than reviews without photos. 

So, if you want to get some positive reviews to stick at the top, try getting more reviews with photos.

What do we mean by “stay at the top”?

When you navigate to a business’s Google Business Profile (GBP) and then click on their reviews, the default view a user will see is sorted by “Most relevant.”

Sometimes, a negative review might appear at the top of your profile. 

These can harm your business’s reputation and possibly deter people from calling. 

Want to get rid of a negative review appearing at the top of your profile?

The only way I’ve seen this done effectively is by consistently getting legitimate, detailed, positive reviews from customers that include photos. 

Or ask past customers to update their review to add a photo. Hopefully, one of those will push the negative one down.

Encourage your customers to snap a photo of the HVAC system you just fixed, the roof you just installed, or the spring on the garage door you just replaced, and add that to their review.

Negative reviews: A chance to embrace the imperfections of your business

Even if you cannot push a negative review down, it’s a great opportunity to respond thoughtfully, acknowledge customer concerns, and offer solutions publicly. 

Responding to negative Google reviews is an art form.

Negative reviews could be a good thing. 

Perfection is not always trustworthy in the eyes of consumers. 

While aiming for outstanding service is crucial, an occasional less-than-perfect review online can enhance your credibility. 

Authenticity matters, and customers often appreciate businesses that show a human side, and to be human is to err. 

When a user sees under 4.8 or 4.7 stars on Google, they tend to trust it more, according to some studies. 

Do not be afraid of negative reviews. Take them as a chance to show your human side. People will like it, especially if you can make it funny.

Monitor GBP reviews for strategic insights

Did you know that only businesses with a 4.0-star rating and above are eligible to show up for searches with “best” or “top” in them?

Google will add a “Top-rated” filter automatically if either of those words is added to the search, which screens out all businesses with a star rating below 4.0.

Is your business above a 4.0 rating right now? 

If the answer is, “I don’t know!” this part is for you.

Monitoring reviews quarterly lets you gain insights into various aspects of your online presence. 

Track fluctuations in review volume to identify trends or problems such as:

• Losing reviews.
• Falling behind competitors in review count.
• Dropping below a 4.0-star rating.

You must also ensure you are receiving a steady stream of new reviews because review recency is a local ranking signal. 

Keep a trend of consistent, new reviews to maintain three-pack rankings.

You should also pay attention to how many reviews your competition is getting so you know how many you need to stay competitive. 

Places Scout has a helpful report that provides the weekly review count for all the competitors ranking for your top keywords. 

This will help you easily keep track of how many reviews you need to be getting weekly.

Dig deeper: Top SEO tips for location-specific websites

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How to keep a steady stream of Google reviews with little effort

Getting new, consistent reviews is key to maintaining visibility on Google Maps and growing that visibility if there is room for improvement. 

Many business owners rely on their employees to provide top-notch service that naturally generates positive reviews. 

In reality, people need a little nudge to leave those positive reviews. 

Google absolutely does not allow businesses to incentivize customers for positive reviews.

It is directly against their Google review guidelines, as this can be considered “deceptive content” if the customer was paid or incentivized in any way to leave the review. 

However, Google does allow business owners other ways to incentivize reviews.

Incentivizing employees

Business owners can and should motivate employees to ask for reviews from satisfied customers during their interactions. 

They should be asking for photos along with that review as well. 

If an employee gets mentioned in a review by name or gets a customer to post a review with a photo, reward your employee by giving them:

• A cash prize.
• A gift card to Amazon.
• Even a gift card to a local restaurant of their choice. 

If your business typically gets many reviews, consider holding a monthly “drawing” instead and rewarding a specific winner.

Keep it fun and rewarding, as everyone wins here.

Automated text messages and emails

Giving customers a link to review your business on Google is super important to streamline the process for them.

Getting the link is easy. It’s right on the GBP dashboard under “Ask for reviews.”

The trick to getting the most reviews possible with the least effort is creating automated outreach flows that will send customers a text message and/or email with a direct link for them to leave a review. 

You can personalize the texts and emails, but don’t get carried away and lose the point: getting the review on Google. 

Make sure it’s crystal clear how they can easily review you on Google, why it’s important, and the link is easily accessible.

Ask other businesses and vendors your business has worked with to leave a review

You can ask non-customers to leave reviews on your Google profile, as long as that person has had some interaction with your business in a business capacity. 

This is a great idea for newer businesses lacking a large customer base or those that do not serve a ton of customers at a time, like a sole practitioner lawyer who only takes on a few clients a month. 

You can ask any business or vendor you have worked with to leave a review of your business.

Your accountant, insurance agent, product vendors, and anyone you have interacted with in a business capacity.

Help, my Google reviews are missing!

When you put so much effort into getting Google reviews, it can be devastating to see them go missing suddenly, without a reason!

There are a few reasons reviews go missing from profiles. 

Sometimes, it’s a bug, like in February 2025, when tons of reviews suddenly disappeared from thousands of Google listings. 

Google has since fixed it, but the algorithm they employed that supposedly filters suspicious or inauthentic reviews is still in play. 

While the intention behind this system is to ensure review integrity, it can sometimes result in legitimate reviews being filtered out. 

This problem is so widespread that Google released some support information explaining why reviews may suddenly disappear from a GBP listing.

If you suspect this is happening to you because you are monitoring your reviews (called a callback), then you have some options. 

The best way to restore these is to contact support and follow these steps: 

• Type “Reviews”
• Select “Review missing” and follow the prompts. 

They may ask for screenshots of the missing reviews, so having those handy is recommended.

If that does not work:

• Head over to the GBP Community Forum.
• Post a thread about your missing reviews.
• Ask a Product Expert to look into it and potentially escalate it to Google. 

Fake reviews: The never-ending tale

Fake spam reviews can be frustrating.

Is your listing being bombarded with fake, negative reviews?

Google is usually good about catching these and removing them with their filter. 

Recently, Google announced that it is using Gemini AI to better detect review spam, citing a 40% increase in review removal in 2024 vs. 2023. 

However, sometimes fake reviews get published. 

To get fake reviews removed, you need to report the reviews for removal using Google’s review management tool. Use this tool to report fake reviews, and then check back to see if they get removed. 

If they do not get removed, Google will give you an option to appeal that decision directly in the tool.

If you appeal a decision in the tool and the fake review is still not removed, contact Google support, and they should be able to remove it from your listing if they are indeed fake. 

Or you can go to the GBP community forum if all else fails.

Fake positive reviews

Sometimes businesses get fake positive reviews to game Google’s ranking algorithm. 

The frustrating thing is that it works most of the time. 

When a listing gets many fake positive reviews, it typically sees improvement in rankings.

Google is far away from having a handle on its fake positive review problems, though they are trying, according to recently filed lawsuits. 

It may be tempting to report competitors you suspect are buying reviews in hopes of getting them removed and hurting their rankings. 

But in most cases, all that effort just isn’t worth it. Even if some fake reviews get taken down (which isn’t guaranteed), their rankings likely won’t take much of a hit.

 You can, however, report them via Google’s Report business conduct form or Google’s business redressal complaint form. 

Google’s new fake review warning label

Google is also rolling out “consumer alerts” on business profiles to try and promote transparency of possible fake review activity. 

The label will say something like, “Suspected fake reviews were recently removed from this profile.”

This is a great new incentive to not invest in fake reviews to boost your Google search visibility. 

If you build your online credibility on a flimsy foundation of fake reviews, Google could knock it down way faster than you built it up.

Conclusion

Google reviews aren’t just a nice bonus – they’re a critical part of your local SEO strategy. 

The right kind of reviews – detailed, photo-rich, and consistent – can help your business appear more often, earn trust faster, and stay ahead of the competition. 

Focus on building a steady review pipeline in 2025, and you’ll give your local visibility the boost it needs to grow.

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