When someone searches "coffee near me" or "plumber in [your town]," Google picks a handful of businesses to show in the map results at the top. Getting into that short list is worth more than almost any other marketing you can do. And your reviews are one of the biggest levers you have over it.
Here's what actually influences where you land.
Review count and rating
Google wants to recommend places people are happy with, so both the number of reviews and your average rating feed into ranking. A business with 120 reviews at 4.6 stars looks like a safer bet than one with 8 reviews at 5.0. Google tends to treat it that way.
You don't need a perfect score. A steady stream of genuine four- and five-star reviews beats a thin, flawless-looking profile almost every time.
Freshness and velocity
A review from last week signals that you're open and busy right now. A profile whose newest review is two years old signals the opposite, however good those old reviews were.
Getting a few reviews every month matters more than a one-time burst. The simplest way to keep them coming is to ask, at the moment a customer is happiest, with a direct link to your review form.
The words inside the reviews
Google reads the text, not just the stars. When customers naturally mention what you do and where you are, that's a small but real signal.
You can't script this, but you can nudge it. A prompt like "We'd love to hear what you thought of the deep-dish" tends to produce reviews that mention exactly the things you'd want to rank for.
Owner responses
Replying to reviews is a ranking factor in its own right, and it's the one most businesses ignore. Do it, especially on the critical ones, and Google reads the profile as actively managed. Customers read it that way too. Aim to reply to all of them, not just the glowing ones.
The takeaway
You don't control Google's algorithm, but you control the inputs it cares about most: a healthy volume of recent reviews, a solid rating, and consistent replies. Keep those three moving in the right direction and your visibility in local search tends to follow.