Definition
Review velocity is the number of new Google reviews a business receives per week or per month, as opposed to its total review count. Google reads velocity as a freshness signal: a business earning reviews steadily looks open, busy, and current, while a business with a large but stale count looks like one that stopped serving customers.
Velocity is relative. A business earning four reviews a month in a category where the pack leaders earn one is moving up. The same four in a category where the leaders earn twelve is falling behind.
Why it matters on the Georgian Bay shoreline
Recency over total
Twenty reviews in the last three months beat two hundred from 2019 in every Collingwood trade category we have tracked. A profile with no review in ninety days starts to drift down the pack even when its total is the highest in town. Most consumers also discount reviews older than a few months, so velocity moves the click as well as the rank.
The stall at 12 to 40
Most trades stall between 12 and 40 reviews. The cause is not unwilling customers; it is an ask that happens sometimes, by memory, after the customer has gone home. Velocity comes from asking every customer at the same moment, by text, with one tap to the review form.
Example
Compare two HVAC contractors in Collingwood: one with 180 reviews and three added in the past year, one with 64 reviews and five added every month. Our June 2026 incognito checks put the third-place Collingwood HVAC listing at around 55 reviews and the top listing around 140, so both totals clear the bar. The one earning five a month is the one that holds its spot, and we have watched the stale profile in a pair like this lose ground month by month.
The common mistake
The review burst. Twenty reviews in a weekend from a text blast, then nothing for six months. Google filters some reviews silently, bursts included, and the profile still reads as stale by month three. Aim for the same two to eight a month, every month.
Put the ask on autopilot
The Review Engine sends the ask and the polite follow-up after every job, so velocity stops depending on memory. The gap calculator on that page shows how long the climb takes.
Put the ask on autopilot →