Joy Hawkins and her team published another local ranking study, this one says that hitting ten reviews on your local listing will result in a ranking boost in the Google local results. But getting more than ten reviews does not help you rank better in Google Maps or the Google local pack.
Last week's study said that keywords in reviews don't matter for rankings, although the study size was pretty small. It seems the sample size with this new study is the same, so please review those details.
They tested it on a client that had only 3 reviews and that listing went from 3 reviews to 16 reviews, and then from 16 to 31 and the results are shown below in this chart:
Joy said "There does appear to be a ranking boost once a listing has ten reviews. So, it is important for a listing to get a minimum of ten reviews. However, continuing to get more and more reviews does not seem to yield the same ranking boost." But reviews are still important she said, they do build trust and help with conversions, Joy explained.
I will say, there being a specific number or any kind, such as 10, is very un-Google-like.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
