Do reviews change where you show up on Google Maps?

Yes. Google says so in its own words. Here's what that looked like from the driver's seat and what to do about it.

The short answer

Reviews are one of the things Google uses to decide who shows up higher on the map. Not the only thing. One of the big ones.

Google's own help page says local results come down to three things: how well your listing matches the search, how far away you are and how well known you are.^[1] That third one is where reviews live. Google says it plainly: more reviews and positive ratings can help your business show up higher in local results.^[1]

So a listing with more good reviews, kept up, sits higher than the same tour with a handful from two years ago. You can't move your dock. You can move your reviews.

What I saw as a guide

I drove day tours out of Banff. The company I worked for had a huge stack of reviews on Tripadvisor and a solid pile on Google. Mostly five stars.

People told me about it on the bus. Not once. Most weeks. "I wasn't sure where to go, but this one had so many five star reviews, so I figured I'd give it a try." Then at the end of the day: "Now I get why you've got so many."

That's the whole loop. The reviews got them on the bus. The day earned the next review. Nobody on that bus had read our website.

How did the company get there? Guides asked. Every tour, every day. "Hope you all had a good day. Thanks for choosing us. If you'd like to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it." The text was meant to go every evening. When it went, it worked. Plenty of nights it didn't.

The company paid guides a bit each day for good reviews and we made a bit of a competition of it between ourselves. I'll come back to that. It's not something I'd copy.

Why it matters

When someone searches your town, they don't see your tour. They see a map with pins and a star count beside each one. They tap the one with the most stars and the most reviews. That's the decision, most of the time, before they've read a word.

An operator who doesn't ask is leaving that decision to whoever did.

What else Google says moves you

Reviews aren't the only lever on that help page. The same page lists:

• Complete, correct details. "Businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results."^[1] Hours, phone, address, what you do.
• Photos and videos, so people can see what you offer.^[1]
• Replying to reviews. "When you reply to customer reviews, it shows that you value their feedback."^[1] And: "Positive reviews and helpful replies can help your business stand out."^[1]

That last one answers a question people ask me a lot. Does replying to every review really help? Google says helpful replies help you stand out. I haven't run a listing with and without replies side by side, so I can't give you my own number. But I've read enough and seen enough listings to say: reply to all of them.

Replying does something else too. A reader sees you're alive. You didn't take their money and forget them. You stayed with them after the tour.

How many reviews do I need?

There's no number. Google doesn't publish one and I won't make one up.

What I can tell you is what the map rewards: more than the operator above you, more recent and answered. Open Google Maps. Search your own town and your kind of tour. Look at the top three. Count their reviews. Look at the date on the newest one. See if the owner replied. That's your target. Not a number on a blog.

What it looks like when it slips

I look at a lot of tour operator listings now. The slipped ones all look the same.

A review a month. Then nothing for two months. Then one more. The newest is from before last season. None of them have a reply.

The operator above them on the map has reviews from this week and a line from the owner under each one. Same town, same kind of tour. The reader doesn't know which boat is better. They know which one looks open.

What to do, every day

1. Ask every guest, in person, before they get off. "If you'd like to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. It helps a small tour company a lot."
2. Send a text that evening, the same day as the tour, from your business, with the link. This is the step that falls off at the end of a long day.
3. Send one reminder about three days later. That's my gut, not a study. A lot of people say "I'll do it later" at dinner and never do. The reminder catches them.
4. Reply to every review as it lands. Thank them. Mention the day.
5. Fix the listing itself. Hours, phone, photos from this season.

Two habits do the work: ask every guest and send the text that night. The rest follows.

The hard part isn't any one step. It's keeping track of which guest got which text on which day, every day, in season. That's what breaks.

The rules

• No rewards for reviews. Google bans offering "payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" for a review.^[2] A free drink for a five star review can get the reviews taken down. It can go further than that.
• No sorting who you ask. In Google's words, a business may not "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers".^[2] Nor may it put off the unhappy ones. No "how was your day?" text that only sends the link to the happy ones. Same message to everyone.
• What does work: one message to every guest carrying the review link, plus a line for anything that went wrong and a way to tell you directly. Everyone gets the same text. The guest who had a bad day gets a place to say so that isn't the map.
• About paying guides. The company I worked for paid a few dollars a day for good reviews. Google's policy lists "merchants requesting that staff solicit a certain number of reviews" as a breach.^[2] A per-day bonus for good reviews sits close to that line. I'd pay guides for asking everyone, not for the count or the stars.
• Asking is fine. Google lets a business "solicit or encourage" reviews of a genuine experience.^[2] Ask away. Just don't tell people what to write.

Do it yourself if

• You send fewer than about three review texts a day and you'll send them every night in season, tired.
• You'll reply to every review within a day or two.

Pay someone if you're past three a day and you'd rather run the tours. That's what we do. Every guest gets one text after the tour with the review link, sent as your business. Every review gets a reply in your voice. I've written about whether that's worth paying for and about why happy guests don't leave reviews.

The one thing

Open Google Maps tonight. Search your town and your kind of tour. Look at who's above you and what they've got that you haven't: more reviews, newer ones, replies. Then look at what you do after each tour to get the next one. If the answer is "nothing", start with the text.

Want to see yours?

Ask for a free Review Rundown and I'll look at where you sit on the map against the operator above you. One thing to fix, in five plain sentences. No call.

If that one thing turns out to be "pay someone", our Google reviews service does it.