Something I noticed while looking at local service businesses on Google a while back: a landscaping company near me had 94 reviews and a 4.8 rating. Really solid profile. But the most recent review was from 14 months ago.
The business right below them had 67 reviews, a 4.6, and their most recent review was from three weeks ago.
I would've expected the one with more reviews and a higher rating to rank higher. But it wasn't. The one with recent reviews was in the map pack. The one with older reviews was buried below it.
That's the decay problem, and it catches a lot of businesses off guard.
Why Recency Matters to Google
Google's local ranking algorithm isn't just counting reviews. It's looking at the pattern of reviews over time, and recent activity is a meaningful signal.
The logic makes sense when you think about it from Google's perspective. A business with 80 reviews from three years ago and nothing since could be closed, under new management, or just not as good as it used to be. A business with 25 reviews and 4 new ones last month is clearly active and still serving customers well. Google wants to surface businesses it's confident are still operating well, and recent reviews are one of the clearest signals it has.
The window that seems to matter most is roughly the last 90 days. Reviews in that window carry more weight than older ones. It doesn't mean older reviews stop counting, they still contribute to your overall profile, but the freshness component is real and it decays when new reviews stop coming in.
What the Decay Actually Looks Like
Most businesses that run into this problem didn't ignore reviews entirely. They went through a phase where they were actively asking, saw their profile improve, and then stopped. Maybe things got busy. Maybe it felt like the job was done.
For a while, nothing changes. The reviews they built up still look good and the ranking holds. But over 6-12 months, as competitors keep collecting reviews and theirs go stale, the gap starts to show.
Their review count is still higher. Their rating is still good. But the business that kept asking consistently now has a much stronger recency signal, and Google starts favoring them in local results.
The frustrating thing is it's hard to notice in real time. You're not actively losing anything, you're just slowly stopping to gain ground while competitors keep moving. By the time the visibility drop is obvious, the gap is usually pretty wide.
The Math on Staying Consistent
Let's say you serve 30 customers a month and ask each one for a review. At a 15-20% response rate, that's 4-6 new reviews per month. In a year, you've added 50-70 reviews.
Now imagine two businesses starting at the same place: 50 reviews, 4.6 rating.
Business A keeps asking. By month 12, they have 100-120 reviews and a steady stream of recent activity.
Business B stops after month 6. By month 12, they still have 80 reviews, but the most recent one is 6 months old.
In most markets, Business A is probably showing up in the top 3 local results. Business B is hoping their existing profile carries them.
It compounds the other way too. A consistent review velocity is genuinely hard for a competitor to close quickly. If you're adding 5 reviews a month and they're starting from scratch, they have to out-ask you every month just to keep pace, and they're still behind on total count.
The Memory Problem
Asking consistently sounds simple until you're actually trying to do it every single day.
At the end of a job, you're thinking about the next one. The customer leaves, you move on. Following up on every customer requires either a very disciplined manual process or some kind of automation, and most small businesses don't have either.
The ones that do stay consistent usually have one of two things: a system that sends the request automatically after service, or one person who owns that task and actually does it every day without exception. Both work. The automated version is just more reliable because it doesn't depend on remembering.
The businesses with the strongest local review profiles aren't doing anything clever. They're just asking every customer, every time, with a direct link, and they've set it up so it happens without anyone having to think about it.
Getting Back on Track After a Gap
If you've let things slip for a few months, it's not a crisis. The existing reviews are still there, still contributing to your profile. You're just behind on recency, which is fixable.
The way back is the same as the way forward: start asking again, do it consistently, and the recency signal will rebuild over the next few months.
What doesn't work is a one-time push where you contact a bunch of past customers at once. It can temporarily boost your numbers, but Google's algorithm is looking for a steady pattern of new reviews, not a spike followed by silence. A burst of reviews and then another long gap doesn't fix the underlying problem.
The fix is making it a permanent part of how you operate. Ask after every job. Every time.
Related: Our complete guide to getting more Google reviews covers timing, templates, QR codes, and automation in one place. We also built free tools you can start using today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does review recency actually affect Google rankings?
Review recency is one of several factors Google's local algorithm considers, and it's meaningful enough that businesses with older review profiles can get outranked by competitors with fewer total reviews but more recent activity. Reviews from roughly the last 90 days carry more weight than older ones when Google is deciding which businesses to surface in local results. Older reviews still count toward your overall profile, but the freshness signal decays when nothing new is coming in.
What's a good pace for collecting Google reviews?
For most local service businesses, 3-6 new reviews per month is a solid, sustainable pace that keeps the recency signal strong and builds your total count over time. At that rate, you're adding 36-72 reviews per year. In most markets, that's enough to stay ahead of competitors who aren't asking consistently, and over 2-3 years, it builds a profile that's hard to catch up to.
Does getting a lot of reviews at once help or hurt?
A spike in reviews isn't as valuable as a steady flow. Google is looking for a consistent pattern of customer activity, not a burst followed by silence. A one-time push can temporarily improve your numbers, but it doesn't solve the recency problem long-term. The goal is making asking a permanent part of your process so reviews come in steadily over time.
Is it worth reaching out to past customers who never left a review?
It's worth one try, but the response rate drops significantly for customers you served months ago. The experience has faded and the motivation to leave a review is mostly gone. You might get a few responses from loyal customers, but it shouldn't replace building a consistent ongoing process. Think of it as a one-time supplement, not a substitute for asking every new customer going forward.
How do I make sure I'm asking every customer without forgetting?
The most reliable answer is some form of automation, something that sends a follow-up request after every completed job without you having to remember. If you're managing it manually, the businesses that do it consistently usually have one person who owns the task and does it as part of closing out each job, the same as sending an invoice. The key is making it a step in your existing workflow, not a separate thing you have to remember to do later.