Review velocity check
Reviews in the last 90 days, yours against whoever's ranking above you locally — the number that moves week to week.
Count the last 90 days
Sort your Google reviews by most recent and count.
Whoever ranks above you for the same search.
Review gap, last 90 days
— they're getting 9 more reviews than you every 90 days.
One competitor, one snapshot. Review count is one of several ranking factors, alongside proximity and profile completeness.
Total review count feels like the number that matters, but it's a lagging figure — it only ever goes up, however slowly, and says nothing about whether momentum is being kept up or lost. Velocity, how many reviews have landed recently, is what tends to matter more for how a profile is currently ranked, because it signals the business is still active and still being chosen.
Why velocity beats total count
A business with 200 reviews but nothing new in eight months can rank behind one with 30 reviews and a dozen from the last three months. Recency signals that customers are choosing this business right now, not that they did years ago. It also reflects what's actually controllable week to week — asking every satisfied customer for a review has a direct, visible effect on this number in a way that total count, dominated by history, doesn't.
Finding a competitor's 90-day figure
Search the trade and area the way a customer would, open the Google Business Profile of whoever ranks above in the local pack, and open their reviews tab. Sort by "most recent" and count how many have a date within the last three months — Google shows relative dates like "2 weeks ago" or "3 months ago" that make this quick to eyeball. Do the same for your own profile, and enter both counts.
A worked example
3 reviews in the last 90 days against a competitor's 12: a gap of 9, and a ratio of 25% — for every review landing on this profile, the competitor is getting four. Closing even half that gap over the next quarter is a realistic ask-every-customer target, not a complete overhaul.
What this isn't
This compares against one competitor at one point in time — a fuller picture would track several competitors and repeat the count monthly. Review count is also only one of many ranking factors alongside proximity, category relevance and profile completeness, so closing this gap alone won't guarantee a ranking change.
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