Every statistic we publish, where it appears, who produced it and when. If a figure on this site is not listed here, it should not be on the site — tell us and we will remove it.
The figures on how many Google reviews you need and in the free review check are not survey answers. They are read from public Google Business Profile listings — the same listings anyone can see on Google Maps. Based on real Google data, updated regularly.
What we count. Only listings with a real street address. Service-area listings with no address are excluded, because a business with no premises is not a competitor a customer walks past. We also keep only listings whose Google primary category is one we count as that trade, from a fixed list per business type — so a double glazing installer does not count as a roofer, and a property management company does not count as an estate agent. A large chain is not excluded for being large: if its category is right, it competes and it counts.
What “typical” means. We publish the median: half the businesses in that market have fewer reviews, half have more. We do not publish an average, because one listing with several thousand reviews drags an average somewhere no real business sits.
When we refuse to publish. A market needs at least 15 listings before we will show a figure for it. Below that the typical figure is noise, and a confident number from five businesses is worse than no number.
How fresh it is. Every figure carries the month it was read. Anything older than 120 days drops out rather than being shown as current.
No business is named. We publish the typical figure, the spread and the count for a market. Which business holds which review count is not ours to publish.
If a figure here is out of date, misread or misattributed, contact us and we will correct or remove it.