It is a pace, not a ranking
Review velocity is one input among many, alongside proximity, relevance and everything on the profile. Hitting the target does not move you into the map pack, and the calculator never says it will.
RESOURCES
Review velocity calculator
Estimate review momentum using your inputs and a clear planning method. Use the Three Stripes Digital review velocity calculator and explore the assumptions.
A clear plan. A dedicated partner. Measurable progress.
WHAT THE REPORT LOOKS LIKE
“personal injury lawyer” · Omaha, NE
- 34
- new reviews to target over a rolling 90 days
- 33
- reviews the fastest visible competitor added in the same window
- 3 a week
- request rhythm needed to hold that pace
Your report is generated from a live lookup of the search term and city you enter.
What you’ll see in the preview
A focused snapshot of the review pace needed to compete in your local search results.
01
Rolling 90-day targetThe number of new Google reviews needed to beat the fastest visible competitor.
02
Competitor paceA simple comparison of recent review velocity across the businesses ranking now.
03
Weekly paceThe review request rhythm your team would need to maintain over the next quarter.
04
Next stepA practical recommendation for closing the gap without guessing.
Use this as a planning benchmark, not a vanity score. Recent review pace is the comparison that matters.
How to use this in your market
Compare the review pace Google can see right now.
01
Pick the market
Use the exact keyword and city where customers search before choosing a business.
02
Read the 90-day target
The benchmark is one review above the fastest top competitor in the rolling window.
03
Build a review system
If your gap is large, the answer is not luck. You need a repeatable post-service review request process.
THE ARITHMETIC, IN THE OPEN
See how the calculation works
There is no model here and nothing is predicted. The calculator reads the Google Business Profiles ranking in the map pack for the term and city you type, counts how many reviews each of them gained in the last ninety days, and takes the fastest of those counts. Your target is that number plus one. The weekly figure is the same target divided across the thirteen weeks of the window, so it is a rhythm rather than a second calculation.
THE FORMULA90-day target = reviews the fastest visible competitor gained in the last 90 days, plus one
| Input | Where it comes from | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| The search term and city | You type them. They are the only two things the tool needs. | Decides which map pack is read, and therefore which businesses count as your competition. |
| Recent reviews per competitor | Counted from the Google Business Profiles currently ranking for that term in that city, at the moment you run the report. | The fastest of them sets the pace you are being compared against. |
| Your own profile link | Optional. You paste it if you want your own gap shown. | Adds your recent pace to the same comparison, so the gap is a number rather than a feeling. |
Only the rolling ninety-day window is counted. A business with four thousand lifetime reviews and none this quarter is behind a business with sixty that arrived last month, and the calculator is built around that fact.
A worked example. Three businesses rank for the term you entered. Over the last ninety days they gained 33, 18 and 6 reviews. The fastest is 33, so the target is 34, and 34 across thirteen weeks is about 3 a week. That is exactly the example shown in the panel at the top of this page. If none of them gained a review in the window the target is 1, and if a field is blank or the market cannot be read the report says so rather than guessing.
WHAT THIS NUMBER IS NOT
Use the result responsibly
The target is a planning number for one part of local search, and it is worth being blunt about its limits. Reviews are one signal among several, the count says nothing about what the reviews contain, and a map pack read on a Tuesday can look different on a Friday. Read it as the pace your market is currently setting, then decide whether closing that gap is the best use of the next quarter. The wider work is on our local SEO service page, and the method is explained in our local SEO guide.
It does not judge what the reviews say
The count is a count. Recent reviews describing the wrong service, or arriving in a burst that looks organized, do a business no favors however well the number reads.
It is one moment, in one market
The map pack changes by the day and by where the search happens. Run it again in a month, on the same term, before concluding anything has changed.
WHERE THE METHOD COMES FROM
The campaigns behind this calculator.
Reviews are one part of the local search work below. These three figures come from the campaigns it has been run on, and each case study carries the client’s own Business Profile reporting and the grid scans behind them.
A FEW THINGS YOU MAY BE WONDERING
Good questions. Clear answers.
What does review velocity mean?
The pace at which a business earns new reviews, measured over a rolling window rather than as a lifetime total. Four hundred old reviews and none this quarter loses ground to a rival adding two a week.
Does this calculator predict my Google ranking?
No, it does not predict a Google ranking. It compares the recent review pace of businesses currently ranking near you and turns that into a 90-day target and a weekly pace to plan around.
What happens if a competitor has no recent reviews?
Then the local bar is low and a modest, consistent pace is enough to stand out. The calculation works from what the market is actually doing, so a quiet market produces a smaller target.
How should the 90-day target be used?
As a planning number for how often your team asks, not a quota to hit by any means. Requests must go to every customer or patient, not only the ones you expect to be positive.