'How many reviews do I need?' depends entirely on your industry and your local competition: a law firm competes on different numbers than a restaurant.
"How many reviews do I need?" is one of the most common questions local businesses ask — and the honest answer is: enough to be competitive in your specific industry and market. A law firm competes on different review numbers than a restaurant; a dentist faces different benchmarks than a plumber. Knowing where you stand relative to your industry and your local competitors tells you whether reviews are a strength or a liability. This guide covers how review benchmarks vary by industry and how to find the number that matters for you.
The only benchmark that truly matters is your local competition — but industry patterns give you a useful starting frame.
Different industries generate reviews at very different rates, driven by:
Transaction frequency: Restaurants and coffee shops serve many customers daily and accumulate reviews fast. A roofer completes far fewer, larger jobs, so review counts are naturally lower.
Customer willingness to review: Some experiences prompt reviews more readily than others. A memorable meal or a life-improving medical outcome generates reviews more easily than a routine transaction.
Emotional weight: High-stakes services — legal, medical, home repair — get scrutinized more, so reviews carry more weight even when counts are lower.
Because of this, comparing a dentist's review count to a restaurant's is meaningless. Benchmarks only make sense within an industry and market.
While exact numbers vary by market, these patterns hold broadly:
High-volume consumer businesses (restaurants, cafés, retail): Accumulate reviews quickly; competitive profiles often have hundreds. Recency matters a lot because there is constant flow.
Local services (plumbers, HVAC, electricians, cleaners): Moderate volume; strong profiles typically have dozens to a few hundred, with responsiveness and specifics mattering.
Healthcare (dentists, doctors, specialists): Lower volume but high scrutiny; a few dozen strong, recent reviews can be very competitive, and rating quality matters enormously.
High-ticket/low-frequency (roofers, remodelers, attorneys, custom builders): Naturally lower counts; even a modest number of detailed, high-quality reviews can lead a market because competitors also have few.
The takeaway: a "good" number is entirely relative to your category.
Industry patterns are a starting point, but the real benchmark is your local competition. Google ranks you relative to the other businesses competing for the same searches in your area.
To find your real target:
If the top three plumbers in your city have 80, 120, and 150 reviews, then 30 reviews leaves you behind regardless of what any national "benchmark" says.
📊 Flento Data: Across local markets, the businesses ranking in the top three of the Local Pack consistently had more reviews and higher recency than those ranking below — and the specific numbers varied widely by industry and city, confirming that local competitive benchmarks matter more than universal targets.
Review count is only one dimension. Competitive review profiles also win on:
Rating: A high average rating (typically above 4.5) is often more important than raw count. A 4.8 with 60 reviews can beat a 4.2 with 120.
Recency: A steady flow of recent reviews signals an active, currently-good business. Old reviews lose impact.
Content and specifics: Reviews that mention your services and city build relevance and trigger justifications.
A truly competitive profile is strong across all four: count, rating, recency, and content.
Once you know your competitive benchmark, closing the gap is systematic:
Ask every customer for a review, consistently — the only reliable way to build volume.
Time requests for peak satisfaction to get genuine, positive reviews.
Maintain velocity so recency stays strong, not just total count.
Respond to everything to reinforce a well-run reputation.
🔥 Quick Win: Use Flento to benchmark your review count and rating against the competitors actually ranking in your Local Pack — not a generic industry average. Seeing exactly how far ahead or behind you are of the businesses you compete with tells you precisely how much review growth you need to become the leader in your market.
There is no universal "right" number of reviews — only the number that makes you competitive in your industry and, above all, against the businesses ranking in your local market. Benchmark against your real competitors on count, rating, recency, and content, then build systematically to lead. Find your true competitive benchmark with Flento.
