Metrics
Review benchmarking
Review benchmarking is comparing your review volume, rating, recency, and reply rate against direct local competitors rather than an industry average.
Absolute numbers mislead. A 4.3 with 400 recent reviews outperforms a 4.8 with 12 in both ranking and conversion, so the useful comparison is always the three businesses ranking above you for your main query.
Reply rate is the metric where most local competitors are weakest, which makes it the cheapest place to differentiate.
In practice
Pick your three real competitors, record their count, average, newest review date, and reply coverage once a quarter. Improve the weakest of your four numbers.
Common questions
- Which competitors should I benchmark against?
- The ones actually appearing above you in the local pack for your main service query, not the national brands in your category.