Free contractor tool
Enter your current review count and your top competitor's. See how fast you need to grow to pass them in 12 months. No email required.
Your 12-month review outlook
Why review velocity matters for local SEO
A contractor with 200 reviews from three years ago is not beating a competitor with 80 reviews collected in the last six months. Google's local ranking algorithm weights recency heavily. The contractor who keeps collecting reviews month after month stays visible. The one who stops drops.
For most contractors, the fix is simple: build a review request into every job closeout. Text the homeowner the same day. Make it one tap. That alone puts you on a pace that most competitors cannot match because they are still emailing weeks later (or not asking at all).
Want to go deeper? Read these:
Real result, not a projection
per month running the full system: website, Google Ads, and content, all pulling in the same direction.
Common questions
Google's local ranking algorithm weights recent reviews heavily. A contractor with 200 reviews from three years ago is not necessarily outranking a competitor with 80 reviews collected in the last six months. Fresh reviews signal that the business is active, current, and consistently delivering good work. If you stop collecting reviews, your relative position can drop even if your total count stays the same, because competitors with newer reviews pass you.
There is no fixed number that guarantees a local pack ranking. Review count and velocity are one factor among many, including proximity, relevance, and overall profile completeness. What matters competitively is where you stand relative to the other contractors in your market. This calculator helps you see whether you are gaining or losing ground against your top competitor and how many reviews per month you need to close that gap within 12 months.
The most reliable method is to ask on the same day the job is completed. Text the homeowner a direct link to your Google review page while the experience is fresh. Contractors who make this a standard part of every job closeout consistently outpace those who ask sporadically or by email weeks later. Automating the first ask with a simple text keeps the process consistent without relying on anyone remembering to do it.
Enter your current Google review count, your current monthly review rate, your competitor's review count, and their monthly review rate. The calculator projects where both of you will be in 12 months at your current paces, shows how many reviews per month you need to pass them within 12 months, and returns a verdict on whether you are gaining or falling behind.
More free tools
This is one of several free tools built for residential contractors. Browse the full contractor marketing tools library or get a custom strategy video that uses your real numbers.
Ready to run the real numbers?
The calculator gives you a benchmark. A strategy video gives you a real plan: which SEO levers to pull, how to build a review system that runs on autopilot, and what results we would actually target for your market. No cost, no obligation.
