Google Places Ranking Secrets 2012 - New Info on Google Places Reviews

Five reviews on Google Places turns out to do more than just turn on your stars.  That is important enough.  In fact, I'm not sure there is anything more important on Google Places than having at least 5 stars average and having them lit up.  Ok.  Being above the fold or at least on page 1 is critical.  But five stars is a close second.

Turns out that the five stars will help you get on the first page, above the fold, or even to number one.  A recent report finds that having at least five stars will increase your rank by .31 steps in the blended "everything" search results or 1.47 steps in Google Places itself.  As noted elsewhere in the blog, one to four reviews has no effect.  And having more than 5 doesn't matter until you get to 100.  Can we be 100% certain that this analysis is perfect in its understanding of how Google works?  No, but we can't really even be sure about the things that Google says work.

Get your five reviews ASAP!