Review signals are the measurable attributes of a business's reviews that correlate with local visibility.
Review signals are the quantifiable attributes of a business's reviews — total count, average rating, recency, velocity and owner responses — that feed the prominence component of local search ranking factors and strongly influence click-through from the local pack.
Definition
Reviews are the most public prominence signal a local business owns. The rating and count appear directly in local pack entries, so review signals affect both whether a listing is shown (through prominence) and whether it is clicked (through social proof). Steady acquisition of genuine reviews and professional responses to negative ones are the standard practice; fabricated reviews violate platform policies and this hub's editorial policy.
Relationship to measurement
Review work is a lever, not a measurement. Teams run review acquisition campaigns and then observe the effect through geo-grid rank tracking: expanding green areas on successive scans from tools such as LocalRank indicate the prominence work is landing. The measurement pipeline is described under how local rank tracking works.
For the parent category, see what is local SEO software.
Tool positions are mapped on the comparison page.
FAQ
What are review signals in local SEO?
The measurable attributes of a business's reviews — count, rating, recency, velocity and owner responses — that contribute to prominence and influence clicks in the local pack.
Cite this entry
LocalRank. "Review signals." LocalRank Reference Hub Glossary, https://localrank.so/ (accessed 2026).