Short answer
They can help, but they’re one part of it and nobody can promise you a spot. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. You can’t change how far you are from a customer, but you can keep fresh reviews coming in from every job, and they help you get picked once you show up.
What Google says decides the map results
When someone searches “electrician near me”, Google shows a map with a handful of local businesses. Google’s own help page names three things that decide who shows up:
- Relevance: how well your Business Profile matches what the person searched for.
- Distance: how far you are from the person searching.
- Prominence: how well known your business is. Google says this includes how many reviews you have, and links to your business from around the web.
On reviews, Google puts it plainly: “More reviews and positive ratings can help your business’s local ranking.” That’s from Google’s page on improving your local ranking.
So are reviews the most important thing?
Nobody outside Google knows the exact weighting, and anyone who says reviews alone will put you at the top is guessing. What’s clear is that reviews sit inside prominence, and they’re one of the few ranking signals you can grow every week just by asking. Distance is fixed. Relevance is mostly sorted once your profile is filled in properly. Reviews keep moving.
Reviews also decide who gets the call
Showing up is half of it. Once you’re on the map next to two or three other businesses, people compare star ratings, how many reviews each has, and how recent they are. A review from last week says you’re still trading and still doing good work. Three from 2021 says less.
What else you can do
- Fill in your Google Business Profile completely: the right categories, service areas, hours, phone and website.
- Keep your details accurate. Google says complete, accurate information helps it match you to the right searches.
- Add real photos of your work.
- Reply to your reviews, good and bad.
- Ask every customer for a review after every job, so new ones keep landing.
What you can’t do
You can’t pay Google for a better spot on the map. Google says there’s no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. And you can’t buy reviews or offer rewards for them: Google’s review policy bans incentives and removes reviews given for one.
Where Ratings Rocket fits
Ratings Rocket handles the asking part. It texts every customer a link to your Google review form when the job is done, from ServiceM8 or from your phone, so reviews keep coming in without you chasing anyone. It can’t promise a ranking, because no one can. Read how to get more Google reviews as a tradie for the full approach.