{ "$schema": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/index.json", "slug": "review-rating-calculator", "name": "Review rating", "category": "Organic and local", "url": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/review-rating-calculator", "dataUrl": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/data/review-rating-calculator.json", "currency": "AUD", "updated": "2026-08", "summary": "Work out how many five-star reviews it takes to lift your average to a target, how long that takes at your current collection rate, and what one bad review costs you.", "whatItDoes": [ "Works out how many new reviews at a given rating it takes to move your displayed average to a target.", "Converts that into a timeframe at the rate you currently collect them.", "Shows what one new one-star review does to your average, which is the number that explains why the same rating gets harder to protect as it grows." ], "howToUse": [ "Enter your current review count and the average shown on your profile.", "Enter the average you want to reach. It has to be below the rating of the reviews you expect to receive — you cannot average your way past them.", "Enter the rating of the reviews you realistically expect. Five is optimistic; most businesses collecting honestly land between 4.6 and 4.9.", "Enter how many you collect a month to get the timeframe." ], "formula": [ "Reviews needed = current count × (target − current average) ÷ (new rating − target)", "Time to get there = reviews needed ÷ reviews collected a month", "Average after one 1-star = (count × average + 1) ÷ (count + 1)" ], "interpret": [ "The bigger your review count, the more inertia it has. That protects a good rating and traps a bad one, which is why fixing a rating is slow and defending one is cheap.", "If the reviews needed run into the hundreds, the target is not reachable by collection alone in any useful timeframe. The realistic move is a lower target plus fixing whatever produced the low ratings.", "The one-star line is the argument for collecting continuously rather than in bursts. A business collecting steadily barely notices a bad review; one with fourteen reviews drops a tenth of a star." ], "limitation": "This is arithmetic on a displayed average and nothing more. It makes no claim about ranking, visibility or how many customers a rating brings in, because nothing credible links a review count to a position in local search results. Anyone promising you that link is selling something.", "inputs": [ { "key": "currentCount", "label": "Reviews you have now", "kind": "number", "default": 42, "min": 0, "max": 1000000, "unit": "count", "help": "The total shown on the profile.", "sourceId": null, "sourceNote": null, "options": null }, { "key": "currentAverage", "label": "Current average", "kind": "number", "default": 4.3, "min": 1, "max": 5, "unit": "count", "help": "The rating displayed, to one decimal place.", "sourceId": null, "sourceNote": null, "options": null }, { "key": "targetAverage", "label": "Target average", "kind": "number", "default": 4.7, "min": 1, "max": 5, "unit": "count", "help": "Must be below the rating of the reviews you expect to receive.", "sourceId": null, "sourceNote": null, "options": null }, { "key": "newRating", "label": "Rating of new reviews", "kind": "number", "default": 5, "min": 1, "max": 5, "unit": "count", "help": "Be realistic. Assuming every new review is a five is how this calculation misleads people.", "sourceId": null, "sourceNote": null, "options": null }, { "key": "perMonth", "label": "Reviews collected a month", "kind": "number", "default": 4, "min": 0, "max": 10000, "unit": "count", "help": "What you actually average, not what you intend to.", "sourceId": null, "sourceNote": null, "options": null } ], "defaults": { "currentCount": 42, "currentAverage": 4.3, "targetAverage": 4.7, "newRating": 5, "perMonth": 4 }, "exampleResult": { "headline": { "label": "Reviews needed", "value": "57", "note": "To move from 4.3 to 4.7" }, "outputs": [ { "label": "Time to get there", "value": "14 months", "note": "At 4 reviews a month" }, { "label": "Average after one 1-star", "value": "4.2", "note": "A drop of 0.08" }, { "label": "Reviews to undo one 1-star", "value": "5", "note": "At 5 stars each" }, { "label": "Total stars you hold now", "value": "181", "note": "42 reviews × 4.3" } ], "workings": [ { "label": "Stars you hold", "expression": "42 × 4.3 = 181" }, { "label": "Reviews needed", "expression": "42 × (4.7 − 4.3) ÷ (5 − 4.7) = 57" }, { "label": "Time", "expression": "57 ÷ 4 a month = 14 months" }, { "label": "After one 1-star", "expression": "(181 + 1) ÷ (42 + 1) = 4.2" } ] }, "shareableExample": "https://soudcoh.com/tools/review-rating-calculator?currentCount=42¤tAverage=4.3&targetAverage=4.7", "faqs": [ { "question": "How many 5-star reviews do I need to raise my rating?", "answer": "It depends entirely on how many you already have, because a displayed rating is a weighted average. Moving from 4.3 to 4.7 with 42 reviews takes 56 five-star reviews. The same move with 200 reviews takes 267. That inertia is the whole shape of the problem: a large review count protects a good rating and traps a bad one." }, { "question": "How much does one bad review hurt?", "answer": "It depends on the count behind it. A one-star review on a business with 10 reviews at 4.5 drops the average to 4.18. The same review on a business with 200 at 4.5 drops it to 4.48. That is the practical argument for collecting reviews continuously rather than in bursts — the inertia you build is what absorbs the bad day." }, { "question": "Will more reviews get me higher in the map pack?", "answer": "We are not going to tell you that, because nothing credible establishes it. Google does not publish how reviews weigh into local ranking, and the statistics quoted everywhere about review counts and visibility trace to aggregator sites recycling each other with no primary study behind them. This calculator does the star arithmetic and stops there. Reviews are worth collecting because people read them before they call you, which is reason enough." }, { "question": "What is the best way to ask for a review?", "answer": "In person, at the moment the job is finished and the customer is visibly happy, with a link that takes one tap. Everything else is a distant second. Do not offer anything in exchange — incentivised reviews breach the platforms' terms and, under Australian Consumer Law, reviews that misrepresent themselves as independent can be misleading conduct." }, { "question": "Should I reply to bad reviews?", "answer": "Yes, and quickly, calmly, and without arguing the facts in public. The reply is not for the person who wrote it — it is for the next customer reading the page, who is deciding whether a problem with your business gets handled. That reader is the entire audience for the response." } ], "sources": [], "relatedTools": [ "https://soudcoh.com/tools/seo-vs-paid-payback-calculator", "https://soudcoh.com/tools/service-area-calculator", "https://soudcoh.com/tools/missed-call-calculator" ], "licence": { "terms": "Free to reuse with attribution to SoudCoh and a link to the page it came from. Third-party figures remain the property of the publisher named on each row and must keep their market and year attached.", "attribution": "SoudCoh — https://soudcoh.com/tools" } }