What is Review Velocity?
Review velocity is the rate at which a business receives new reviews — five per week versus five per year. Google treats a steady flow of recent reviews as evidence the business is active and currently good, weighting fresh reviews more than old ones in ranking. Customers read it the same way: a 4.5 average whose latest review is from 2022 feels stale.
Velocity also has a red-flag side: a sudden spike — forty reviews in two days after months of silence — resembles bought reviews and can trigger Google's filters, which silently remove suspicious reviews. The healthy pattern for an Indian business is systematic collection at billing time, producing a natural drip of a few reviews weekly. Consistency beats bursts, both for the algorithm and for reader trust.