Most business owners already assume reviews matter for getting found. What's less obvious is how specific the bar has become for actually getting picked once someone's looking. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found that 97% of consumers now read reviews before choosing a local business, and the survey's other findings show exactly what they're checking for, and what quietly rules a business out before they ever make contact.
Nearly Everyone Is Reading Before They Call
With 97% of consumers checking reviews first, a thin or outdated review profile isn't a minor gap, it's often the first thing a potential customer sees before they visit a website or pick up the phone. For a service business in Busselton or Margaret River competing with two or three others in the same search result, the review section is doing a lot of the deciding before anyone even calls. A strong service paired with a weak review profile still loses to a mediocre service with a stronger one.
There's a Real Star Rating Cut-Off
The same survey found that 68% of consumers won't use a business with fewer than 4.0 stars, and 31% set the bar even higher, at 4.5 stars or above. That's not a soft preference, it's closer to a hard filter a lot of people apply without thinking twice. A business sitting at 3.8 or 3.9 stars isn't just losing a few points in a ranking algorithm, it's being filtered out of consideration entirely for roughly two-thirds of the people who check first.
Old Reviews Don't Carry the Same Weight
Recency matters more than most businesses assume. BrightLocal found that 74% of consumers specifically look for reviews written in the last three months, and 44% want to see something posted within the last month. A five-star profile built up two years ago and left untouched since doesn't read as trustworthy anymore, it reads as inactive. Reviews need to keep coming in on a regular basis, not just exist somewhere in a business's history.
Responding to Reviews Changes Minds
Whether a business replies matters almost as much as the star rating itself. 80% of consumers said they're more likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews, while 42% said they'd actively avoid one that never responds to any of them. The same survey found that 47% won't consider a business with fewer than 20 reviews in total, so review volume and how a business handles responses are both doing real work here, not just the average star rating on display.
What This Means If You Run a Local Business in South West WA
None of this calls for a different strategy, it calls for consistency. A Google Business Profile that's collecting new reviews on an ongoing basis, rather than living off ones from years ago, paired with a business that's actually replying to what comes in, good review or bad, is what BrightLocal's data says people are screening for before they ever make contact.
If your reviews have gone quiet, or nobody's been replying to them, that's usually the first thing worth fixing before spending on anything else.
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