The practice of online review management has come a long way since the early days when reviews first began to be commonplace within online marketplaces, and ‘strategies’ were largely reactive as opposed to proactive.
2025 marks a whopping 15 years since BrightLocal launched the Local Consumer Review Survey (you can see the very first edition way back in 2010 here). Obviously, a lot has changed in those years. Platforms have come and gone, new technologies have burst onto the scene, and even the way in which we define a search engine has changed. This means the way in which customers research local businesses has changed, too.
Although each of our annual reports analyses trend data from recent years, we’ve not really taken a step back to look at the big picture. What can we learn across 15 years of consumer review behavior, and can we make any predictions for what’s to come?
Data Considerations
Although the themes from our consumer review research questions have largely remained the same, it’s important to note that some questions have been amended, removed or introduced at different points in time, and not all questions can be compared like-for-like.
Additionally, you’ll note that the data in our charts appear to ‘skip’ a year between 2020 and 2022. Between the 2020 and 2022 editions, we began publishing Local Consumer Review Survey findings at the start of each year, rather than at the end as we had previously. Therefore, the survey published at the start of 2022 contains consumer insights looking back across 2021.
1. Researching Local Businesses
Over the years, we’ve covered everything from how often consumers are researching local businesses and reading online reviews, to the types of devices they use and the platforms they visit.
More recently, we’ve tried to narrow our focus onto areas with more actionable insights for business owners, but it is useful to see how user behaviour has changed.
Frequency of Researching Local Businesses
Between 2010 and 2023, we measured the frequency with which consumers used the internet to find information about local businesses. From 2015 to 2016, we can see a sharp increase in the percentage of consumers researching local businesses ‘almost daily’, rising 13% year over year. Looking back to why this might be, technological developments around this time boosted connectivity and general access to online information.
Although it might feel like we’ve had fast online access for some time now, the timeline of modern smartphones is still relatively recent. Data from Pew Research shows that, by 2016, adult smartphone ownership in the US reached a peak of 77%. This also correlates with data from Statista which shows a sharp lift in the percentage of US adults using the internet between 2015 and 2016 (from 75% to 86%).
From 2016 to 2020, this increased more rapidly. By 2020, almost two-thirds (59%) of US consumers said they were looking for information about local businesses almost every day. Recalling significant events around this time, 2020 stands out as the year that COVID-19 cases were at their peak, with various global restrictions and lockdowns taking place at different times.
Although we know that local businesses felt the impact of COVID-19 in 2020 in terms of losing business and low to non-existent footfall, we also have to acknowledge the significance of this point in time on consumer behavior—and, therefore, search behavior. With more time spent at home and shifts in priorities (ie. higher importance in businesses implementing safety measures), it makes a lot of sense that local business research would skyrocket around this time.
This behavior began to shift downward in 2022 and 2023, while the percentage of consumers conducting their research weekly steadily rose.
Of course, we cannot control the frequency with which consumers search online. However, the timeline highlights how significant developments in the wider economic environment, from technological developments to global and economic events, shape customer and purchase behavior.
Arguably, there are ways in which businesses can prepare themselves or react to such changes. For example, the pandemic taught marketers and business owners a lot about the importance of brand visibility and reputation, and put organic channels like local SEO in the spotlight. This is why conducting a good old PESTLE (Political, Economical, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental) analysis continues to be referenced by business analysts as a crucial framework for any business, helping to monitor and predict the impact of external macro-environmental factors.
Frequency of Reading Online Business Reviews
We have continued to measure the frequency with which consumers say they read business reviews, as this still gives us a good gauge of how behavior may or may not be shifting.
Between 2019 and 2025, the percentage of consumers saying they ‘always’ read online reviews started to dwindle, while the percentage of consumers ‘regularly’ reading them saw a sharp uptick from 2020 to 2022.
The good news, though, is that the percentage of consumers who ‘never’ read reviews has remained low across the last four years. This highlights that consumers largely see online business reviews as an important step in their own research journeys. Plus, as we’ve suggested in more recent editions of the Local Consumer Review Survey, this shift could reflect changes to consumer spending and priorities. Perhaps US consumers are just shopping around less, rather than viewing business reviews as less important than before.
The Changing Popularity of Review Platforms
Although the ‘top spots’ haven’t changed significantly between 2020-2025, the dance between Facebook and Yelp as they battle for the second most popular review site among US consumers is notable. The beauty of zooming out like this, though, shows a clear decline for Facebook over this period.
Our 2023 Local Business Discovery & Trust Report surveyed US consumers on their trust in various review platforms. We found that, although one of the most used platforms, Facebook was also the most distrusted platform. Following political scandals highlighting the misuse of personal data, the rise of fake news, and more than half of US adults having an unfavorable opinion of its CEO as of 2025, it’s not surprising consumer trust is decreasing.
Many marketers specializing in organic channels will be aware of the challenges around organic visibility, as social platforms increasingly prioritize ads and design algorithms around them. As frustrating as it can be for them, you also have to wonder if the lack of organic visibility also causes frustration and scepticism among consumers.
However, we’re not recommending discounting Facebook as a powerful review platform! It’s important to stay on top of the various platforms your audiences use and trust, and ensure you maintain a consistent presence across them.
As of 2025, Google remains the top platform for consumers reading online reviews, even seeing a slight percentage bump since last year. Right now, it continues to be both the biggest search engine and online review platform, so we wouldn’t expect this to change drastically any time soon.
However, as we’ll see next, there is the question of ‘alternative’ review platforms, and how changing consumer behavior may shape the definitions of these moving forward.
"It feels like we’re coming to a point where the ‘traditional’ and ‘alternative’ may as well merge. After all, what does a consumer care about the definition of a review platform, really?"
When do alternative review platforms stop being alternative?
Only in the last few years have we really considered platforms outside of the ‘traditional’ review format within our consumer research. And that’s not to say that it’s only been three or so years since consumers started using them for research, decision-making and creating their own reviews. Formally recognizing channels like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok as platforms that can form part of a local marketing or review management strategy is much newer for marketers and business owners, though.
However, in stepping back to review our historical data, it feels like we’re coming to a point where the ‘traditional’ and ‘alternative’ may as well merge. After all, what does a consumer care about the definition of a review platform, really?
You’ll also note that some of these alternative platforms see a much higher percentage of consumers using them than the more niche review sites like Healthgrades—just 7% of consumers said they use Healthgrades to read reviews in 2025, compared to almost half of US consumers using local news outlets, and over a third using YouTube.
This is to say that, despite these platforms not officially being review sites, they shouldn’t be discounted from your review management strategies.
2. Trust and the Perceived Importance of Review Factors
Consumers pay attention to many components of business reviews, from the average rating and recency of reviews to the specific written details. It’s interesting to see how the perception of these changes over time.
As our latest Local Consumer Review Survey highlights, consumers today are less concerned with what makes a review ‘recent’, and whether or not this impacts their decision to use a local business. Our historical data shows, however, that this was not always the case.
Between 2018 and 2020, consumers were placing more importance in review recency than we’ve ever seen. From 2019 and 2020, it makes sense that consumers would want to read the most recent experiences as possible, what with so many businesses undergoing drastic changes as a result of the pandemic. Everything from opening hours and product availability to physical safety measures was subject to immediate change.
However, the increase of 22% between 2017 and 2018 is perplexing and much harder to pinpoint. What happened at this time that would have had such an impact specifically on how important consumers saw review recency as?
Since then, the perception of recency appears to have shifted. This could suggest that consumers are more lenient towards local businesses and can’t expect to always see the latest reviews for all types of businesses. But it also points to a broader shift in behavior in that review factors like recency, quantity and star ratings are understood to be ‘vanity’ metrics, and don’t reflect full customer experiences.
Are star ratings still important?
Similarly to review recency, we know from our more recent reports that consumer expectations around star ratings have also relaxed. Due to the way we asked consumers about star ratings between 2014 and 2019, we’ve split our data into two charts. From 2020, we recognized the nuances of rating scales.
However, you can see the general downward trend of consumers expecting local businesses to have an average rating of five stars—a relief to many, I’m sure, as we all know just how tricky those kinds of ratings are to maintain! It reinforces the point that consumers are more understanding of the challenges to maintain high ratings, and that it’s not a realistic indicator of true quality as a standalone factor.
Are consumers as trusting in online reviews?
Since the very beginnings of our consumer research, we’ve measured the levels of trust consumers place in online reviews, compared to that of the business recommendations they receive from family and friends.
Trust in online reviews reached its peak in 2016 and 2017, with 84% of consumers agreeing they trusted this information as much as personal recommendations. In the last five years, however, we’ve seen a significant downward trend.
But that’s not to say that this is an inherently negative finding. Instead, it suggests a broader shift in social awareness.
The key theme of the 2025 Local Consumer Review Survey centers on consumer objectivity and leniency. It suggests that the way in which consumers perceive online information has changed, and that they are more aware of the extremities and nuances of other people’s behavior. Some people are known complainers, and it’s likely that today’s consumers are much better at detecting extreme, unnecessary, or even entitled, review sentiments. For example, the term ‘Karen’, which I won’t delve into for fear of causing a stir, has even made its way into dictionary slang.
The point is, that all experiences are influenced by our own norms, cultures and biases. Yet, today, we are more socially aware of these factors and can be much more objective about the information we see online. In the early days of online reviews, and during the mid-2010s when Tripadvisor was at its peak, consumers were much more willing to take these experiences at face value.
On the subject of changing levels of trust, we should also acknowledge the problem of fake reviews and how that impacts local businesses.
A few years ago, it felt like the industry had reached a peak of fake review problems and every other subject line contained more horror stories.
On that note, it appears that consumers were also aware of these challenges around that peak time. In 2019, 82% of consumers felt they’d come across fake reviews.
Since then, these percentages have dropped, most significantly between 2020 and 2022, in which this decreased by 18%.
Additionally, our latest consumer research shows drops across the board for the platforms where consumers are confident they’ve spotted fake reviews.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there are less fake reviews out in the wild. Marketers and small businesses will know that it does continue to cause challenges, although review platforms are much faster and harder when it comes to cracking down.
So, are consumers being duped by ‘good’ fakes, or are platforms taking them down before they get a chance to see them?
Either way, as far as trust is concerned, it appears that fake reviews aren’t necessarily on the minds as consumers as much as they are for business owners.
3. Writing Business Reviews
In a world of increasing competition, it can feel like the fight to win new business reviews is more significant than ever. So, what can we learn from consumer behavior around writing a business review, and are there any takeaways for encouraging better uptake of review requests?
Consumers Still Largely Writing Business Reviews
The format of our question of whether consumers have written a business review in the last 12 months has changed somewhat, so we’ve simplified it to create a timeline and broken the answers down by simply saying yes or no.
In doing that, we can actually see that the trend for both options has remained fairly steady since 2020.
Over the last five years, almost three-quarters of US adults have written an online review, which suggests that as of 2020, it’s become the ‘norm’ within online behavior and purchase journeys.
Beyond whether or not consumers have written business reviews, it’s arguably more interesting to look at their willingness to do so. We’ve established that business reviews are a standard part of the purchase journey, but our data shows that, as of 2021, consumers have become more willing to write a review—even if they hadn’t already done so in the last year.
There are many factors that may have contributed to this shift, one of which being the challenging circumstances many businesses have found themselves in over recent years. This includes the pandemic, but also fluctuations in global economies influencing spending behavior and purchase priorities. It shows that consumers are more aware of the hardships for local businesses, and perhaps this has influenced their willingness to leave feedback.
For business owners, what this shows is that, despite the challenges of maintaining a consistent stream of new reviews, consumers are overwhelmingly willing to write one. It’s all about giving them a strong reason to do so (AKA a memorable experience) and catching them at the right time.
4. Recapping What We’ve Learned
So, what can we learn from looking back at consumer behavior for the past 15 years, and how can these findings shape approaches to review management moving forward?
If anything, shifts in social awareness should come as reassurance to many small business owners.
Although it’s understood that generating a consistent stream of new, positive reviews is integral for your business’s visibility online, it should be reassuring to know that these factors aren’t the ‘be all and end all’ for the people who may eventually become your customers. Consumers are willing to make their own minds up from reading a variety of positive and negative reviews, and evidence shows that they are more lenient around the minimum requirements local businesses should have to consider giving them a chance.
In recognizing the increasing social awareness of consumers, you could also think about the ways in which existing review profile features, such as Google Business Profile attributes, can help socially-conscious consumers find and support you. From the type of business-ownership (such as LGBTQ-owned, black-owned, and female-owned) to attributes that demonstrate your commitments to accessibility, inclusion, and safety, these small attributes can help remind consumers that, ultimately, you are a small business that is doing its very best.
Ultimately, you should never aim to be sub-standard in terms of the experiences you provide, and we wouldn’t recommend relaxing your strategies to generate new business reviews. What you can relax about, though, is the perception of average or negative feedback to prospective customers. If you’re doing everything you can to show that you’re listening (and responding!) to feedback, while maintaining your presence and availability across online channels, it’s a positive indicator for those consumers doing their research.
5. Where is consumer review behavior headed?
How can we use historical data to look forward, and can we use them to predict future developments?
For one thing, the established behavior of reading and writing reviews shows that consumers will be increasingly looking for, and willing to share, experiences across other platforms that they spend time on. We know that this encompasses social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, but there may be other competitors you haven’t yet considered.
For example, there have been rumblings in the local SEO world as to whether Apple Maps will finally show itself as a true competitor to Google Maps. In the past two years alone, it has made significant user experience improvements, and has continued to develop its business offering with Apple Business Connect. You can start to get ahead of this by ensuring your business listing is properly claimed and optimized on Apple Maps.
With what we’ve previously called ‘alternative’ review platforms maintaining their presence in consumers’ review journeys, and continually improving their local search features (like Instagram’s ‘Explore’ with interactive map functionality), I think we can expect the definition of ‘official’ review platforms to change. We’ve always asked these questions separately to our consumer panels, but as this behavior becomes more commonplace, will the sense of ‘traditional’ and ‘alternative’ become obsolete?
Share your thoughts
Thanks for reading! We hope this retrospective has been useful. Do you have any takes on this trend analysis or any future predictions you’d like to share with us or the wider community? You can email the research team, post in The Local Pack, or reach us on our socials via LinkedIn, Bluesky, or X.