How many Google reviews do you need? What the first results in four cities have
There is no magic number. We counted what the businesses Google shows first actually have, trade by trade, and the gap between cities is bigger than most owners expect.
Rating Matters · Updated
There is no fixed number. What counts is how you compare with the businesses Google already shows for your search. On 13 November 2026 we checked the first eight Google results for four trades in Zürich, Washington DC, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. In Zürich, the hair salons shown first had a median of about 270 reviews and the garages about 90. In Washington DC the same two trades had a median of about 510 and 520, in Dubai about 1,500. In Kuala Lumpur the hair salons had about 1,570 and the car workshops only about 50. Ratings were high everywhere: the median was between 4.6 and 5.0 stars, and 121 of the 128 businesses had 4.5 or more.
What the first results have in Zürich
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Range of reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 4,907 | 4.6 | 122 – 14,954 |
| Dentists | 573 | 4.8 | 237 – 1,165 |
| Hair salons | 269 | 4.9 | 106 – 399 |
| Car repair garages | 89 | 4.7 | 54 – 405 |
Restaurants play in their own league: thousands of reviews are normal near the top. For dentists, hair salons and garages the bar is far lower. A Zürich garage with 100 genuine reviews already has more than half of the garages Google showed first.
What the first results have in Washington DC
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Range of reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 8,329 | 4.6 | 3,410 – 24,071 |
| Dentists | 421 | 4.95 | 99 – 947 |
| Hair salons | 512 | 4.8 | 231 – 923 |
| Car repair garages | 522 | 4.8 | 105 – 9,479 |
Washington DC sits between Zürich and Dubai for most trades. Restaurants are the exception: the eight Google showed first had a median of 8,329 reviews, the highest of the three cities. Dentists had the highest median rating of the whole sample, 4.95. A DC practice with 4.7 stars looks weaker here than it would in Zürich.
What the first results have in Dubai
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Range of reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 5,009 | 4.7 | 1,313 – 17,203 |
| Dentists | 1,165 | 4.9 | 578 – 2,842 |
| Hair salons | 1,531 | 4.85 | 380 – 4,577 |
| Car repair garages | 1,489 | 4.9 | 604 – 7,011 |
Dubai is a different market. The garages Google showed first had a median of 1,489 reviews, around seventeen times the Zürich figure. Every one of the 32 Dubai businesses we looked at had a rating of 4.5 or higher. If you open a business in Dubai, review collection has to be part of daily operations from the first week.
What the first results have in Kuala Lumpur
| Trade | Median reviews | Median rating | Range of reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 1,284 | 4.7 | 114 – 10,598 |
| Dentists | 1,251 | 5.0 | 445 – 1,902 |
| Hair salons | 1,567 | 4.9 | 711 – 10,100 |
| Car repair garages | 51 | 4.65 | 4 – 227 |
Kuala Lumpur has the widest gap between trades. Dentists and hair salons are at Dubai levels, with medians above 1,200 reviews, and the eight dentists Google showed first had a median rating of 5.0. Car workshops are the opposite: a median of 51 reviews, the lowest in the whole sample. A workshop in Kuala Lumpur with 100 genuine reviews would already be ahead of five of the eight we found.
Four things the numbers show
- Your number depends on your trade and your city. “You need 100 reviews” is useless advice. In Zürich that is plenty for a garage and very little for a restaurant.
- A high rating is the entry ticket, not the advantage. 121 of 128 businesses had 4.5 stars or more. A 4.2 stands out, in the wrong way.
- The range is wide. In Zürich, one restaurant among the first eight had 122 reviews and another 14,954. Review count is not the only thing Google looks at.
- Chains take space. Six of the eight dental results in Zürich were branches of the same chain. An independent practice competes for fewer places than it seems.
Google itself says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking. Reviews are one part of prominence. They do not replace a complete profile or being close to the person searching.
How to find your own number in five minutes
- On your phone, search your main service plus your area, the way a customer would.
- Write down the review count and rating of the first five to eight businesses on the map.
- Take the middle value. That is your target, not the biggest number on the list.
- Compare how recent their latest reviews are with yours. Ten reviews this month say more to a customer than 300 from three years ago.
- Divide the gap by twelve. That is the number of new reviews you need each month to catch up within a year.
You run a hair salon in Zürich with 60 reviews. The median of the first results is about 270. The gap is 210, so you need about 18 new reviews a month for a year. A salon with 15 customers a day gets there if roughly one customer in twenty leaves a review.
How to close the gap without breaking Google's rules
- Ask every customer, not only the ones you expect to be happy. Google does not allow asking selectively for positive reviews.
- Ask at the right moment: right after the haircut, the repair, the meal, while the customer is still with you.
- Make it one tap. A QR code at the counter, an NFC card or a link by message. Every extra step loses people. This is what our review collection service sets up.
- Reply to every review. People who see that the owner answers are more willing to write.
- Never buy reviews and never reward them. Google's policy prohibits paying for reviews or offering discounts or gifts in exchange for them, and it removes such reviews.
For the full method see the Google reviews guide and the local SEO checklist.
How we collected the data, and its limits
- Searches: restaurant, dentist, hair salon and car repair, each with the city name (Zürich, Washington DC, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur), through Google's Places search on 13 November 2026.
- For each search we took the first eight businesses in the order returned and read their rating and review count the same day: 128 businesses in total.
- We report medians, because one restaurant with 15,000 reviews would distort an average.
- This is a small sample on one day. It is not a ranking study. Results on Google Maps also depend on where the person searching is standing.
- We name no businesses. The point is the level, not who is on the list.
- Some results belong together. In Kuala Lumpur two salon brands each appeared twice, and three car workshop listings share one phone number.
Common questions
How many Google reviews do I need to rank on Google Maps?
There is no fixed number. Compare yourself with the businesses Google shows first for your service in your area. In our November 2026 sample, the median for the first results ranged from about 50 reviews for car workshops in Kuala Lumpur to more than 8,000 for restaurants in Washington DC.
Do reviews affect Google Maps ranking?
Yes. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking.
Is a 4.5 rating good enough?
In our sample 121 of 128 businesses shown first had 4.5 stars or more, and the medians were 4.6 to 5.0. A 4.5 keeps you in the field. Below that you start to stand out negatively.
Is it better to have many reviews or recent reviews?
You need both, but customers look at recent ones first. A steady flow every month is better than a large total that stopped growing.
Can I buy Google reviews to catch up?
No. Bought and rewarded reviews violate Google's policy and are removed when detected. The lasting way is to ask every real customer and make it easy.
Sources
Want to know your number?
Send us your business name. We compare your reviews with the businesses Google shows first for your service and tell you how big the gap is and how long it takes to close it.