How Review Rank Scores work
Every business on ReviewRank receives a Review Rank Score between 0 and 100. The score blends four measurable signals from public review data. No business pays to move up. No business can pay to hide a score. This page documents exactly how the number is calculated.
Four components, one score
The Review Rank Score is a weighted composite of four independent signals. Each is scored on a 0–100 scale before weighting.
We use a shrinkage estimator that pulls every rating toward a global prior (4.2★ across 15 phantom reviews) until a business has enough real reviews to overcome that pull. A single glowing 5.0★ review no longer beats a 4.7★/400-review competitor.
Log-scaled to reward depth of feedback without letting a 10,000-review chain dominate a 400-review local. The curve saturates around 2,000 reviews.
Average rating across the 5 most recent reviews surfaced by Google. Flags businesses whose experience has recently shifted — up or down.
Standard deviation of recent review ratings. A business delivering 4.6, 4.7, 4.5, 4.8, 4.6 is scored higher than one delivering 5, 5, 1, 5, 5 — even when the mean is identical.
The composite is then clamped to 0–100 and rounded to one decimal.
Scoring a real business
Consider a landscaping company with a 4.7★ rating, 412 reviews, and recent reviews of 4.8, 4.6, 4.9, 4.5, 4.7.
A nearby competitor with 4.9★ but only 18 reviews would score ~63. The Bayesian shrinkage is doing the work: we need evidence before we declare someone the best.
Trust tiers
Exceptional rating backed by substantial review depth and consistent recent experience.
Strong performer with enough evidence to recommend with confidence.
Solid option. Rating, volume, or consistency is slightly below top-tier competitors.
Present in the market but trailing peers on one or more signals.
Businesses under 4.0★ are not displayed in ranked results at all, regardless of other signals.
What we don't measure (yet)
Honest limitations. Any reputation score is only as good as the data it sees. Here is what the current Review Rank Score does not incorporate:
- ·Full review history. Google Places returns the 5 most recent public reviews. Sentiment and consistency are estimated from that window.
- ·Owner response rate. We plan to add this in v1.1 once we build our own review-tracking backend.
- ·Cross-platform signals (Yelp, BBB, Facebook, Nextdoor). Single-source for now to avoid biasing against businesses who haven't claimed every profile.
- ·Review velocity. Whether a business earned 400 reviews in 10 years or in 6 months looks identical today.
- ·Individual reviewer credibility. We treat every public reviewer's contribution equally.
- ·Paid or sponsored signals. We reject them by design — they would compromise the score.
Different from Google or Yelp
Google and Yelp rank businesses primarily on raw rating plus proximity, with paid placements mixed in. A 5.0★ business with 2 reviews can outrank a 4.7★ business with 400 reviews on those platforms.
Review Rank Score is designed to answer a different question: "If I walked in today, how likely is this to be a good experience?" That requires evidence. The Bayesian prior and volume signal exist to prevent small-sample businesses from outranking well-established competitors purely on statistical luck.
We are not a discovery engine. We are a trust layer on top of the data the discovery engines already show you.
Methodology updates
Initial Review Rank Score release
Bayesian rating (55%) + volume (20%) + sentiment (15%) + consistency (10%). Minimum display rating raised to 4.0★. Replaces the earlier 0–7.5 Smart Score with a 0–100 scale and per-business explanation strings.
Raised baseline from 3.0 to 3.5
Mid-tier businesses were scoring higher than users felt matched reality. Baseline adjustment brought scores in line with expectations.
Smart Score launch
Simple (rating − baseline) × log₁₀(reviews + 1) on a 0–7.5 scale.
Questions, critiques, or dataset offers?
We treat methodology transparency as a feature. If you spot a flaw, tell us.
methodology@reviewrank.appNo paid placements · No sponsored rankings · Public data only