The tiler whose 5-star reviews were quietly useless

The tiler whose 5-star reviews were quietly useless

Meet a tiler in Nottingham with 90 reviews, every one five stars, every one saying roughly 'great job, highly recommend.' Lovely to read. Almost worthless to Google.

Review text is a relevance signal. The words inside reviews help Google decide what searches you're a match for. Ninety reviews that said nothing specific told the algorithm nothing specific. He ranked for his name and little else.

We changed the ask. Instead of 'leave a review,' his closing line became a gentle prompt: 'If you have a second, mention the job, bathroom tiling, kitchen splashback, wherever I worked.' No scripting, just direction.

The old reviews still sat there, generic. New ones trickled in, this time naming services and neighbourhoods.

For three weeks the rankings held flat. Review relevance accrues review by review.

Then the specific language started matching specific searches, and his pin surfaced for jobs it never had.

He reached top-three for 'bathroom tiler' and 'kitchen tiling' in his area. Quote requests rose 35 percent, driven by reviews that finally said something.

The lesson: a five-star review with no detail is applause Google can't read. Ask for the story, not just the stars.