There are easily 20 places a customer could leave you a review. You should care about two. Here is how to figure out which two, and why pretending to care about all 20 is the worst possible strategy.
Google: not optional
Whatever your business, Google is the default. It is the first thing prospective customers check, it powers Maps, it feeds Apple Maps and most voice assistants. Every minute spent on Google reviews is spent at the funnel's entrance.
The right secondary, by category
- Restaurants & cafés: TheFork (FR/EU) or TripAdvisor for tourist-heavy areas. Yelp only if you're in a Yelp-strong city.
- Hotels & B&Bs: Booking.com reviews matter most, then Google. TripAdvisor a distant third.
- Hair, beauty, wellness: Treatwell or Planity. Google is enough if you don't use them for booking.
- Health (dentists, doctors, opticians): Doctolib reviews are increasingly read. Google second.
- Retail: Google only. Niche review sites barely move sales.
- Trades (plumbers, electricians): Google + Trustpilot or local equivalent (Houzz, etc).
Why being on too many is worse than being on two
- Each platform has a 24-48h reply expectation. Five platforms = full-time job.
- Inconsistent NAP (name/address/phone) across platforms hurts SEO.
- A neglected profile with stale info or unanswered reviews is worse than no profile.
- Review velocity gets diluted: fewer reviews per platform per month signals weaker prominence.
74%
of consumers check Google first, before any other platform
<3%
check more than two platforms before deciding
12 min
avg. weekly time per platform to maintain it properly
