How to get more Google reviews: the monthly pace a practice needs
A review target is only useful if you know how many a month gets you there. Here is how to work out your pace, and how to reach it without breaking Google's rules or UK law.
Practice Radar shows a dental practice where it ranks against every practice nearby, and does the work to move up.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.
How to get more Google reviews comes down to two things for a dental practice: knowing how many you need each month, and asking every suitable patient in a way that makes it easy to say yes. Most practices do neither. They have a vague sense they need "more", ask when someone remembers, and get a burst of reviews followed by months of nothing. A steady monthly pace, set from your own market, works better and keeps you well inside Google's rules.
Why the monthly pace matters
Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and popularity, and that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking". Reviews are also what patients read before they ring. A practice whose newest review is from last spring looks quieter than one with reviews from last week, whatever the totals say.
A monthly pace turns a distant target into something reception and the clinical team can actually work towards, and it shows quickly when the asking has stopped.
See this for your own town.
Every practice competing with yours on one map, sized by the share of local search each one holds, re-checked every week. The sample town shows the whole thing now, with no sign-up.
Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.
How many Google reviews a month does a dental practice need?
There is no universal number. It depends on where you are now, where you need to be, and how fast the practices ahead of you are moving. Work it out in four steps.
- Set your target. Look at the three practices in the map pack when someone searches "dentist" and your town on a phone. Our guide to working out a review target explains how to turn that into a number.
- Measure the gap. Target minus your current count.
- Choose a timescale. Twelve months is realistic for most gaps. Shorter timescales tempt people into shortcuts.
- Allow for the leaders moving. Note the leading practices' counts today and again in three months. Whatever they add each month, add that to your pace, because you are chasing a moving line.
A worked example using real benchmarks
Our study of 1,489 UK places found the median map pack practice had 108 reviews where 6 to 8 practices compete. Suppose your practice is in a town like that and has 60 reviews. The gap to that median is 48. Spread over twelve months, that is four reviews a month, plus whatever the leaders add over the same year. In busier towns the bar is higher: the study's median was 188 where 9 to 11 practices compete and 249 where 12 or more do.
How to get 1,000 reviews on Google?
For a dental practice, you almost certainly do not need to. In the same study, a pack holder in the top tenth had 556 reviews or more, and the median pack holder had 113. Set the target from your own town, not from a round number.
How to get more Google reviews: what works for practices
The practices that collect reviews steadily do the same few things.
1. Make the link easy to find
Google lets you share a link or a QR code that takes patients straight to the review form. Google's tips to get more reviews explain how to create both from your Business Profile. Put the link where it will be used: in the text or email after an appointment, on a card at reception, and on your website.
2. Ask in person, at the right moment
The best moment is when a patient says something positive: after a hygiene appointment, at the end of a treatment course, when they thank the team. A clinician or receptionist saying "it would really help us if you could leave a Google review, we will text you the link" is far more effective than a generic follow-up.
3. Follow up once, quickly
Send the link the same day, while the visit is fresh. One reminder is reasonable. Repeated chasing is not, and it irritates the patients you most want to keep.
4. Ask everyone, not just the happy ones
This is a rule, not a style choice. Google's policy says businesses must not "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". Filtering patients through a satisfaction question and only sending happy ones to Google, often called review gating, breaks that policy.
5. Reply to reviews
Google says replying to reviews shows that you value the feedback, and patients notice. A reply shows the practice is listening, and a calm reply to a poor review can reassure the next reader more than another five-star review would. Our guide on how to reply to Google reviews covers the confidentiality rule that applies to dental practices.
The staff quota rule most practices miss
It is tempting to turn your monthly pace into individual targets: so many reviews per clinician, a bonus for the receptionist who collects the most. Do not.
Google's policy lists, among the things merchants must not do, "requesting that staff solicit a certain number of reviews" and requesting that staff solicit reviews that include specific content, including content that names a staff member. So keep the monthly pace as a practice-level measure you watch, not a quota you hand to individuals, and never ask patients to mention a particular dentist by name.
What not to do
- No incentives. Google says offering free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews, changed reviews or removed reviews is "considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited". Treat a prize draw for reviewers the same way.
- No reviews from staff, family or friends. Google's policy covers content from people with a conflict of interest, including current or former employees.
- No bought reviews or review exchanges. UK consumer law on fake reviews was strengthened in April 2025, and the CMA's fake reviews guidance sets out what businesses must not do.
- No review stations at the desk where patients post from a practice tablet. Google's policy says merchants should not require or pressure people to leave reviews while on the premises, and a cluster of reviews from one place in a short time can resemble the unusual patterns Google says it looks for.
Can Google detect fake reviews?
Google says it looks for "unusual volumes or patterns of review contributions" that suggest an attempt to manipulate a rating, removes content that breaks its policy, and can restrict or suspend accounts for repeated violations. A practice that loses a batch of reviews, or has its profile restricted, ends up worse off than if it had never tried.
How many 5-star reviews do I need to increase my rating?
It is simple arithmetic. Take your current average and count, then work out how many five-star reviews it takes to reach the average you want.
| Step | Example |
|---|---|
| Current rating and count | 4.5 from 100 reviews, so 450 stars in total |
| Target rating | 4.6 |
| Each new five-star review adds | 5 stars and 1 review |
| Solve (450 + 5n) ÷ (100 + n) = 4.6 | n = 25 five-star reviews, with no lower ratings in between |
The more reviews you already have, the slower the average moves, in both directions. That is good news if your rating is strong and a reason for patience if it is not. For context, the median rating among map pack practices in our study was 4.8, and 72% were at 4.6 or better, so a rating below that range is worth working on alongside the count.
Building review requests into the practice routine
A pace only holds if asking is part of the routine rather than a campaign. A simple setup:
- Decide who asks. Usually the clinician mentions it and reception sends the link, but agree it as a team.
- Decide when. After hygiene visits, at the end of a course of treatment, and whenever a patient gives positive feedback.
- Send the link the same day by text or email, in line with your privacy notice.
- Reply to new reviews weekly.
- Check the count monthly against your pace, and against the practices ahead of you.
If the count stalls, the cause is almost always that asking has quietly stopped, not that patients have stopped being willing.
Is it worth the effort?
For most practices, yes. Reviews are one of the few parts of local search fully in your hands, they cost staff time rather than money, and they keep working long after they are posted. The aim is not a huge number. It is a count and rating that put you alongside the practices patients see first in your town, and a steady flow of recent reviews that shows you are still the practice those patients describe.
Watch the reviews race in your town
Practice Radar's reviews race dashboard tracks your review count and rating against the practices around you, so you can see whether your monthly pace is closing the gap.
Run on our own practice first: ninth of the 14 practices measured in its town in May, first of 18 in September, on UK-wide search value. Page-one keywords: 6 in May, 194 in September.
Thirty days free. No card, and nothing starts automatically when it ends.