Google star rating or review count: which matters more?
Practices worry about dropping from 4.9 to 4.8, while the practice above them in the map has three times as many reviews. Here is how the rating works, what the numbers show and which one is worth your effort.
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Your Google star rating is the average of every rating patients have left your practice, shown alongside the number of reviews. Both matter, and Google says so: "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking." For most dental practices, though, the review count is where the real gap with competitors sits. Most practices holding a map place are rated between 4.6 and 5, while review counts range from a dozen to several hundred. This guide explains how Google calculates your star rating, what the numbers look like across the UK, and how to decide where to put your effort.
How is the Google star rating calculated?
Google says "the review score is the average of all ratings published on Google for that place or business". Ratings run from 1 to 5 stars, with 5 the highest. Google also says that after a new review, it may take up to two weeks for the score to update, so do not panic if a new five-star review has not moved it yet.
Because it is a simple average, you can work out what any change will do yourself. The calculation is:
- New average = (current average x current reviews + new ratings added) / (current reviews + new reviews)
- Five-star reviews needed to reach a target = current reviews x (target minus current average) / (5 minus target)
That is all a Google star rating calculator does. Google shows the rating to one decimal place, but it does not publish how it rounds, so treat the exact cut-off between, say, 4.8 and 4.9 as unknown.
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What the numbers look like across the UK
In our study of 1,489 UK places on 13 September 2026, we recorded the practices holding the three map places for "dentist" plus each place name.
| Measure, practices holding a map place | Figure |
|---|---|
| Median star rating | 4.8 |
| Share rated 4.6 or better | 72% |
| Median review count | 113 |
| Bottom tenth, review count | 12 or fewer |
| Top tenth, review count | 556 |
Look at the spread. Ratings sit in a narrow band: most pack holders are between 4.6 and 5.0. Review counts vary enormously, from 12 or fewer at the bottom tenth to 556 at the top tenth. When nearly three in four are rated 4.6 or above, the rating rarely separates you from the practice next door. The review count often does.
Review count depends on your town
The count that holds a map place also rises with competition. In the same study, the median pack holder had 70 reviews where 5 or fewer practices compete in a town, 108 where 6 to 8 compete, 188 where 9 to 11 compete and 249 where 12 or more compete. Our guide to working out your review target shows how to find the number for your own town.
Why review count also protects your rating
A larger number of reviews makes your rating steadier. One disappointed patient moves a small average a long way and a large one hardly at all. Take three practices, each averaging 4.8, and add a single one-star review:
| Reviews before | Average before | Average after one 1-star review |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 4.80 | about 4.62 |
| 100 | 4.80 | about 4.76 |
| 500 | 4.80 | about 4.79 |
These are worked examples, not real practices. The point is that a steady flow of reviews from ordinary patients is the best protection against the occasional unfair one.
If your practice is new or has few reviews
A new practice, or one that has never asked for reviews, is in the most fragile position. With 20 reviews, a single one-star rating can take a 4.8 down to about 4.6, as the table above shows. The answer is not to avoid reviews but to build volume steadily from the start, so that no single rating carries much weight.
Set a realistic monthly number based on how many patients you see, make one person responsible for the routine, and check progress each month against the practices in your local map. Remember that the bottom tenth of pack holders in our study had 12 reviews or fewer, so a small count does not rule you out, but a growing one helps.
How do I go from 4.9 to 5 stars on Google?
A true average of 5.0 needs every single rating to be five stars. Once you have one lower rating, your exact average can only approach 5 without reaching it, and Google does not say how close it must get before it would display 5.0. Chasing a perfect score is rarely worth the effort when the same energy could go into collecting more reviews.
How many five-star reviews does it take to raise your rating?
The higher your rating, the harder each step becomes. For a practice with 100 reviews, using the formula above:
| From | To | Five-star reviews needed in a row |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 | 4.6 | 25 |
| 4.6 | 4.7 | 34 |
| 4.7 | 4.8 | 50 |
| 4.8 | 4.9 | 100 |
Moving from 4.8 to 4.9 takes as many perfect reviews as the practice has collected in total. That is why, above about 4.6, the review count is usually the more achievable target, and the rating looks after itself if your care is good.
Is 4.5 a good Google rating for a dentist?
It is respectable, but below most practices holding a map place. With 72% of pack holders rated 4.6 or better, a 4.5 sits in the lower 28%. It does not stop you ranking, since more than a quarter of pack holders are below 4.6, but it is worth understanding why. Read your lower-rated reviews for a pattern, such as phone access, waiting times or how costs are explained, and fix the cause.
Is 4.9 a good Google rating?
Yes. It is above the median of 4.8 among practices holding a map place. At 4.9, your rating is not what is holding you back. If you are not in the map, look at review count, relevance and distance instead, the factors Google lists in its explanation of how local results are ranked.
Can you pay to get 5-star Google reviews?
No, and it is now unlawful as well as against Google's rules. Since 6 April 2025, submitting or commissioning a fake consumer review, or a review that conceals the fact it was incentivised, has been a banned practice under Schedule 20 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The CMA's reviews guidance page points businesses to its detailed guidance on the new banned practice.
Google's fake engagement policy also prohibits offering incentives such as payment, discounts or free services in exchange for reviews, and prohibits discouraging negative reviews or selectively asking only happy customers. Google can restrict a profile that breaks these rules, including stopping new reviews for a period.
How to increase your Google star rating, the right way
- Ask every patient, the same way. Google allows you to encourage genuine reviews without incentives or influencing the content. Asking everyone, rather than only the patients who seemed happy, keeps you within the rules and gives a fairer picture of your care.
- Make it easy. A short link or QR code at the end of the appointment, or in a follow-up message, removes a step for the patient.
- Fix the patterns. If several reviews mention the same problem, the real fix is in the practice, not online.
- Reply to every review. Google says replying shows that you value the feedback. Keep replies short, polite and free of anything that confirms the reviewer is a patient. Our guide on how to reply to Google reviews covers the wording.
- Report only reviews that break the rules. Google says only reviews that violate its policies are eligible for removal, and asks businesses not to report a review just because they disagree with it.
So which matters more, star rating or review count?
Think of the rating as a floor and the count as the lever. Keep your rating in the band most pack holders sit in, which in practice means 4.6 or above. Once you are there, the review count is usually what separates you from the practices above you in the map, and it is also what keeps your rating stable. Count the reviews held by the three practices in your town's map pack, and set your target from that.
See the reviews race in your town
Practice Radar's reviews race dashboard shows the review counts and ratings of the practices you compete with, re-checked every week, so you know the gap you actually need to close.
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.