The Power of Review Recency and Why You Should Always Be Collecting New Customer Reviews

If your last review is more than 3 months old, half of your buyers may not trust it.

Customer reviews are essential for building trust for your business. But it’s more true to say, recent customer reviews are essential for building trust for your business.

Review recency plays a major role in how effective, influential, and trustworthy reviews are.

Let’s look at why review recency matters and how you can take steps to drive timely, high-value reviews for your business.

How recent is “recent” for a review to still matter?

It’s clear that recency of reviews matters to customers. According to the BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey, 21% of consumers say that a review needs to be from within the past three months to have an impact on their decision to use a business. Further, 27% say they trust reviews written within the last month, and 20% say reviews are only relevant if they are from the past two weeks.

Customer sentiment isn’t the only thing influenced by review recency. Consider the variety of ways that recent reviews can benefit your brand.

Recency Is Relevance: Buyers don’t want a time capsule—they want proof that your business is delivering today. Reviews are a snapshot of service at a specific moment, and if that moment was 6 months ago, your credibility is already fading. Today’s customer expects to see feedback from the past few weeks, not last quarter.

Recency Boosts Brand Visibility and Discoverability: Search engines and AI platforms want to deliver the most relevant and useful information to audiences. That’s why brands with recent reviews are more likely to show up in search results and AI answers. Recent reviews show brand authority and provide additional context and fresh content, which attracts both traditional and AI search.

Recency Supports Star-Ratings on Google: Recency is especially important for Google Product Ratings and Google Store Ratings, which showcase stars next to your product listings, business listing, and search results. You must upload a product review feed monthly to be eligible for the Product Ratings program, and reviews older than 12 months won’t be considered for Google Store Ratings.

Recency Monitors Customer Experience: When you consistently get customer reviews, you receive real-time, actionable feedback on your customers' experience. Each review is an opportunity to spot gaps and immediately address potential issues.

For example, California-based Destira, a brand specializing in gymnastics leotards and apparel, leveraged recent reviews to identify two critical issues: customers were repeatedly encountering difficulty with website search functionality, and a popular red leotard was causing dye transfer issues. By acting on this feedback, Destira conducted a website overhaul, significantly improving product discoverability. Additionally, after noticing multiple reviews mentioning the red leotard's dye bleeding onto athletes’ skin and prematurely fading after washing, Destira’s product development team quickly identified and resolved the manufacturing issue. Madison Hartman, Communications Manager at Destira, says,

“Our team used these reviews as direct insight, identified the underlying problem, and swiftly improved the product. As a result, we eliminated the issue entirely in future batches."

Recency Carries More Influence Than Review Volume: A study published in Total Retail found that recency can even overcome volume. Nearly two-thirds of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product that has fewer but more recent reviews versus products with a high volume of reviews that were published more than three months ago.

Recency Offers Brand Differentiation: If you’re comparing two companies, and one has plenty of recent, enthusiastic buyers while the other hasn’t had any activity in several months, which do you think is likely to make a better impression? When you have recent reviews, it indicates a higher level of activity. This can help differentiate you from your competitors, allowing you to position yourself as a thriving company rather than a stale one.

Recency Projects Authenticity: Buyers can spot a fake or attempt to manipulate reviews. For example, if businesses suddenly get a huge influx of positive reviews only for a very short period, many will assume the reviews are fake. Keeping a steady stream of recent reviews is the best way to show customers that your reviews are authentic and accurate.

Recent reviews send positive signals throughout the buyer’s journey, from discovery all the way through to purchase.

So, how do you keep a steady stream of reviews flowing? Below are a few tips to improve your review strategy. Or dive into our ultimate How to Get Reviews guide for a step-by-step framework that will transform your entire strategy.

You must proactively ask for reviews. And it’s critical not to make review collection a one-and-done thing to check off your list. Instead, it needs to be an ongoing strategy. Build a system that allows you to consistently collect reviews all of the time.

Here are a few tips:

• Create custom review request templates. Have a variety of review request templates ready to go. Use the Sitejabber advanced editor to design custom templates for different audience segments, distinct marketing channels, and testing various messaging.
• Send bulk emails seeking reviews. With Sitejabber’s free Bulk Upload tool, you can upload existing customer email lists and send campaigns seeking reviews.
• Set up automated email requests for reviews. Simplify your process for sending emails asking for reviews. Free features in Sitejabber enable you to send automated follow-up emails to customers once they make a purchase.
• Ask for reviews via text. SMS text is a direct line of communication to your customers. With Sitejabber, you can tap into the power of text by setting up campaigns to reach out to customers and ask for reviews.

Add content to your website that features past reviews and encourages new reviews. Feature existing reviews on your website to remind customers to leave their own feedback (while also highlighting positive words about your brand). Also, make it easy for customers to leave reviews from your website. Include messaging and links to direct website visitors to review sites. Get review widgets for your site

As part of your system for collecting customer reviews, keep an eye on the number of reviews coming in. Monitor review recency to ensure you are keeping a steady stream of new reviews coming in. If you notice a dip in reviews, it might be time to boost your efforts to get new reviews or change your current strategy. The Sitejabber dashboard makes it easy to monitor the number of reviews coming in across multiple platforms.

Be careful about offering incentives to your customers for leaving positive reviews. If customers think you are paying for reviews or offering incentives, it can quickly break their trust. Plus, some platforms prohibit this practice. Make sure you comply with the terms of the platform you’re using.

Recency matters in receiving reviews and in responding to reviews. Quickly reply to all customer reviews as they come in. Leave comments for both negative and positive feedback. Thanking customers for positive reviews shows you pay attention to what people are saying about your products and services and that you are interested in maintaining quality. Following up with poor reviews lets consumers see that you take feedback seriously and are willing to work to make sure every customer has a great experience.

The best customer reviews are recent reviews. Start collecting new reviews that show potential buyers and search engines why your brand is the best. Build a system for consistently collecting new reviews that attract and impress more customers.

Log in now to Sitejabber to monitor your review portfolio and take steps to start generating more timely, trustworthy reviews from customers.