BrightLocal Study Looks at How Online Reviews Impact Consumer Decisions

BrightLocal, an SEO software company, recently shared results from its 2025 Local Consumer Review Survey, looking at how online reviews impact consumer decisions. According to the firm, consumers are looking for facts and objectivity, and they’re happy to read the details of online reviews, both positive and negative, as they research. This research helps them to form their own opinions.

According to the findings, consumers are also feeling "more lenient" toward local businesses this year than in the past. Their expectations are lower when it comes to the number of review  counts that businesses should have. There has also been a shift in perceptions of recency, which BrightLocal says suggests consumers are "feeling more forgiving."

"Interestingly, 20% of consumers feel that reviews as recent as two weeks old are impactful to their decisions, which is down 7% on 2024," the report says.¹   "We can also see slight increases in consumers willing to accept reviews that have been written in the past six months to a year as still having an impact on their overall decision-making. Almost 10% of consumers don’t feel that recency has an impact on their decision-making. This suggests that a small amount of consumers view all of the experiences they’re reading about as relevant to their research."

Another key finding from the survey is that consumers aren’t finding experiences strong enough to write about. Additionally, some don’t believe their reviews will make much of a difference.  Still, 96% of consumers are open to writing about a business in a review. More people are writing both positive and negative reviews compared to last year (29% versus 25%).

"So, what’s the main reason holding consumers back from writing them? Almost a quarter of US adults feel that the overall business experience was just not noteworthy enough to write about," says BrightLocal. "This suggests that, while we know they’re happy to write both positive and negative feedback, they don’t see the value in sharing average experiences."

The most important review factor to consumers, according to the survey, is that the review describes a positive experience. Interestingly, however, that has dropped 16% since last year, possibly suggesting that consumers are less interested in reading only positive reviews.

The survey also found that more consumers say photos or videos accompanying reviews and long, detailed reviews would influence them to feel positively about choosing a local business. BrightLocal says this reinforces the point that consumers are paying attention to the details of business reviews and that they are gathering facts to make a decision for themselves.

As AI continues to become more prevalent in consumers’ online experiences, it’s worth noting that the survey found that, while consumers tend to view AI as "fake," they unknowingly preferred an AI-written response, and use AI review summaries to guide their decisions. With this, BrightLocal concludes that AI tools can be a useful aid to help businesses and marketers respond to reviews with unique content, and do so at scale.

https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey