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Understanding Google My Business & Local Search

How many Reviews does a Top 10 Restaurant need?

Buffalo, NY has a population of 276, 059. Dallas Texas has 1,232,940 folks and San Francisco has 744,041 people. Yet the number of reviews bears no correlation to their populations in the Google Local 10-Pack results:

Rank Buffalo Rest. Web Site Rev.Totals Buff. Dallas Rest. Web Site Review Totals Dallas S.F. Rest. Web Site Review Totals S.F.
1 Anchor Bar Y 60 Bob’s Steak & Chop House Y 49 Zuni Cafe Y 154
2 Chef’s Restaurant Y 27 Lola the Restaurant Y 18 First Crush Restaurant & Bar Y 145
3 Hutch’s Y 14 Stephan Pyles Y 40 House of Prime Rib Y 142
4 Pearl Street Grill & Brewery Y 13 Old Warsaw Restaurant Y 26 E & O Trading Co Y 28
5 La Nova Pizzeria: Buffalo Location Y 33 Abacus Restaurant Y 43 Restaurant Gary Danko Y 285
6 Duff’s N 35 Capital Grille Y 30 Slanted Door Y 233
7 Pano’s Restaurant Y 24 Campisi’s Restaurant Y 31 Farallon Y 123
8 Mother’s Restaurant N 23 Javier’s Catering Services Y 20 Michael Mina Restaurant Y 126
9 EB Green’s Steakhouse Y 10 Steel Restaurant & Lounge Y 23 Delfina Restaurant Y 138
10 Olivers restaurant Y 13 Nick & Sam’s Catering Division Y 25 Cheesecake Factory Y 84
    Total 252   Total 305   Total 1458

It makes sense that San Francisco has such a large number of reviews; the city has a technically savvy population, has a large amount of tourism and is the home of Yelp. But why would there be such a similar number of reviews in Buffalo, a declining NE city of a quarter million, and Dallas, a much larger and still growing area? Are Texans slower on the uptake?

Some items of note:

•The top review getters in Dallas or Buffalo are in the 50 range vs. SF’s 150

•Only 2 of these 30 restaurants do not yet have websites noted in Google Maps•In Dallas the #1 sites had 2x’s the number of review of the 10th ranked site

•The Anchor Bar has 4x’s the number of reviews of the 10th site.

•Note that while generally the more the reviews the higher the rank that is not always the case. E & O Trading Co in S.F. is a case in point as is Restaurant Gary Danko.

•Several listings appear to have obviously attempted to modify their business name to influence ranking ( La Nova Pizzeria: Buffalo Location, Restaurant Gary Danko).