Local search ranking is governed by three factors Google has been explicit about for years: relevance, distance, and prominence. Most businesses only ever address the first one.
Prominence comes from review volume and quality, citation consistency across directories, and how often your business is mentioned online. A single optimized Google Business Profile listing with no reviews will lose to a mediocre listing with 200 genuine reviews almost every time.
Having your business name, address, and phone number listed identically across 20 directories is more valuable than having it listed inconsistently across 100. Conflicting information actively confuses the local search algorithms about which listing is authoritative.
Responding to positive reviews signals ongoing business activity to the algorithm, and gives future customers social proof that you're actively engaged, not just monitoring for complaints.
Meaningful movement is often visible within 4 to 8 weeks for citation and profile fixes, while building review volume and prominence is a longer, ongoing process over several months.
It helps, provided each location has its own accurately configured Google Business Profile and consistent citations. Sharing one listing across multiple physical locations actively hurts rankings.
No. Google explicitly prohibits incentivized or fake reviews, and detection has improved significantly. Automated, genuine review requests after service completion are the compliant approach.