Why recent reviews matter more than old ones

74% of consumers look for reviews from the last three months. When someone opens your profile, their eyes go to the newest ones, because recent feedback tells them what you're like today, not what you were like before the staff changed or the busy season hit.

A profile whose newest review is from last year sends an awkward signal: are they even still around? The old reviews don't disappear, but they stop doing the heavy lifting.

Thirty reviews collected in one frantic week, then nothing, looks like exactly what it is: a campaign. A handful of fresh reviews every month looks like a healthy business doing good work, over and over. Customers read that pattern, and a natural, ongoing flow is also less likely to look engineered.

Plenty of good businesses asked for reviews once (maybe when they set up their profile, or hired an agency for a month), got a nice batch, then stopped. A year later the rating is still fine, but the profile feels frozen, and newer competitors with fresher proof start winning the comparison.

Staleness isn't a content problem you fix once. It's a habit you keep.

Momentum is unglamorous: a few new, honest reviews every month, replies on all of them, and a competitor gap that narrows over time instead of widening. It's the difference between a profile that looks chosen and one that looks abandoned.

The only reliable way to stay fresh is to make the ask automatic, so it survives your busy weeks. Ask every customer as the job finishes, follow up, reply, and repeat, without any of it depending on whether you remembered. That's the entire reason Townproof exists: to keep your proof current when you're too busy to think about it.