The image at the right is a snapshot of our Google Reviews 5.0 score around October 2026. It had been that way for a long time, perhaps for 3 years or so. Then,
a few weeks ago, an Administrator noticed that it had decreased to 4.9, the current score to date. We wondered what had happened and so we talked to staff and looked into it. Then someone remembered a cantankerous female store visitor who'd called at our factory wanting a specific and very specialised custom service. However we weren't able to help her because we never had, offered, or advertised the service that she was looking for.
On hearing this, she became visibly frustrated and stormed off, angrily muttering how useless we were to her. Soon after that she posted her negative, 1-star review for our site that caused our score to drop.
That episode kind of prompted us to research the topic a little more and write up a bit of a screed about Google’s 5-Star rating system for businesses.
As most web shoppers and denizens would know, this stellar representation iconises a business' Customer feedback ranging from 1 to 5 stars with the former being the lowest, and the latter, the highest possible rating.
At first sight, most web novices, newbies or tyros would think that 5-stars should be what any business should aim and strive for. After all, the more star the better, right?
Hmmm .. not so fast we say as appearances often can and sometime do ( as in this case ) deceive, so let's rattle off some highly pertinent observations:
- A PERFECT 5.0 SCORE IS SUSPICIOUS. After researching and consulting about this with other SEO's it would seem that a perfect 5.0 reviews score can actually be counterproductive, largely because shoppers would view any business displaying such a flawless score with skepticism, if not downright incredulity. In fact, Consumers and shoppers might well interpret the perfect score as misleading, if not downright deceitful. Thy might choose to perhaps shop elsewhere, perhaps doubting the integrity of the Staff or the quality of the goods sold thereat. More to the point, Uberall marketing studies posted on Linkedin also suggest that businesses with a 5.0 dream score enjoy fewer conversions than businesses with slightly lesser scores.
- A PERFECT 5.0 SCORE BREAKS TO EASILY. The score is ridiculously fragile. When a business profile has an exact 5.0, a mere, single 1-star review will sharply tank the average to 4.9. For instance, it can take dozens of consecutive 5-star reviews just to pull an average back up from a sudden drop. Business owners frequently experience immense stress or "freak out" when their perfect score is inevitably broken, whereas maintaining a realistic average takes the pressure off.
- A PERFECT 5.0 SCORE LURES SCAMMERS. From time to time we receive unwanted, 1-start negative reviews from phantom Customers or fake reviewers. Sure enough with a day or the bad reviews being published we get bombarded from sites all over the world asking us if we want negative reviews removed. Typically the cost for these " services" range from USD200 to USD 1000 depending on the the deemed 'severity" of the review content. Naturally we never answers these highly dubious service providers lest we get set up in an endless scam cycle.
- A PERFECT 5.0 SCORE CREATES BUSINESS TROUBLE. Think about it. Take a city or town where there are six picture framing shops. Five of these have scores of from 4.5 to 4.9. Only one has the perfect score of 5.0. How long do think before some posts a malicious review to bring the top-scoring picture framer down? Not too long. We know because it's happened to us. We caught anemployess of another framoimg place arangina soemne to score. After wefoundout the miscreant sais that the 'wronghsoae beentargeter.
- A PERFECT 5.0 SCORE MAKES LIFE TOO HARD. The 5.0 score implies that a business is flawless, faultless and perfect. I n other words nothing siimpossible, anything can bedone., Would be Customers wul be customelooh at the eprfcetscore and imaginbe that a pictuer ramercandanythathy want. They telephoen or cal in with outlandish requets uch as framing
- A PERFECT 5.0 SCORE MAY ATTRACT Google's Fraud. No business ever does 100% perfect jobs pealsing please 100% of people 100% of the time. , an influx of only perfect 5-star reviews can look highly suspicious to Google's automated systems. If Google detects a pattern that mimics spam, its review-filtering system can overcorrect. It may aggressively delete legitimate 5-star reviews, pause a business's ability to receive new feedback, or even trigger a sudden profile suspension.