A common piece of advice is to build reviews everywhere — Google, Yelp, Facebook, Trustpilot, your industry directory, and whatever else exists in your sector.

For most small businesses that's bad advice. You have a limited number of times you can reasonably ask a customer for something, and splitting those requests across five platforms leaves you with five unconvincing profiles instead of one strong one.

Here's how to decide where the effort goes.

Google: start here, and it isn't close

For almost every local business, Google is the priority and everything else is secondary.

The reasons are structural rather than a matter of opinion:

It's where the search happens. When someone looks for a business near them, Google is overwhelmingly the starting point — and your rating appears right there in the results, before anyone clicks anything.
Reviews feed local ranking. Your review profile is part of what decides whether you appear in the map pack at all. No other platform's reviews affect where you rank on Google. See how Google reviews affect SEO.
It's built into Maps and navigation, which is how people find physical places.
Almost everyone already has an account, so leaving a review takes one tap rather than a sign-up.

Verdict: unless you have a specific reason not to, 90% of your effort belongs here until you have a genuinely strong Google profile — a healthy count, a good rating, recent activity, and replies on everything.

Yelp: depends heavily on where you are

Yelp's importance varies enormously by country and by sector. In parts of the US it retains real influence, particularly for restaurants, bars and some service categories in major cities. Outside the US it matters far less, and in many markets it's effectively irrelevant.

Two things to know before you invest effort:

Yelp's recommendation software hides a large share of reviews. Reviews from newer or less active accounts often get filtered into a "not currently recommended" section that most visitors never open. Reviews you worked hard to get can simply not appear.
Yelp's policy is that you should not ask customers for reviews at all. This is the opposite of Google's position, and it means the tactics that work on Google don't transfer.

Verdict: claim your listing, keep the information accurate, respond to reviews that appear. Don't run campaigns. Worth real attention only if you're in a US market and category where Yelp genuinely drives your enquiries — check by asking new customers how they found you.

Facebook: useful for some, ignorable for many

Facebook recommendations matter most where your audience already lives on the platform and where local community groups drive word of mouth — family services, trades, community-focused businesses, and some regional markets.

The weakness is discovery: people rarely go to Facebook to research a business they've never heard of. It reinforces a decision more than it generates one.

Verdict: if you already maintain an active Facebook page with real local engagement, keep recommendations turned on and reply to them. If your page is dormant, don't revive it just for reviews.

Trustpilot and industry directories

Trustpilot skews towards online businesses, e-commerce and services bought at a distance. For a local business with a physical location it rarely justifies the effort.

Industry-specific directories are the genuine exception worth checking. In some sectors a single specialist platform carries more weight with buyers than anything general — certain trade directories, professional registers, and booking platforms in hospitality and healthcare. If your sector has one that customers actually consult, it belongs in second place after Google.

The way to find out isn't guessing. Ask ten customers where they looked before choosing you.

The strategy that actually works

Go deep on Google first. Get to a solid count with a good rating, recent reviews, and a reply under every one.
Claim your listings everywhere else — Yelp, Facebook, your industry directory. Accurate details, correct hours, a few photos. This costs an afternoon and stops out-of-date information circulating.
Monitor them all, request on one. Reply to reviews wherever they appear, but only actively ask for Google.
Add a second platform later if — and only if — customers tell you they found you there.

One strong profile beats four thin ones. A customer who sees 120 Google reviews doesn't care that you have three on Yelp.

Never ask for the same review twice

A specific mistake worth naming: emailing a customer asking them to review you on Google, then following up asking for Facebook too.

You've now asked the same person for two favours. The second request often costs you the first, and it makes a genuine business feel like a marketing funnel. One ask, one platform, one link.

The bit everyone skips

Whichever platforms you end up on, reply on all of them. An unanswered complaint on a dormant Facebook page is still being read by someone deciding whether to call you, and unanswered reviews cost you more than the platform choice ever will — here's the maths.

Reploi focuses on Google — the platform that actually drives local discovery — and keeps every review there answered in your voice. Start free — 5 replies/month →

Google Reviews vs Yelp vs Facebook: Which Actually Matters?