Review Velocity

Track review count trends, rating changes, reply rates, and top sentiment themes over time for any business.

When to use this

You want to know if your review game is improving or falling behind. Are you getting more reviews each month? Is your rating going up or down? Are competitors getting reviews faster than you? This tells you all of that in one call.

POST/v1/reviews/velocity

Cost: 6 credits ($0.03)

Rate Limit: Varies by plan

Response: ~30-60 seconds

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
business_name	string	Yes	Business name
location	string	Yes	City and state
place_id	string	No	Google Place ID for exact matching — recommended for multi-location brands, where name+location lookups can return empty
period	string	No	"30d", "90d", "6m", "1y". Default: "90d"

Example Request

curl -X POST https://api.localseodata.com/v1/reviews/velocity \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"business_name": "Joe\'s Pizza", "location": "Brooklyn, NY", "period": "90d"}'

Example Response

JSON

{
  "status": "success",
  "credits_used": 6,
  "data": {
    "period": "90d",
    "reviews_per_month": 12.3,
    "rating_trend": "stable",
    "current_rating": 4.6,
    "period_rating": 4.5,
    "reply_rate": 0.60,
    "sentiment_themes": {
      "positive": ["fast delivery", "great crust", "friendly staff"],
      "negative": ["weekend wait times", "small seating area"]
    },
    "review_count_by_month": [
      { "month": "2026-07", "count": 11 },
      { "month": "2026-08", "count": 14 }
    ],
    "platforms": {
      "google": { "rating": 4.6, "reviews_count": 847 },
      "yelp": { "rating": 4.1, "reviews_count": 212 }
    },
    "combined_rating": 4.5,
    "total_reviews": 1059
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
reviews_per_month	float	Average new reviews per month in the period
rating_trend	string	"improving", "stable", or "declining"
reply_rate	float	Percentage of reviews with owner replies (0-1)
sentiment_themes	object	Top positive and negative themes from review text
current_rating	float	Rating as it stands now
period_rating	float	Average rating of the reviews left inside the period, which is what moved the current figure
review_count_by_month	array	Reviews gained per month across the period
platforms	object	Per-platform rating and review count
combined_rating	float	Rating across every platform, weighted by review count
total_reviews	integer	Reviews across every platform

Notes

Reply rate above 90% correlates with higher ratings over time.
Compare period_rating against current_rating to see which way recent reviews are pulling the average — a period_rating below the current one means the trend is down even while the headline number still looks healthy.