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APIEndpoint 37 of 40Reports / Reputation Trends / Review Velocity

Review Velocity API

Reputation decline has a leading indicator.

A client loses 3 reviews per month for two months and doesn't notice for another month. You notice the same week it started. Review velocity is the rate at which a business collects reviews — count per month, rating trend, owner reply rate over time. A drop in velocity is the canary in the coal mine for reputation decay. Most owners see it 90 days late. Agents catch it on the first scheduled run.

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POST /v1/reviews/velocity · 6 credits / call

POST /v1/reviews/velocitycomposite · ~10s
Review velocity · 12-month trendabcplumbing.com · Austin TX

Local pack rank

#2+1

Up from #3 last week

Review velocity

12/mo-3

Down 20% MoM

NAP consistency

94%+2%

3 mismatches fixed

Profile complete

78%0

Missing 3 categories

Top fix: add 3 missing service categories to profile.

▌ Ask your agent

These prompts are the new reputation-monitoring workflow.

Connect Local SEO Data as an MCP server once (60 seconds, below). Then your agent audits client reputation velocity on schedule. Replace bracketed business names with your own.

Weekly client velocity check

Run review velocity for all 12 client locations. Flag any location where reviews-per-month dropped more than 25% from the prior month. Include the top 3 positive and negative themes.

Reputation decline alert

Check velocity for [Joe's Pizza]. If the rating trend is declining or reviews-per-month fell below threshold, alert me with the sentiment themes that are driving the decline.

Competitive velocity tracking

Compare review velocity for [my business] and the top 3 local competitors. Show me who's gaining momentum and who's losing traction month-over-month.

Multi-location reputation report

Pull velocity for all 25 client locations. Rank them by rating trend. Show me the locations improving and the ones declining. Pair with sentiment themes so I know what to fix at each.

▌ Real response

What you get back

Live response from POST /v1/reviews/velocity for a sample Brooklyn pizzeria over 90 days.

response · application/json~3-6s · 6 credits
{
  "status": "success",
  "credits_used": 6,
  "business": "Joe's Pizza Brooklyn",
  "location": "Brooklyn, NY",
  "period": "90d",
  "data": {
    "reviews_per_month": 12.3,
    "trend": "declining",
    "current_rating": 4.6,
    "rating_change": -0.2,
    "reply_rate": 0.60,
    "reply_rate_trend": "stable",
    "sentiment_themes": {
      "positive": ["fast delivery", "great crust", "authentic taste"],
      "negative": ["weekend wait times", "small seating area"]
    },
    "monthly_breakdown": [
      { "month": "March", "reviews": 16, "avg_rating": 4.7, "reply_rate": 0.65 },
      { "month": "April", "reviews": 12, "avg_rating": 4.6, "reply_rate": 0.60 },
      { "month": "May", "reviews": 9, "avg_rating": 4.5, "reply_rate": 0.55 }
    ],
    "velocity_vs_competitors": {
      "your_business_monthly": 12.3,
      "competitor_avg_monthly": 15.8,
      "gap": -3.5
    }
  }
}
▌ Returns

The reputation metrics that predict crisis before it happens

Review velocity

Reviews per month, month-over-month

Raw count and trend. A drop from 15 to 10 per month is the leading indicator. Owners miss it; agents catch it.

Rating trend

Improving, stable, or declining

Is the average rating going up or down over the period. Critical for differentiating between 'fewer reviews' and 'worse reviews.'

Reply rate and trend

Owner activity over time

Is the owner becoming less engaged. A reply rate that drops from 70% to 40% is a sign of problems — either operational strain or apathy.

Sentiment themes by period

What customers love and hate

Extracted from review text, aggregated by month. Shows if complaint themes are new or persistent. 'Wait time' in May but not March is actionable.

Monthly breakdown

Granular per-month data

See exactly which months had the drop. Pair with calendar events — staffing changes, seasonal demand, operational shifts — to diagnose the cause.

Velocity vs. competitors

How your client stacks up locally

Not just absolute velocity but relative. Gaining 10 reviews per month when competitors average 20 tells a different story than absolute decline.

▌ Built for

What AI-native operators ship with this

Automated client reputation monitoring

Agencies run weekly velocity checks across all client locations. The agent flags any location with declining reviews or falling reply rates. No dashboard, no manual report. Claude handles it.

→ For agencies

Early-warning reputation crisis detection

A client's review velocity drops 40% in one month. The agent catches it in the weekly run, surfaces the declining sentiment themes, and triggers a response workflow. The difference between fixing it in week 1 and discovering it in week 4 is reputation recovery.

→ Sentiment detection agents

Competitive velocity benchmarking

Pull velocity for your top 5 local competitors monthly. Know when they're losing momentum before they do. Pair with sentiment analysis to understand why they're declining and what you should emphasize instead.

→ Competitor Gap API

Multi-location portfolio reports

Consultants audit 50+ business portfolios monthly. Velocity API returns trend, sentiment, and competitor gap in one call per location. Build a ranked list of which locations need attention. Client reports are data-backed, not guesswork.

→ For consultants
▌ vs. the alternatives

Why not just use BrightLocal, Birdeye, or ReviewTrackers?

Dashboard reputation-tracking tools (BrightLocal, Birdeye, ReviewTrackers, Podium) charge $75–400/mo and are built for humans logging in and reading reports. For agent-driven portfolio monitoring, scheduled trend analysis, or rapid velocity alerts, they're too slow and too expensive. Here's how the options stack up.

ApproachMonitoring speedCost per locationSetupAgent-ready
Manual monitoring (Google + Yelp)Manual check, 1+ hour per locationLabor cost onlyNoneNo
BrightLocalDashboard-based, weekly refresh$2–5/mo per location on annual planDashboard setup + location verificationLimited to CSV export
BirdeyeDashboard-based, configurable alerts$7–13/mo per locationOnboarding + verificationAPI exists, no MCP
ReviewTrackersMulti-location analytics dashboard$1–5/mo per location by tierDashboard UI, no integrationNo agent integration
PodiumSMS-first, message-focused$5–13/mo per locationSMS + messaging setupRate-limited API
Local SEO Data Review Velocity APIScheduled agent runs, real-time alerts$0.03 per location per weekAPI key + 1-line MCP configNative MCP, agent-first
▌ Connect in 60 seconds

Use it from your agent

Two integration surfaces: MCP for clients that speak MCP, REST API for everything else.

Direct MCP integration

Drop-in support in Claude Desktop, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and any MCP-aware client.

Add to your client's MCP config (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localseodata": {
      "url": "https://mcp.localseodata.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer sk_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

REST API

For Perplexity Computer, ChatGPT Custom GPTs, custom agents, and any platform that calls REST endpoints directly.

Base URL:

api.localseodata.com

See the docs for endpoint reference and auth.

▌ Quickstart

Your first call in three lines

Same call, three syntaxes. The endpoint takes a business name and location. We return velocity metrics over the period you specify (default 90d). The monthly breakdown shows exactly when the decline started.

terminal · curl
POST /v1/reviews/velocity
curl -X POST https://api.localseodata.com/v1/reviews/velocity \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "business_name": "Joe'''s Pizza",
    "location": "Brooklyn, NY",
    "period": "90d"
  }'
Full endpoint reference → · Get an API key →
▌ Pricing for this endpoint

$0.03 per velocity audit

Pay-as-you-go starts at $5. Monthly plans from $19. Funds never expire. No seat fees, ever.

Free tier
1,667
calls on signup (50 credits)
Starter · $19/mo
633
calls/mo at this rate
Per-call cost
$0.03
per velocity audit
▌ FAQ

Common questions

What is the Review Velocity API?+
A REST endpoint that returns the rate at which a business collects reviews over time, along with rating trends, owner reply rate changes, and top sentiment themes across a configurable period (30d, 90d, 6m, or 1y). One call costs 6 credits ($0.03) and takes ~3-6 seconds. The endpoint is POST /v1/reviews/velocity. It's designed to detect reputation decline weeks or months before an owner notices it.
What is review velocity?+
Review velocity is the rate at which a business receives new reviews per month. A pizzeria that received 15 reviews in March, 12 in April, and 9 in May has a declining velocity. The business itself may not notice for another month, but that 40% drop in two months is a leading indicator of reputation problems — operational issues, service decline, or competitive pressure. Detecting velocity drops is the core function of this endpoint.
Why is velocity more important than total review count?+
Total reviews are a lagging indicator — they tell you where you've been. Velocity is a leading indicator — it tells you where you're going. A business with 500 total reviews and declining velocity is in trouble. A business with 100 total reviews and rising velocity is thriving. Owners fixate on the rating and miss the velocity drop. Agents catch it in the first weekly sweep.
How is velocity calculated?+
Velocity is the average number of new reviews per month during the requested period. We pull review timestamps from DataForSEO upstream and aggregate them by month. The trend field ('improving,' 'stable,' or 'declining') is calculated by comparing the first half of the period to the second half. Rating trend ('improving,' 'stable,' or 'declining') compares the average rating in the first half to the second half. Reply rate trend follows the same logic.
What does it mean when velocity is declining?+
A declining velocity trend typically signals one of three things: (1) operational problems causing fewer customers to write reviews, (2) service quality decline causing fewer satisfied customers, or (3) increased competition capturing market share. The sentiment themes in the response help diagnose which. If 'wait time' is the top negative theme and velocity just dropped, staffing is the problem. If 'quality' themes appear, it's service decline. The sentiment breakdown points to the fix.
Does Review Velocity API include individual review text?+
No. This endpoint returns aggregates — reviews per month, rating trend, reply rate trend, and top sentiment themes extracted from review text. It does not return individual review text. For review-level detail, use the Google Reviews API. Pair them together: use Review Velocity to detect the problem, then pull Google Reviews to read the specific complaints.
Where does the velocity data come from?+
Review data flows through DataForSEO, our upstream provider for most business-data endpoints. We pull review timestamps and metadata from Google Business Profiles, aggregate them by month, and compute velocity, trend, and sentiment. The data refreshes within 24 hours of review publication. For competitors and businesses you don't own, DataForSEO's infrastructure surfaces the same public reviews anyone can see on Google Maps.
How fresh is the velocity data?+
Google review data refreshes within approximately 24 hours of a new review being posted. When you call the Review Velocity API, you get data that reflects reviews posted up to the previous day. For real-time daily monitoring, pair this with the Google Reviews API, which is faster for recent-review tails.
Can I monitor competitors' review velocity?+
Yes — and this is the core use case for competitive intelligence. Each call accepts any business name and location. No verification, no OAuth, no ownership required. Pull velocity for your top 3 local competitors monthly. Know when they're losing traction before they notice. See what sentiment themes are driving their decline and what you should emphasize instead.
How does this compare to BrightLocal and Birdeye?+
BrightLocal and Birdeye are dashboard tools for human team members to log in and read reports. They cost $75–400/mo per location. This API is designed for AI agents running velocity audits on a schedule. An agency with 20 client locations running weekly velocity sweeps costs $3.60/week with this API, or $200–400/week with those platforms. For dashboard analytics work, those tools are fine. For scaled agent-driven reputation monitoring, this is the right shape.
Can my AI agent use this directly?+
Yes. Two integration paths. MCP: add Local SEO Data to your claude_desktop_config.json and your agent calls this endpoint from any prompt. REST: any agent that can make HTTPS calls — ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Perplexity Computer, custom Python agents — hits api.localseodata.com directly with the Bearer token. You don't write integration code. You write the prompt.
What should I do when I detect a velocity drop?+
First, pull the Google Reviews API to read the recent negative reviews and understand the sentiment themes. Second, compare against your top 3 local competitors' velocity — are they rising while you're falling, or are all competitors declining (market-wide issue). Third, check your reply rate trend — if it's falling, you're not addressing problems fast enough. If the sentiment themes are consistent, address that specific issue. The velocity is the alert; the reviews are the diagnosis.
Does this work for multi-location businesses?+
Yes. Each call pulls velocity for one location. For multi-location audits, your agent batches calls. A 20-location portfolio takes 20 calls = $0.60 per weekly audit cycle. Most agencies run weekly sweeps to catch velocity drops early.
What changed in 2026 that made Review Velocity APIs necessary?+
Two things: MCP — the Model Context Protocol — became standard, making it practical for agents to call specialized monitoring APIs without bespoke code. Second, reputation management shifted from static metrics ('how many reviews do I have?') to dynamic signals ('am I gaining or losing momentum?'). In the dashboard era, you checked a number once a week. In the agent era, your Claude agent checks velocity for your entire portfolio every morning and alerts you to decline before it becomes a crisis.
▌ Related endpoints

Often used in the same agent prompt

POST /v1/business/reviews
Google Reviews API

Full review history with author, rating, text, and owner replies.

POST /v1/reviews/multi-platform
Multi-Platform Reviews API

Ratings across Google and Trustpilot with sentiment by platform.

POST /v1/audit/reputation
Reputation Audit API

Composite: multi-platform reviews + sentiment + scoring.

POST /v1/business/profile
Google Business Profile API

NAP, hours, categories, photos, attributes.

Catch reputation decline before your clients do.

50 free credits on signup. Your first velocity audit happens through Claude, not curl.

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