Absolutely.
You could be closing transactions, meeting clients, showing homes, and getting referrals every month.
Then somebody searches your name on Google and sees a profile that looks like nothing has happened since 2024.
That disconnect interests me.
Because the person searching doesn’t know how busy you are.
They only know what they can see.
Your offline reputation and your online reputation can drift apart
A lot of good agents build their businesses through relationships.
Someone works with you, has a good experience, and tells a friend.
That friend hears:
“You should call Teddy.”
But the introduction may not go straight to the phone.
They Google you first.
Now the referral has to survive whatever they find there.
Maybe the information is current and the reviews reflect recent transactions.
Or maybe the profile has excellent reviews, but they’re all several years old.
Nothing about that proves the agent stopped doing business.
But it can create a question that didn’t need to exist.
Is this person still active?
I’d rather not make a potential client wonder.
Old reviews aren’t bad reviews
This distinction matters.
A five-star review from five years ago still says something valuable.
It documents a real client experience.
I wouldn’t want those reviews to disappear, and Google does not say that an older review somehow becomes worthless.
What changes is the story they tell together.
If someone looks at your profile and sees clients talking about great experiences over several years, including recently, it feels like an active body of work.
If everything stops suddenly three years ago, the profile can start looking more like an archive.
The business may be thriving.
The internet just hasn’t caught up.
I care more about the story than the star count
Google says reviews can help a business stand out and give prospective customers useful information. It also says review count and positive ratings can contribute to prominence in local search.
That makes reviews important for visibility.
But as an agent, I think the human side is just as interesting.
What are people actually saying?
A generic five-star review is nice.
A client describing how you handled a difficult negotiation, explained a confusing decision, or stayed calm when the transaction got complicated tells somebody much more.
That’s the part you can’t really write about yourself without sounding like marketing.
Clients can.
Over time, those experiences start building a public version of your reputation.
The goal shouldn’t be to manufacture freshness
This is where I’d be careful.
Once agents hear that recent reviews matter to the appearance of the profile, it’s easy to turn the whole thing into a numbers exercise.
I don’t think that’s the answer.
Google allows businesses to ask customers to share genuine experiences, but it prohibits paying for reviews, offering incentives, manipulating the rating, or selectively asking only for positive feedback.
That’s a good boundary.
The objective shouldn’t be:
“I need five reviews this month.”
It should be making it easy for real clients to talk about real experiences as those experiences happen.
If the business is active, the reputation should have a chance to stay active with it.
This matters even more when you depend on referrals
I actually think a strong referral business makes Google more important, not less.
The recommendation creates trust.
Google helps someone verify it.
The friend already told them you’re good.
Now they’re looking for evidence that the person they were told about is still active, still working in the area, and still creating the kind of experience their friend described.
That’s why I don’t see Google Business Profile as a replacement for word of mouth.
It can be the bridge between word of mouth and the call.
Google recommends keeping Business Profile information complete and current because accurate information helps customers understand the business and helps Google match businesses with relevant searches.
For me, that’s the bigger idea.
Your online presence should confirm the reputation you’ve already earned.
There’s a difference between being known and being findable
Plenty of agents are known in their communities.
They have past clients who like them.
They have relationships.
They’ve been doing the work for years.
But when somebody searches, the public version of that business may not reflect any of it.
That’s an avoidable gap.
I’m not saying every Realtor needs to become obsessed with SEO.
I am saying that if people are already searching your name, it seems worth paying attention to what they find.
Especially because Shane Chase’s session at Fuel the Finish is built around exactly that idea: get found, get chosen, and get reviewed without treating paid advertising as the only way people discover you. The current event agenda has Shane of Oggvo covering organic Google growth and helping agents show up where prospective clients are already searching.
Where this leaves you
I wouldn’t look at an old review and panic.
I’d look at the whole profile.
Does it resemble the business you’re running today?
If you’ve had dozens of good client experiences since the last review anyone can see, then your reputation may be stronger than your Google presence suggests.
That’s worth fixing.
Not because you need to impress an algorithm.
Because somebody may already have your name in their hand and be deciding whether to use it.
A personal note
This is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to having Shane Chase from Oggvo at Fuel the Finish 2026.
Shane will be getting into organic Google growth, reviews, and what agents can do to become easier to find without assuming the answer is always another paid lead campaign.
I think that conversation is especially useful for agents who already have a good reputation offline but haven’t paid much attention to whether Google reflects it.
If you’d like to join us in Bellevue on September 16, you’re welcome to come.
Fuel the Finish 2026:
https://www.eventcreate.com/e/fuel-the-finish-seattle-2026
Before then, I’d search your own name once.
Not as the agent.
As the person who was just told to call you.
Does what you find make the introduction stronger?
With Gratitude,
~ Teddy Lim
eXp Realty
www.tlimre.com
http://www.calendly.com/book-a-call-or-zoom
Sources
Google Business Profile Help, Tips to Improve Your Local Ranking:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091
Google Business Profile Help, Tips to Get More Reviews:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474122
Google Business Profile Help, Prohibited & Restricted Content:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7400114
Fuel the Finish 2026:
https://www.eventcreate.com/e/fuel-the-finish-seattle-2026
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