{"id":2121,"slug":"local-falcon-2025-review-bars-by-category","title":"Local Falcon 2025 — 50M results: review bar to rank in 3-pack by category","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["local-pack-review-bars-by-category"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Local Falcon whitepaper \"What 50 Million Search Results Reveal About Ranking in the Local 3-Pack\" (**50.4M search results, 1,993 categories, Q4 2025**). Median reviews to rank in 3-pack:\n\n- **Home health care:** ~**2** (wide-open)\n- **Lawyers / accountants:** ~**40-54** (low-volume local categories)\n- **Dentists:** ~**180** rural median (more in metros)\n- **Plumbers / HVAC / pest control:** **200-265**\n- **Breakfast restaurants:** **227** entry-level\n\n**General pattern:** Median 50-300 reviews to be \"typical\"; **500-1,500+** to dominate; metros need **~1.5-2x rural** counts; entry-to-dominant gap can be 30-80x.\n\n**Source:** Local Falcon (local-SEO rank-tracking SaaS vendor).\n\n**Caveat:** Vendor whitepaper. Category figures locked in a gated interactive tool (not independently verifiable). Quarantined.\n\n**Confidence:** Single-source / Industry-consensus (direction).\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** Best per-category review-bar data available. Use as the per-vertical anchor in the widget's \"competitor review gap\" output. Frame as a range, not a point.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-vertical-difficulty-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget vertical difficulty — two-axis tiering by industry (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"tier-2-hard-local-verticals","title":"Vertical Tier 2 — Hard-local (Dentistry, Trades, Real estate agents)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"tier-3-moderate-verticals","title":"Vertical Tier 3 — Moderate (Healthcare, Retail, Restaurants)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"tier-4-open-verticals","title":"Vertical Tier 4 — Relatively open (Accounting, niche B2B/industrial, Landscaping)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-calibrate-thresholds-to-local-reality","title":"Rule — Calibrate thresholds to local reality at runtime (metro vs rural ~1.5-2x adjustment)","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:04.837Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:04.837Z"}