{"id":2153,"slug":"sterling-sky-review-velocity-case-study","title":"Sterling Sky / Joy Hawkins — rankings rise and fall in direct correlation with review velocity","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["local-seo-mechanics","review-revenue-causal-evidence"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Sterling Sky (Joy Hawkins) documented case study showing **rankings rising and falling in direct correlation with the presence or absence of a steady stream of new reviews.** Stale review profiles correlate with ranking decay.\n\n**Source:** Sterling Sky / Joy Hawkins case study. Practitioner observation.\n\n**Confidence:** Single-source / Industry-consensus (the velocity-matters direction is widely confirmed in Whitespark surveys).\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** Direct evidence that REVIEW VELOCITY (new reviews per month) is the operative competitive metric — not absolute review count. A 500-review business that stopped collecting new ones loses ranking; a 50-review business with monthly inflow gains. The widget should ask about RECENCY ([[behavioral-recent-review-recency]]) AND count, not just count.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-market-difficulty-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget market difficulty — six ranked factors (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"proximity-and-reviews-dominate-local","title":"Factor 2 — Proximity + review prominence dominate LOCAL markets","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T20:03:32.892Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T20:03:32.892Z"}