BrightLocal 2026 — 68% of consumers will only use a business with 4+ stars (up from 55%)

Claim: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (1,002 US adults via SurveyMonkey):

• 68% will only use a business with 4+ stars (up from 55% in 2025).
• 31% require 4.5+ (up from 17% last year).
• 47% will not use a business with <20 reviews.
• 85% think reviews >3 months old are no longer relevant (review recency now dominates).
• Trust in reviews "as much as personal recommendations" fell 79% (2020) → 42% (2025).
• Google review usage was 83% in 2025 (down from 87% in 2023).

Source: BrightLocal 2026 (vendor consumer panel survey).

Confidence: Single-source / Industry-consensus.

Why this matters for Candid: The bar is rising fast. The widget's difficulty model should refresh consumer-threshold anchors annually — what counted as competitive in 2024 (4.0+, 20 reviews) is below threshold in 2026 for a large share of consumers.