Sterling Sky / Joy Hawkins — rankings rise and fall in direct correlation with review velocity

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.

Source: Sterling Sky / Joy Hawkins case study. Practitioner observation.

Confidence: Single-source / Industry-consensus (the velocity-matters direction is widely confirmed in Whitespark surveys).

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 (CAN — "When was your most recent review?" (recent, distinctive, checkable)) AND count, not just count.