Review Platform
Definition
A review platform is any website or app where customers can publicly rate and review businesses, and on which businesses can claim a profile, respond to reviews, and influence visibility through engagement signals.
The dominant general-purpose platforms by global volume are: Google Business Profile (the largest review platform by far, integrated with Google Maps and Search), Facebook Recommendations (formerly Facebook Reviews; integrated with the platform's social graph), and Yelp (dominant in the US and Canada, weaker elsewhere).
Industry-specific platforms often have higher commercial weight in their verticals: TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and Expedia for travel/hospitality; Zillow and Realtor.com for real estate; Healthgrades, Zocdoc, RateMDs, and Vitals for healthcare; G2 and Capterra for software; Trustpilot for general consumer brands; Zomato and Swiggy Dineout for Indian restaurants; JustDial for Indian local services.
Each platform has different conventions: optimal reply length, tone register, how the algorithm weights response rate, what gets a review removed. ReplyWithCare's platform-specific pages cover the major ones with documented best practices for each.
A business serving multiple market segments needs a presence on multiple platforms — but should prioritize aggressively. For most local businesses, Google's share of total review-driven traffic is 70-90%, and effort should follow attention.
Related terms
Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile is the free business listing on Google that appears in Google Search, Google Maps, and the Local Pack, and serves as the central control surface for a local business's presence on Google.
Reputation Management
Reputation management is the operational discipline of monitoring, responding to, and influencing online perception of a business across review platforms, social media, and search results, with the goal of improving conversion-relevant metrics like rating, response rate, and brand mention sentiment.