Rating alone is misleading — a 5.0★ with 6 reviews loses to a 4.6★ with 300. The score here multiplies rating by the logarithm of review count (volume has diminishing returns), the same shape our full audit uses for its competitive-position category. It's a comparison heuristic, not Google's algorithm — Google doesn't publish that.
A gap under 10% is usually winnable with velocity alone (see our review velocity calculator). Over 25%, reviews are necessary but not sufficient — the full audit shows which other factors (categories, proximity coverage, engagement) can close the rest.