The User Reviews factor accounts for 40% of every Trust Score. Within that factor, three sub-components determine the final value: weighted average rating, review volume, and recency.
Weighted average rating
The weighted average makes up 50% of the reviews factor. Every review contributes to the mean star rating, but not equally. Reviews from users with higher trust levels carry more weight. A review from a Trusted Reviewer with dozens of approved reviews counts more than one from a brand-new account.
This weighting reduces the impact of coordinated rating manipulation. A handful of inflated reviews from new accounts cannot override a large body of authentic feedback.
Review volume
Volume accounts for 30% of the reviews factor. More reviews mean a more reliable signal. The system scores volume on a logarithmic scale, which means:
- Going from 5 reviews to 50 produces a large score increase.
- Going from 500 to 5,000 produces a moderate increase.
- Going from 5,000 to 50,000 produces a smaller increase.
This approach rewards sites that attract real feedback without letting sheer volume dominate the score. A site with 200 genuine reviews can score nearly as well as one with 2,000.
Recency
Recency makes up 20% of the reviews factor. Recent reviews receive a higher weight than older ones. A site that earned strong ratings over the past three months scores higher on recency than a site whose positive reviews are all from two years ago.
This ensures the score reflects a site's current quality. Services change over time - support teams improve or decline, features get added or removed. Recency weighting keeps the score aligned with what users experience today.
Minimum review threshold
Sites with very few reviews receive a penalty on the volume sub-component. This prevents a site with three five-star reviews from appearing more trustworthy than an established site with hundreds of mixed reviews.
Once a site crosses the minimum threshold, volume scoring follows the logarithmic curve described above. The exact threshold depends on the site's category, since some categories naturally attract more reviews than others.
Your review carries more weight as your trust level increases. Write detailed, honest reviews to build your trust level over time. See How Trust Scores are calculated for the full factor breakdown.