Your Google rating is the first thing a customer sees when comparing two businesses. It is computed on every review, rounded to one decimal, and a single lost star can push you out of the "4.5 and above" filter. These articles explain the calculation, the algorithm that picks the reviews shown first, and the methods that actually lift an average: more reviews, more regular, more recent.
Before you start, measure the gap: the Google rating calculator tells you how many five-star reviews you need to reach your target rating. After that, everything depends on collecting reviews regularly and on answering each one.
