The star rating isn’t the problem
We pulled data on 3,844 local businesses across 15 industries and 13 U.S. cities. The goal was simple: what do Google Business Profiles actually look like for real local businesses right now?
The answer surprised us.
Almost everyone has good ratings. 12 of 15 verticals average above 4.8 stars. Chiropractors and real estate agents sit at 4.91. Med spas are at 4.89. HVAC companies, plumbers, and hair salons all land at 4.84 or 4.85.
If you’ve been pouring energy into getting your star rating up, here’s the uncomfortable truth: so has everyone else. The rating is table stakes. It’s not what separates you from the business down the street.
What separates you is activity. Whether your profile looks alive or abandoned. Whether someone is responding to reviews, posting updates, and showing Google (and your future customers) that this business is actually open and paying attention.
The full data
Here’s what we found across every vertical:
| Vertical | Businesses | Avg Reviews | Median Reviews | Avg Rating | % No Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 260 | 3,880 | 2,346 | 4.54 | 0.0% |
| HVAC Company | 259 | 2,003 | 597 | 4.85 | 3.1% |
| Plumber | 254 | 1,442 | 516 | 4.84 | 1.6% |
| Dentist | 260 | 782 | 670 | 4.82 | 1.2% |
| Law Firm | 260 | 661 | 284 | 4.84 | 0.8% |
| Veterinarian | 260 | 605 | 499 | 4.61 | 0.8% |
| Gym/Fitness | 260 | 545 | 295 | 4.45 | 0.8% |
| Hair Salon | 260 | 478 | 322 | 4.85 | 0.4% |
| Auto Repair | 260 | 434 | 320 | 4.71 | 13.1% |
| Electrician | 242 | 430 | 122 | 4.88 | 9.5% |
| Med Spa | 260 | 337 | 237 | 4.89 | 0.8% |
| Chiropractor | 260 | 308 | 262 | 4.91 | 0.8% |
| Roofing | 259 | 308 | 195 | 4.87 | 1.5% |
| Cleaning Service | 232 | 312 | 212 | 4.85 | 1.3% |
| Real Estate | 258 | 252 | 116 | 4.91 | 0.4% |
A few things jump out immediately.
Finding 1: Ratings cluster at 4.8+ stars. The rating race is over.
Look at the average rating column. It barely moves. From chiropractors at 4.91 down to dentists at 4.82, the spread across most verticals is less than a tenth of a star.
Customers aren’t choosing between a 4.2 and a 4.9 anymore. They’re choosing between five businesses that all sit between 4.8 and 4.9. At that point, the star number stops mattering. What matters is everything around it: how recent the reviews are, whether the business responds, and how the profile feels when you land on it.
If your rating is already above 4.5, spending more effort trying to push it to 4.9 has diminishing returns. The real opportunity is making your profile look active.
Finding 2: Restaurants have the most reviews and the lowest ratings
Restaurants are the outlier in this dataset. A median of 2,346 reviews and an average rating of 4.54. That’s the lowest of any vertical we tracked.
The reason is straightforward: volume creates exposure. When you have thousands of reviews, even a small percentage of unhappy customers produces a visible stack of 1-star and 2-star feedback. And restaurants get reviewed by everyone. You don’t need to be a paying customer to have an opinion about a meal.
For restaurant owners, the math is different. You can’t prevent negative reviews when you serve 200 people a night. But you can respond to every single one. A thoughtful response to a 2-star review does more for your reputation than ten 5-star reviews sitting in silence. That’s where the gap is.
Finding 3: Auto repair shops and electricians are the most Google-dependent
This one matters. 13.1% of auto repair shops in our dataset have no website listed on their Google profile. For electricians, it’s 9.5%. Compare that to dentists at 1.2% or law firms at 0.8%.
For these businesses, the Google Business Profile isn’t a supplement to their web presence. It is their web presence. Every review, every photo, every response (or lack of one) is the only thing a potential customer sees before deciding to call or keep scrolling.
If you’re running an auto repair shop without a website, your GBP profile is your storefront, your sales team, and your reputation all in one. Leaving reviews unanswered on that profile is the equivalent of leaving customers standing at your front counter with no one behind the register.
Finding 4: The median tells a different story than the mean
Look at HVAC companies. The average review count is 2,003 with almost none responding. The median is 597. That’s a massive gap.
What it means: a small number of HVAC companies have enormous review counts (10,000+), pulling the average way up. Most HVAC businesses have a few hundred reviews. The same pattern shows up with electricians (mean 430, median 122) and law firms (mean 661, median 284).
This is good news if you’re a smaller business. You don’t need thousands of reviews to compete. The median business in most verticals has a few hundred. What you need is consistency. A steady stream of new reviews, responded to promptly, signals to Google that your business is active. A business with 200 responded reviews looks better than one with 800 reviews and radio silence.
Finding 5: Every vertical has the same core problem
The data says the same thing 15 different ways. Ratings are fine. Review counts are fine. The gap is response activity.
Walk through any of these verticals and look at the actual profiles. You’ll find the same pattern over and over: 4.8 stars, a few hundred reviews, and maybe 10% of them have a response from the business. The rest sit there, unanswered. Positive reviews with no “thank you.” Negative reviews with no explanation or apology. Questions in reviews with no answers.
The businesses that respond to every review look professional. They look present. They look like someone is running the show. The ones that don’t look abandoned, even if they have great ratings and plenty of reviews.
This is true for dentists. It’s true for med spas. It’s true for HVAC companies, restaurants, law firms, and auto repair shops. The vertical doesn’t change the math.
What this means for your business
The data says the same thing across every industry: responding to reviews is the simplest, most visible thing a business can do to stand out on Google.
You don’t need to chase a perfect star rating. You already have a good one. You don’t need to run a campaign begging for more reviews. You have enough.
What you need is someone paying attention. Someone responding to every review within a few hours. Someone posting updates so Google knows your business is active. Someone making sure your profile doesn’t look like it was set up in 2019 and forgotten.
Methodology: Data from 3,844 businesses surveyed via Google Places API across 13 U.S. cities, April 2026. Businesses selected by searching 15 local service categories per city. Review counts and ratings captured at time of survey.