Before you hire
A little research.
A more confident choice.
What should you look for in a local business? Start with practical answers, backed by the information in our directory.
Find an answer Explore all researchBefore you say “you’re hired.”
Eight practical checks, from reviews and credentials to the details worth confirming.
Read the checklistStart with a question
What would help you choose?
Is 4.6 actually a good rating?
See how ratings vary by trade, and why the number of reviews matters alongside the stars.
Understand the ratings Checking the detailsWhat should I check before booking?
Look beyond a polished website. Understand what businesses say about licenses, insurance and guarantees.
Know what to look for Planning your next stepWho’s usually open when I need them?
Explore weekend, evening and around-the-clock availability by trade, then confirm with your shortlist.
Explore opening patternsThe research library
Go a little deeper
Open data on America's local businesses, built from 1,720,977 listings across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Every study is free to read, cite and reuse.
For customers
What the ratings and review counts you see on Google actually mean when you hire.
What is a good Google rating? Benchmarks by trade
The median rating, the top-quarter line and the review count to expect for each kind of local business, so you know what a 4.6 really means.
Across 699,231 U.S. local businesses in our directory with 10 or more Google reviews, the median rating is 4.7 stars.
Read the studyGoogle vs. Yelp: how the same businesses score on each
Hundreds of thousands of businesses rated on both sites, compared side by side.
The same 219,549 businesses in our directory average 4.57 stars on Google and 4.06 on Yelp: 0.51 stars higher on Google.
Read the studyWhat local business websites promise: licensed, insured, guaranteed, priced
How many local business websites say they are licensed, show a license number, offer a warranty or publish a price, by trade.
24.7% of the 86,660 local business websites we read say the business is licensed; only 6.9% show a license number a customer could look up.
Read the studyThe busiest and slowest months for local businesses, by trade
A year of calls and website visits from Google, month by month: when each trade is busiest, when it is quiet, and how big the swing is.
Customer contacts peak in August (+20% against an average month) and bottom out in December (−28%).
Read the studyWhen are local businesses open? Weekends, evenings and 24/7 by trade
Which kinds of local business open on Saturdays, Sundays, evenings, early mornings and around the clock.
55.7% of the 197,163 businesses in our directory that publish hours on Google open on Saturdays, and 30% on Sundays.
Read the studyHow to check a local business before you hire
Eight checks, each backed by the numbers in these studies.
Read the checklist
Reviews and reputation
How many reviews local businesses have, how they are rated, and what it takes to stand out.
Google review benchmarks: how many reviews does a business need?
Median, top-quarter and top-10% review counts for every trade, and how many businesses have fewer than 10 reviews.
59.3% of 1,720,977 U.S. local businesses in our directory have fewer than 10 Google reviews; 37.5% have none at all.
Read the studyAverage Google rating by industry
The best- and worst-rated local trades in America, with the share rated 4.8 or higher.
The average local business in our directory with 10 or more Google reviews is rated 4.54 stars (699,231 businesses).
Read the study
Websites and online presence
Who has a website, what those sites track, and where businesses fall behind online.
The state of local business websites, 2026
What share of local businesses have a website, by trade, state, city size, rating and review count, and what those sites track.
70% of 1,720,977 U.S. local businesses in our directory list a website on their Google Business Profile; 30% list none.
Read the studyWhat local business websites run on: registrars, DNS and site builders
GoDaddy's share of local business domains, and how many sites run WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Shopify, by trade.
GoDaddy is the registrar for 51% of the 985,338 local business domains in our directory; next come Network Solutions (11.3%), Tucows (6.2%) and Squarespace (incl. former Google Domains) (5.3%).
Read the studyHow people find local businesses on Google
What customers type before a local business shows up on Google, how many search for the business by name, and when they call.
23–30% of the searches that showed these businesses' Google profiles were for the business itself — its name, a misspelling of it or its address. 7.1% named a different business, and 67.6% were for a service or trade.
Read the studyThe local business visibility gap
The share of each trade's businesses below three simple benchmarks: a website, enough reviews and a 4.5+ rating.
22.3% of 1,485,500 U.S. local businesses in our directory meet all three benchmarks for their trade; 28.3% meet none.
Read the study
Markets and competition
Where it is hardest to stand out, and how states compare.
The most competitive local markets in America
Where a business needs the most reviews to reach the top quarter, and how concentrated reviews are in each trade.
The hardest local-service markets to stand out in: plumbers in Orlando, FL (830 reviews for the top quarter), locksmiths in Portland, OR (756 reviews for the top quarter) and plumbers in Salt Lake City, UT (692 reviews for the top quarter).
Read the studyBest cities to start a local service business
Cities of 100,000+ ranked for each trade by population growth, how many reviews it takes to compete, and how crowded the market is.
Across the trades we can measure, the best-scoring large cities to start a local service business are Tracy, CA, Palm Coast, FL, North Las Vegas, NV, Fontana, CA and Tuscaloosa, AL.
Read the studyLocal business ratings by state
How local businesses rate in every state, how many reviews they carry and how many have no website.
Highest-rated states: Florida (4.59), New Hampshire (4.59) and North Carolina (4.59).
Read the study
Industry reports
Every study's numbers for one trade, in one report
Real Estate
187,908 businesses
General Contractors
125,566 businesses
Attorneys
114,545 businesses
Doctors & Clinics
108,122 businesses
HVAC Contractors
73,183 businesses
Roofing Contractors
70,606 businesses
Electricians
63,247 businesses
Landscaping & Lawn Care
54,625 businesses
Cleaning Services
47,587 businesses
Auto Repair & Detailing
42,501 businesses
Insurance Agencies
35,916 businesses
Handyman Services
33,566 businesses
State reports
A data brief for every state
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Use our data
Free to cite, chart and republish
Every table behind these studies can be downloaded as a CSV file from its study page, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You can use it in articles, reports, classes and your own charts. The one condition: credit “Page One Partner Research” and link to the study you used.
What the data covers. Every figure describes businesses listed in the Page One Partner directory: local businesses with a Google Business Profile, collected for each trade from its 400 largest U.S. cities. It is not a census. Businesses outside those cities, or without a Google Business Profile, can be missing, so counts are the businesses in our directory, not the total in a trade, state or city, and percentages describe our listings.
We publish aggregates only (averages, percentages and counts), never data about an individual business. Each study explains exactly how it was measured and what it leaves out. The numbers are recomputed weekly from the live directory; the current edition is from November 2026.
Press and data requests
Need a cut we have not published, such as one city, one trade or a custom breakdown? Ask. We answer reporters and researchers directly.
info@pageoneinsights.com · +1 (888) 272-1940
Published by Page One Insights LLC, Miami, FL. About Page One Partner · 1,720,977 businesses · 14 studies
For business owners
Own a local business? Claim your free page.
Your business may already have a page in the Page One Partner directory. Claiming it is free: correct the details, add photos and receive quote requests with no fee per lead. Rankings here are never sold.
Writing about this data?
Every figure is free to cite and chart under CC BY 4.0. Credit “Page One Partner Research” and link to this page. The numbers describe businesses listed in our directory, not every business in the country.