Plumbing companies on Google: the 2026 benchmark report
Review counts, ratings, website presence and hours for 77,218 plumbing companies, computed from public Google Business Profile listings across 51 states.
Reviews
| Review count | Value |
|---|---|
| Median | 21 |
| Average (mean) | 195.5 |
| 25th percentile | 5 |
| 75th percentile | 86 |
| 90th percentile | 358 |
Share of plumbing companies by review count:
| Bucket | Share of listings |
|---|---|
| 0 reviews | 9.3% |
| Under 10 | 34.3% |
| Under 25 | 52.6% |
| 100 or more | 23.1% |
| 500 or more | 7.8% |
Ratings
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Average rating | 4.63 |
| Rated 5.0 | 35.8% |
| Rated 4.5 or higher | 78% |
| Rated under 4.0 | 9.6% |
| No rating yet | 4.4% |
Websites
| Website status | Share |
|---|---|
| Website listed | 71.3% |
| No website listed | 28.7% |
| Own domain | 69.8% |
| Social profile only | 1.1% |
| Free or DIY builder | 0.4% |
Median review count for plumbing companies with a website: 39. Without one: 6.
Profile completeness and hours
| Profile field | Share |
|---|---|
| Has a profile photo | 95.1% |
| Public email on profile | 18% |
| Open 24 hours | 25.6% |
| Open Saturday | 37.4% |
| Open Sunday | 29.1% |
| No hours listed | 39.4% |
Where the listings are
| State | Listings |
|---|---|
| CA | 3,716 |
| TX | 3,512 |
| FL | 3,031 |
| NY | 2,698 |
| OH | 2,469 |
| PA | 2,087 |
| IL | 2,064 |
| GA | 1,746 |
| MA | 1,738 |
| NJ | 1,737 |
| MI | 1,614 |
| NC | 1,596 |
Primary categories
| Google category | Listings |
|---|---|
| Plumber | 54,373 |
| HVAC contractor | 5,264 |
| Plumbing supply store | 2,200 |
| Air conditioning contractor | 1,410 |
| Heating contractor | 1,267 |
| Handyman/Handywoman/Handyperson | 1,248 |
| Contractor | 1,146 |
| Septic system service | 1,010 |
What the numbers mean for your shop
The single most useful line in this report is the median: half of all plumbing companies on Google have 21 reviews or fewer. If your shop has 40, you are already ahead of most of the country. That sounds comforting until you look at who you actually compete with. Google's map pack shows three businesses, and the ones that win it in a real metro almost always sit in the top tenth. The 90th percentile is 358 reviews. That is the number to chase, not the median.
The distribution is lopsided. 9.3% of plumbers have no reviews at all and 52.6% have fewer than 25, while 7.8% have passed 500. The mean of 195.5 is pulled up by a small number of large multi-truck operations. Ignore the mean. Compare yourself to the percentiles.
Ratings are not where you differentiate
The average rating across the dataset is 4.6 stars and 78% of plumbers are at 4.5 or higher. A 4.8 does not make you stand out; it makes you normal. What stands out is the count and the recency. A shop with 4.7 stars and 300 reviews beats a shop with 5.0 and 12 every time, in Google's eyes and the homeowner's. 9.6% of plumbers are below 4.0, and that is the one place ratings do matter: below 4.0, most callers move on without reading.
The website gap
28.7% of plumbing companies list no website on their Google profile. Plumbers with a site have a median of 39 reviews. Plumbers without one have 6. We do not claim the website causes the reviews. Shops that take the business seriously tend to do both. But the correlation is large enough that the missing website is the clearest single marker of a competitor who is not going to fight you for the map pack, and the clearest single gap to close if it is your shop.
Hours and profile completeness
25.6% of plumbers list themselves as open 24 hours and 39.4% list no hours at all. Google shows "Closed" in red on a profile whose hours say so, and shows nothing helpful on a profile with none. If you take after-hours emergency calls, say so in the hours; if you do not, list real hours and let missed-call text-back cover the gap. 95.1% have a profile photo, so a shop with none is instantly in the bottom few percent.
What to do with this
- Find your own numbers. Open your Google Business Profile and note your review count, rating, and whether a website is linked.
- Place yourself. Under 21 reviews is the bottom half. Under 86 is the bottom three quarters. 358 and up is where map-pack winners live.
- Fix the website gap first if you are in the 28.7%. A five-page site with tap-to-call and service pages is a week of work.
- Set a review velocity. One review per job day, asked for at the door, moves a 20-review shop past the 75th percentile in a year. The reviews guide has the scripts.
- List real hours and turn on missed-call text-back. Run the calculator to see what the gap is costing.
- Then, and only then, spend on ads. Ads pointed at a profile with 8 reviews and no website pay for your competitor's education.
Method
This report aggregates 77,218 public Google Business Profile listings collected from Google Maps searches for plumbing companies across every US state, deduplicated by place. Review counts and ratings are as displayed on the listing at collection time. "Website listed" means the profile links to any URL; we classify the URL as an owned domain, a social profile, or a free site builder by hostname. Figures are refreshed monthly. Cite this page as: Plumbing Owners Edge, "Plumbing companies on Google benchmark report", 2026.