46.7% of Chiropractors Haven't Claimed Their Google Listing vs 29.2% of Local Businesses

A patient with back pain searches for a chiropractor near home. Google's map shows three practices. One has a photo of the clinic, a description of its treatments, opening hours and dozens of reviews; the next has a name, an address and a single review. The patient calls the first. That comparison happens on the Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows a practice's reviews, rating, hours, phone number and website in Google Search and Maps.

Chiropractic care is a repeat relationship, and new patients want to know the practice is established, what it treats and whether other patients felt better. A claimed, complete listing answers those questions before the first call. An unclaimed one cannot, because until a practice claims its listing it cannot edit it, add photos or reply to reviews.

46.7% of chiropractor profiles are unclaimed, against a 29.2% average across 18 local business categories. The listings that are claimed have a median of 22 reviews, against 1 for unclaimed ones. Chiropractors are rated highly, at 4.76 stars on average, but 70.4% of chiropractors have fewer than 20 reviews and 63.1% never replied to any recent review.

We used two samples of US chiropractors, collected on September 23, 2026. The first is 493 chiropractor Google Business Profiles, where we recorded the number of reviews, star rating, website, opening hours, description, claim status, business categories and photos. The second is 555 chiropractors with at least one review, for which we analysed up to 20 of their newest Google reviews, 6,706 in all, with each review's star rating, text and any owner reply. We compare every chiropractor figure with the average of the 18 local business categories in the same study.

A profile is unclaimed when no owner has verified it with Google, so the business cannot edit the listing. A chiropractor "never replied" when none of its 20 newest reviews has a reply from the owner. Negative reviews are one- and two-star reviews. The median is the middle business: half have more, half have fewer. The 18-category average is the simple average of the 18 category figures.

The 46.7% is 17.5 points above the 29.2% average, and it shapes the rest of the profile. Claimed chiropractor profiles have a median of 22 reviews, against 1 for unclaimed ones, because owners who control their listing are the ones who ask patients to review it. The other basic fields follow the same pattern: 61.7% of chiropractor profiles have no description, against 43.9% on average, the widest gap of any basic field, and 45.6% list no opening hours, against 28.6%.

41% have no website linked (35.1% on average), 68.4% list only one business category (55.2%), and the median profile has 1 photo against 18. The exception is accessibility: 93.1% list wheelchair access, against 62%. Each of these gaps is fixable in an afternoon once the listing is claimed.

Patients who review chiropractors are generous. The average rating is 4.76 stars, against 4.52 across categories, 59% of rated chiropractors have a perfect 5.0, against 35.7%, and 5.5% sit below 4 stars, against 13.8%. Of five-star reviews, 34.9% use the word "recommend", 13.1% say "professional" and 11.1% say "friendly".

Satisfied patients rarely turn into many reviews, though. 70.4% of chiropractors have fewer than 20 Google reviews, against a 58.2% average, the median practice has 5, and 26.4% have none. Among chiropractors with 20 or fewer lifetime reviews, review volume was flat over the last 12 months compared with the year before, and 18.4% received at least a third of their reviews in a single month. The patients are happy; most practices are not asking them.

Complaints are rare, and when they come they are about money more than manner: of English-language one-star chiropractor reviews, 32.1% mention price or cost and 20.1% mention rude or unprofessional staff. Chiropractor reviews from the last 12 months average 41.1 words.

63.1% of chiropractors never replied to any of their 20 newest reviews, the 4th-highest share of 18 categories, against a 52.8% average. 34.6% of recent chiropractor reviews carry a reply, 13th of 18. Those who reply treat praise and complaints alike: 33.8% of one- and two-star reviews get a reply, 7th of 18 and above the 30.8% average, and 34.7% of five-star reviews.

Replies take 4.5 days on average and a median of 4 days. Busier businesses reply more across every category: 20.5% of businesses with 200 or more reviews never reply, against 81.7% of businesses with fewer than 10.

The map rewards the practices that do the work. In a separate Suff Digital study of 3,160 Google Maps searches across 79 US cities, the top three results for "chiropractor" had a median of 92 reviews, twice the 46 of listings ranked 4 to 20, and 95.6% linked a website, against 86.5%. Chains held 8.4% of top-three spots.

Claim your Google Business Profile today if you have not. It is free, it unlocks every other fix, and claimed chiropractor profiles carry a median of 22 reviews against 1 for unclaimed ones. Then write a description of the conditions you treat, add hours and secondary categories, link your website and upload photos of the clinic and team.

Your patients already rate you highly, so ask them. Send a review link after the second or third visit, when a patient has felt the difference, and keep asking every week rather than in bursts. Reply to every review, including a short thank-you to the five-star ones.

A complete listing and a strong website work together in local search. Suff Digital's healthcare seo programs claim and complete Google Business Profiles and build review volume for chiropractic practices.

Embed this research

Cite this study