Charlotte Businesses Have a Median of 44 Google Reviews vs 3 in Dallas

A new salon opens in Charlotte and a friend's salon opens in Dallas on the same day. Each collects 20 Google reviews in its first months. In Dallas, that puts the salon far ahead of the typical local business. In Charlotte, it is still below the typical business next door.

The number of Google reviews a business has is one of the first things customers compare on Google Maps, and one of the signals Google uses to rank local businesses. But "enough reviews" depends on where you are. The businesses you compete with set the bar, and that bar differs sharply from city to city.

Charlotte sets it highest. The median local business there has 44 Google reviews, against 12 nationally and 3 in Dallas. Florida cities follow, while the country's largest cities, New York and Los Angeles among them, sit near the bottom.

On September 23, 2026 we looked at 23,164 US Google Business Profiles across 54 local business categories and grouped them by the city in their address. We kept the 26 cities with at least 60 profiles each, 2,740 profiles in all, and calculated the median and the average number of Google reviews per business in each city.

The median is the middle business: half have more reviews, half have fewer. It shows what a typical business looks like. The average adds up every review and divides by the number of businesses, so a few businesses with thousands of reviews can pull it far above what most businesses have. We rank cities by the median for that reason, and show the average alongside it.

That is almost four times the national median of 12 and nearly 15 times Dallas, where the median local business has 3 Google reviews, the fewest of the 26 cities. Charlotte's lead is not driven by a few famous businesses: its average of 277 reviews is below those of Tampa, Philadelphia, San Diego and Orlando. It is the typical Charlotte business that has more reviews.

Part of the gap comes from how well listings are looked after. 36.6% of Dallas profiles are unclaimed, meaning no owner has taken control of the listing, against 16.7% in Charlotte. An unclaimed listing rarely collects reviews, because nobody at the business is asking for them.

Tampa is second with a median of 39 Google reviews per business and Jacksonville third at 28.5, followed by two Texas cities, San Antonio and Fort Worth, at 24 each. The country's biggest cities rank low: Houston and Chicago sit below the national median at 10 and 9, and New York and Los Angeles at 5.

Brooklyn shows how different neighboring markets can be. Its median of 20.5 reviews is four times the 5 of businesses with a New York, NY address, so two parts of the same city set very different bars. For any owner, the national figure is a poor guide; the businesses in your own city and your own map results are the ones to measure against.

Ranked by average instead of median, Orlando comes first: its local businesses average 536 Google reviews each, yet the typical Orlando business has 10. A small number of businesses with thousands of reviews, the kind that serve visitors in a tourist city, pull the average far above what most local businesses have. Philadelphia (average 341, median 10.5) and San Diego (306 against 9) show the same pattern.

Nationally the gap is just as wide: the average local business has 134 Google reviews, but the median is 12. Charlotte and Tampa rank high on both measures, which means their ordinary businesses, not only their busiest, have built strong review counts.

Set your review target from your own market. A business with 20 reviews is below the typical business in Charlotte or Tampa and well above it in Dallas or Seattle. Look up the businesses that appear with you in Google Maps for your main service, note their review counts, and aim to pass the top three.

In cities where the median is low, a steady review habit is the quickest way to stand out: a few new reviews every month can put you ahead of most of your competitors. In cities where the median is high, you need a consistent system just to keep pace. Either way, claim your Google Business Profile first, because unclaimed listings are the ones that fall furthest behind.

Ask every customer after every job, by text or email with a direct link, and reply to the reviews you receive. Our local seo packages include review programs sized to each client's local market.

Cite this study