Most Plumbers Have Fewer Than 20 Google Reviews: 58.1% of Business Profiles

A pipe bursts late at night. The homeowner searches for a plumber, looks at the three businesses Google shows on its map, and calls the one with the most reviews and a calm reply under its last complaint. That choice is made on the Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows a business's reviews, star rating, hours, phone number and website in Google Search and Maps.

For a plumbing company, that listing is often the only thing a customer sees before calling. Reviews show that other people trusted you, replies show that someone is paying attention, and the basic fields tell Google and the customer what you do and when you are open.

Most plumbers leave that listing thin. 58.1% have fewer than 20 reviews and the median plumber has 10. 57.9% never replied to any of their recent reviews, against a 52.8% average across 18 local business categories. Plumbers also trail other businesses on the basics: 38.6% of plumber profiles are unclaimed (29.2% on average) and 45.3% have no website (35.1% on average), both fixable in an afternoon.

We used two samples of US plumbers, collected on September 23, 2026. The first is 704 plumber 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 825 plumbing businesses with at least one review, for which we collected up to 20 of their newest Google reviews, 10,252 in all, with each review's star rating, text and any owner reply. We compare every plumber 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 plumber "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 median plumber profile has 10 Google reviews, well under the median of 27 across the 18 categories. The field is split in two: 20% of plumber profiles have 100 or more reviews, matching the average, while a majority sit below 20. Few have nothing at all, though: 13.9% of plumber profiles have zero reviews, fewer than the 18.3% average. Most plumbers have a few reviews, not a steady stream of them.

Claiming the listing goes with a deeper review history. Claimed plumber profiles have a median of 38 reviews against 2 for unclaimed ones, a 19x gap: owners who take control of their listing are the ones who ask customers for reviews. Among plumbers with 20 or fewer reviews, 22.2% received at least a third of them in a single month, the pattern of a one-off push rather than a steady request after every job.

Ratings match other businesses: an average of 4.5 stars against 4.52, with 13.4% of rated plumbers below 4 stars. On a profile with ten reviews, though, one unhappy customer can pull that rating down sharply.

57.9% of plumbers never replied to any of their 20 newest reviews, against a 52.8% average across 18 categories. Yet across all recent plumber reviews, 42.1% carry an owner reply, above the 40.5% average, and plumbers rank 6th of 18 on that measure. The trade is split: a minority of plumbers reply to nearly everything, and most reply to nothing. Those who do reply are quick, taking 3.9 days on average and a median of 2.3 days.

The reviews that most need an answer get the fewest. Plumbers reply to 20.3% of one- and two-star reviews, less than half their 45.3% rate on five-star reviews, and rank 17th of 18 categories on replies to negative reviews, against a 30.8% average. An unanswered complaint is left to speak for the business to every customer who reads it.

Replying and growing go together. 71% of plumber reviews from the last 30 days have a reply, well above the 55.3% average, because the businesses collecting the most new reviews are also the ones that reply. Across all 18 categories, 20.5% of businesses with 200 or more reviews never reply, against 81.7% of businesses with fewer than 10.

Of English-language one-star reviews, 38.8% mention price or cost and 15.5% mention rude, unprofessional or disrespectful staff. Of five-star reviews, 31.8% use the word "recommend", 29.7% say "professional" and 10% say "friendly".

Unhappy plumbing customers complain about the bill far more than about the people, and happy ones praise professionalism. Both point to the same fix: a clear price before the work starts, and a reply that explains the charge when a customer complains about it.

Plumbers trail the 18-category average on every basic Google Business Profile field. 45.3% have no website linked, against 35.1% on average, and 38.6% are unclaimed, against 29.2%, about ten points worse on each. Half have no description (50% vs 43.9%) and 31.8% list no opening hours (vs 28.6%). The median plumber profile has 3 photos, against a median of 18 across categories, and 11.9% list wheelchair access, against 62%.

These gaps show up in who wins the map. In a separate Suff Digital study of 3,160 Google Maps searches across 79 US cities, the top three results for "plumber" had a median of 124 reviews, more than twice the 53 of listings ranked 4 to 20, and 86.1% linked a website, against 81.2% at ranks 4 to 20. Chains held 5.1% of top-three spots, so the map is won by local independents.

Start with the fields where plumbers trail other businesses most. Claim your Google Business Profile if you have not: an unclaimed profile cannot be edited by the owner, and across all 18 categories unclaimed profiles have a median of one review. Then link a website, write a description, add your hours and secondary categories, and upload photos of your vans, team and finished jobs.

Next, make reviews routine. Ask every customer after every job, by text with a direct link, so reviews arrive steadily instead of in one burst. Reply to every review within a couple of days, and answer one- and two-star reviews first: acknowledge the problem, explain any charge in plain terms, and offer to put it right.

Finally, measure yourself against the plumbers in your own map results, not national numbers. Note their review counts, whether they reply and what their profiles include, and close the gap on each. Suff Digital's plumber seo programs build review volume and complete Google Business Profiles for plumbing companies.

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