48.7% of Veterinary Practices Have 100 or More Google Reviews vs 20% of Local Businesses

A dog starts limping on a Saturday morning. The owner searches for a vet, sees three practices on Google's map, and picks the one with hundreds of reviews and a rating that reads as earned. That choice is made on the Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows a practice's reviews, star rating, hours, phone number and website in Google Search and Maps.

Pet owners read those reviews closely, because they are trusting a practice with an animal they cannot ask how it feels. Review volume shows that many other owners came back, replies show that the practice takes concerns seriously, and hours and website answer the practical questions before the phone call.

Veterinary practices lead local businesses on review volume. 48.7% have 100 or more Google reviews, against a 20% average across 18 local business categories, and the median practice has 86 reviews, more than three times the median of 27. Their weak spot is cost: 40.5% of one-star vet reviews mention price, and 48.2% of practices never replied to any of their recent reviews.

We used two samples of US veterinary practices, collected on September 23, 2026. The first is 757 veterinary practice 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 554 veterinary practices with at least one review, for which we collected up to 20 of their newest Google reviews, 8,682 in all, with each review's star rating, text and any owner reply. We compare every veterinary 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 practice "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.

That is more than twice the 20% average across 18 categories. The median practice has 86 Google reviews, against 27 across categories, and 39.1% of practices have fewer than 20, the second-lowest share of the 18 (the average is 58.2%). 9.8% have no reviews at all, about half the 18.3% average. Pet owners return several times a year for checkups, vaccines and emergencies, so a practice gets many chances to earn a review from the same family.

Volume changes what the rating looks like. The average practice is rated 4.55 stars, close to the 4.52 average, and 8.8% sit below 4 stars against 13.8%. But 15.8% have a perfect 5.0, less than half the 35.7% average: with 86 reviews, one or two unhappy owners are almost certain, so a rating in the mid-fours backed by dozens of reviews is the norm for a busy practice, and it reads as more believable than a perfect score from a handful.

Claiming the listing goes with the deepest histories. Claimed veterinary profiles have a median of 169 reviews against 2 for unclaimed ones. Smaller practices are catching up: among practices with 20 or fewer lifetime reviews, review volume rose 16.7% over the last 12 months compared with the year before.

Veterinary practices reply to 39% of their one- and two-star reviews, 4th of 18 categories and above the 30.8% average, and nearly as often as to five-star reviews (40.4%). Across all recent reviews, 39.9% carry an owner reply, close to the 40.5% average. Practices that reply take 4.1 days on average and a median of 3.8 days.

The trade is split, though. 48.2% of practices never replied to any of their 20 newest reviews, against a 52.8% average, so about half of vets reply to at least some reviews and the other half to none. Size makes the difference across every category: 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 veterinary reviews, 40.5% mention price or cost and 22.4% mention rude or unprofessional staff. An unexpected invoice at a stressful moment is the most common trigger for a bad review. Of five-star reviews, 19.2% use the word "recommend", 15.4% say "friendly" and 10.1% say "professional". Vet reviews from the last 12 months average 46.3 words, longer than a quick star rating, because owners tell the story of the visit.

Price complaints are also the easiest to answer in public. A reply that explains what the charge covered, and invites the owner to call, shows every future reader that the practice stands behind its care and its bills.

20.5% of veterinary practices have no website linked, against 35.1% on average, and 22.7% list no hours, against 28.6%. 93.8% list wheelchair access, against 62%. On the other fields vets sit near the average: 44.4% have no description (43.9% on average), 30% are unclaimed (29.2%), 59% list only one business category (55.2%), and the median profile has 14 photos against 18.

The bar to reach the top of the map is high. In a separate Suff Digital study of 3,160 Google Maps searches across 79 US cities, the top three results for "veterinarian" had a median of 314 reviews, against 223 for listings ranked 4 to 20, and 96.6% linked a website, against 91.8%. Chains held 4.6% of top-three spots, and adding "near me" changed the top three in 41.8% of cities.

Reply to price complaints first. They make up two in five one-star reviews, and a calm answer that explains the charge and offers a call turns a public complaint into proof of good care. Then reply to everything else: half of practices already do, and the other half leave their reviews unanswered.

Keep review requests routine. Send a text with a direct review link after each visit, so volume keeps growing toward the hundreds that the top map results carry. Write a description that names your services, species and emergency hours, add secondary categories and upload photos of your team and clinic.

Finally, benchmark against the practices in your own map results, not national figures. Suff Digital's local seo packages build review volume and complete Google Business Profiles for veterinary practices.

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