How many Google reviews does a UK tradesperson need? We looked at 2,762 firms

When someone searches for a plumber, a roofer or a builder, Google shows a short list of local firms first. We wanted to know what those firms have in common. On 14 October 2026 we searched 8 trades in 20 UK towns and cities and looked at every firm Google returned first: 2,762 businesses. We checked each Google listing and opened every website on them.

Star ratings don't separate anyone. Review counts do.

The typical firm Google shows first has a 5.0 rating. Only 127 of the 2,744 rated firms were below 4.5 stars. A good rating is now the minimum, not the difference. What varies, a lot, is how many reviews firms have: across all 2,762, the middle firm has 34.

The bar for your trade

The bar shows the typical firm (the middle one). The lighter part runs from the firm a quarter of the way up to the firm three quarters of the way up, so most firms sit inside it.

A plumber with 20 reviews is behind most of the plumbers shown alongside them. A builder with 20 reviews is ahead of most builders. Builders collect the fewest reviews of any trade we looked at, which fits: they do fewer, bigger jobs, so they have fewer customers to ask.

The bar for your town

Where you work matters as much. The typical firm shown first in Edinburgh has 60 reviews. In Swindon it has 14.

Bigger cities need more. In a smaller town, a steady stream of reviews puts a firm among the most reviewed in its trade far sooner.

One in six has a gap where the website should be

Of the 2,762 firms, 466 (17%) either had no website on their Google listing (311), linked to a Facebook page or similar in its place (79), or linked to a website that no longer works (76). Plasterers (23%) and painters and decorators (20%) were the most likely to have no website at all.

76 firms send customers to a broken website

76 firms had a website link on their Google listing that went nowhere: 43 domains that no longer exist and 33 sites returning an error page. That is about 1 in 30 of the firms that link to a website of their own. Each one has a Google listing sending interested customers to a dead end.

Checking yours takes ten seconds: search your business name on your phone and tap Website.

What to take from it

• Find your real target. Look at the firms Google shows for your trade in your town and count their reviews. That number matters more than any national figure, including ours.
• Ask every happy customer, every time. In most trades and towns, the gap between you and the firms shown first is a few dozen reviews, not hundreds. Our guide on getting more Google reviews has the words to use.
• Tap the website link on your own listing today. If it doesn't open your site, fix it before anything else.

For working out your own number, see how many Google reviews you need.

How we did it

On 14 October 2026 we ran one Google Places search ("[trade] in [town]") for each of 8 trades in 20 UK towns and cities, and took the first page of results (up to 20 firms each), open businesses only, with duplicates removed: 2,762 firms. The trades: plumber, electrician, roofer, builder, landscaper, plasterer, locksmith, painter and decorator.

We opened every website on those listings and retried any that failed. A site only counts as broken if its domain no longer exists or it returned an error page on two separate checks. Sites that block automated visits (84) or that we couldn't judge either way (13) were left out rather than counted as broken.

Limits. These are the firms Google's business search returns first, so they lean towards the more established end of each trade. It is not every firm in the UK. The order that search returns is not the same as the map a customer sees on their phone, so we haven't reported anyone's position. We didn't measure calls, jobs or how busy anyone is, and no firm is named.