In healthcare search, the review bar is set next door

The review count that counts depends on the category

In each map search, take the median review count of the profiles in that category. Then take the median of that across all searches. That's the bar a profile is measured against. It runs from about 225 reviews for dental and vision care to about 4 for behavioral and developmental care.

More reviews than nearby competitors goes with more top-3 spots, in every category

Compare each profile with the typical same-category profile in the same search. A profile with 4x the reviews reaches the top 3 2.2 times as often as its distance predicts. One with under a quarter reaches it 0.4 times as often. A profile with no reviews reaches it 0.2 times as often. The direction holds in all 27 categories.

A perfect 5.0 does worse than a 4.5 to 4.9

Profiles rated 4.5 to 4.9 reach the top 3 about 1.5 times as often as distance predicts. Profiles with a perfect 5.0 reach it 0.8 times as often, less than profiles rated 4.0 to 4.4. A perfect score usually comes from a handful of reviews. But the gap holds even at similar review counts: in 24 of 27 categories for profiles with 1 to 14 reviews, and 23 of 26 for profiles with 50 or more.

Fresh reviews and owner replies go with more visibility everywhere

A profile whose newest review is under 90 days old reaches the top 3 1.5 times as often as distance predicts. That holds in all 27 categories. A profile with no review in a year is below 1x in all 27. Replying to 90% or more of reviews is above 1x in all 27, and posting this year in 26.

Single-location practices show up less. Size past two adds little.

A practice with one location reaches the top 3 0.7 times as often as distance predicts, and is below 1x in 24 of 27 categories. Groups of two to four, five to 19 and 20 or more locations all sit at about 1.1x in the typical category. Being part of a group matters. Being a big one, mostly, does not.

Therapy and specialist profiles are the least complete

92% of ABA profiles have a business description, the most of any category here. 26% of occupational therapist profiles do. Physician specialties sit in the middle, at 44% to 62%. In those categories, a written description alone sets a profile apart.

A third of behavioral and developmental care profiles have no reviews

35% of profiles in this group have no reviews at all, against 12% in dental and vision care. The median profile has 2 reviews and got none in the past year. Only 22% got a review in the 90 days before they were scanned, the lowest of the five groups.

In quiet care, 15 reviews goes with more visibility than 50 does in dental care

In behavioral and developmental care, a profile with 5 to 14 reviews reaches the top 3 about as often as its distance predicts. With 15 to 49 reviews, it's 1.7 times as often. In dental and vision care, 15 to 49 reviews goes with 0.5 times as often, and it takes 100 or more to get above 1x.

For ABA providers, the first five reviews and a clear name matter most

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the most common therapy for autistic children. A trained therapist works with the child, often for many hours a week, at home or at a center, to build skills like communication and daily routines. Most families start looking with a Google search, so the profile is often the first thing they see. ABA profiles are the most complete in the study, but the median one has 5 reviews and one in five has none. A profile with no reviews reaches the top 3 0.3 times as often as distance predicts. With 5 to 14 reviews, it's 1.3 times as often. Having “ABA” or “behavior analysis” in the business name goes with 1.4x, against 0.6x without it.

Center-based ABA providers show up more often than in-home ones

In much of the US, most ABA care happens at home. A listed address doesn't show that: 97% of ABA profiles show a street address. So this study sorts providers by what their profile description and website say. 27% describe center-based care only, 12% in-home care only and 13% both. The other 48% don't say.

Only 1 in 17 profile callers became a family case

One multi-location ABA provider tracks calls from its Google profiles through to its CRM. Over roughly a year, about 1,100 people called. 66 became family cases in the CRM, and 28 of those became clients. That's 1 caller in 17. Google's own call count for the same months is within 2% of the tracking, so the call count is right.

Families who call from the profile become clients as often as ad callers

For the same provider, 42% of families who called from its Google profiles became clients. For families who called after clicking a Google ad, it was 39%. For Google Ads call buttons, 33%. A family that finds the provider on its profile is not a weaker lead.

Web analytics miss most families who found the provider on Google

One ABA provider asks every family how they heard about it. Over about a year, roughly 300 said Google. Its web analytics credited Google search, organic and paid together, with about 60 cases. A family that calls straight from the profile never visits the website, so there is nothing to track. Leaving out partner referrals, Google is the top source, named by 45% of families. Facebook is next at 13%.

Two profiles, one provider: reviews went with more calls, not more views

One provider started two service-area profiles a month apart, in two markets, one larger than the other. Same category, same setup. The larger-market profile got about ten reviews, nearly all on a single day in spring 2026. The other got none. Before any reviews, the larger-market profile's impressions had already grown from about 50 to about 340 a month by its fourth month. What changed after the reviews was action. Calls and website clicks went from about 19 a month in the four months before to about 62 a month in the four months after. Over the same months, the profile with no reviews went from about 17 a month to about 11.

One provider's profiles get fewer clicks. The cause isn't clear yet.

One multi-location provider has 18 months of profile data. Comparing five months of 2026 with the same five months a year earlier, calls fell 18% and website clicks fell 34%. Total impressions rose 10%, but nearly all of that came from one profile whose desktop Maps impressions jumped about tenfold in spring 2026. That looks automated, most likely a rank-tracking tool. Without that jump, impressions rose about 2%.

Test the local bar on purpose, and in AI answers

How the study is measured

Categories

The study uses Scout's latest scan of US Google Business Profiles, open locations only, for 27 healthcare categories by Google primary category: 692,855 profiles. Medical clinic (108,207), dentist (73,764) and pharmacy (59,645) are the largest. Child psychologist (863) and ABA therapist (2,148) are the smallest.

Healthcare searches

328,258 Scout map searches from May to September 2026 for each category's name as the keyword (for example, "Dentist" or "Urgent care center"), run from 12,381 searcher locations. 524,807 profiles appeared at least once. Ads are excluded. A top-3 spot is an organic rank of 1 to 3. Top-3 results sit a median 2.2 km from the searcher, against 4.7 km for other results.

Baseline

In every ranking finding, each category's appearances are split into 20 equal-sized distance bands. A group's top-3 rate is divided by the rate its bands predict for profiles in that category. Findings 01 to 06 show the median of that ratio across the 27 categories, so a large category like dentists doesn't outweigh a small one. Findings 07 and 08 pool the categories in a group, still comparing each profile with its own category. The local bar is the median review count of same-category profiles in a search. "Review in last 90 days" is measured from the date each profile was scanned.

ABA profiles

2,135 profiles list "Applied behavior analysis therapist" as their main category. Another 567 list it as a secondary category, and 790 profiles in mental health, speech, occupational therapy and psychology mention ABA in their description.

Kinds of care

The 27 categories are grouped into five kinds of care. Everyday care: pharmacy, urgent care, medical labs and hearing aid stores. Dental and vision: dentists, pediatric dentists, orthodontists and optometrists. Doctors and specialists: family doctors, medical clinics, pediatricians, cardiologists, dermatologists, orthopedic surgeons, OB-GYNs and podiatrists. Rehab and home care: physical therapy, chiropractors and home health care. Behavioral and developmental care: ABA therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, mental health clinics, child psychologists, speech pathologists and occupational therapists.

ABA searches

990 Scout map searches from May to September 2026, for "applied behavior analysis therapist," "ABA therapy" and "pediatric ABA," run from 207 searcher locations. Nearly half the locations are in California, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Ads are excluded. A top-3 spot is an organic rank of 1 to 3.

ABA distance

Distance to the searcher drives map rank more than anything else. In ABA searches, top-3 results sit a median 2.7 km from the searcher, against 10.5 km for other results. Each appearance is placed in one of 20 equal-sized distance bands. A group's top-3 rate is divided by the rate its distance bands predict. 1x means as often as expected.

Care setting

Each profile's description, website title and website summary are searched for words that describe care at home ("in-home," "home-based") or at a center ("center-based," "our clinic"). Google's service-area flag is not used. It is set on only 1% of ABA profiles and 14% of plumbers, so it misses most businesses that serve customers at home.

Brand size

Profiles are grouped into brands by Scout's brand ID, or by business name where no brand ID exists. Brand size counts the brand's ABA profiles.

Client data

Optidge shared anonymized data from a small number of the ABA providers it works with. Profile metrics come from the Google Business Profile Performance API and cover about 18 months. One provider's call tracking follows profile calls to its CRM. Not every profile has tracked family cases, and paid profile calls were tracked only for the last couple of months. A family case is a CRM contact at lead stage or later. Admitted means the family became a client. Another provider's sources come from its intake form and web analytics. Providers are not labeled across findings, and counts and dates are rounded, so no single client can be pieced together. No contact records or health information were shared.

Limits

The results show what goes together, not what causes what. The map searches were set up for client work and are not a random sample of US markets. In some categories one brand appears in most searches: Walgreens in 89% of pharmacy searches, Quest in 88% of lab searches. Each profile is counted once per search it appears in, so busy profiles count more. Signals such as photos, posts and replies overlap with being a large chain. The care-setting sort reads words, not services, and half of all profiles don't say where care happens. The client data covers a small number of ABA providers, has small groups and can't be joined to the map searches, because the profiles are anonymized.

More research on local profiles and visibility