If you’ve ever searched for a home service or professional service in Columbus and wondered why your competitor keeps showing up while your business doesn’t, this post is probably going to answer that question.
We have done an audit of 450 Google Business Profiles across the Columbus, GA and Opelika, AL area. We wanted a real, data-driven picture of how local businesses are managing one of the most important free tools available to them. Not a guess. Not a feeling. We wanted actual numbers.
What we found was a bit surprising and worse than we suspected going in.
The Average Score Was 57 Out of 100
We scored every business on a 100-point rubric across seven different parts of the GBP: profile completeness, photos, reviews, business description, posts, products and services, and special features. The average across all 450 businesses was 57.4.
Only 6.9% of businesses — 31 out of 450 — scored 70 or above, which we define as “well optimized.”
Not a single business in our entire sample scored 85 or higher.
That’s the threshold we call excellent. Zero businesses reached it.
Nearly 22% of businesses scored below 50, meaning they have serious gaps that are almost certainly hurting their ability to show up in local search results. And the remaining 71% — the largest group — fall into what we call “partially optimized.” They have a name, an address, maybe some photos. But they aren’t actively managing the profile, so they are not competing for business. They’re just there because Google created the profile.
Here’s the reality: if 93% of local businesses in your market are not well-optimized for local search, then getting your Google Business Profile right is one of the clearest competitive advantages available your small business in Columbus right now.
It’s Not the Same for Every Type of Business
Restaurants do better than most. They average 65.7 in our study, and 25% of them reach well-optimized status, likely because the food industry has trained consumers to expect current photos, accurate hours, and an active presence. Competition in that space is visible and immediate.
Professional services firms, accountants, attorneys, financial advisors, consultants, score the lowest of any category in our study, averaging just 50.2. Not a single professional services firm in our sample reached well-optimized status.
If you offer professional services, this is vital for your business, because professional services buyers are doing careful research before they make a decision. They’re not impulse-clicking. They’re comparing, evaluating, and looking for signals of trust. A neglected Google profile sends exactly the wrong signal at exactly the moment when trust matters most.
Home services contractors average just 25 reviews per profile — the lowest of any category. That’s a plumber or electrician with 25 reviews competing for someone who just had a pipe burst and is searching Google right now. In that moment, a modestly better-maintained profile wins the call.
What This Has to Do With AI Search
AI-powered search tools, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, are increasingly changing the how people find your local businesses. These tools draw on structured, verified business data. A business with complete, accurate information, current photos, strong reviews, and an active profile is significantly more likely to show up in an AI-generated recommendation than a business with a half-finished profile.
We’ve seen this firsthand. One of our longtime clients is appearing in AI-generated search results and their GBP is cited as part of the reason. That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because they’ve been doing the fundamentals consistently over time.
GBP optimization isn’t just about Google Maps anymore. It’s part of how your business gets found in the next generation of search, the kind that gives someone a direct answer instead of a list of links.
Five Things Any Business Can Do Right Now
The study isn’t meant to be discouraging. You should recognize opportunity. In the Columbus market where most businesses aren’t paying attention to this, a little consistent effort goes a long way.
1. Start responding to reviews. Every review. It takes five minutes and signals to both Google and your customers that your business is alive and paying attention.
2. Write a real business description. Explain who you are, what you do, and who you serve, in plain language. Include your city and your services naturally. Include keywords that are relevant to your business. This is free and most of your competitors have left it blank.
3. Add more photos. Current, clear photos of your location, your team, and your work. Google weights photo recency and count. So do customers deciding between two options they found on Maps.
4. Build a review generation habit. A follow-up text after a job. A QR code on your counter. A simple reminder when you complete a service. Getting to 50 or 100 genuine reviews puts you well ahead of most businesses in our market.
5. Check the basics. Is your website linked? Are your hours correct and complete? Is your phone number right? Twenty-six percent of businesses in our sample had no website linked to their profile. That’s a lost click every time someone finds you.
None of these require a marketing agency, but they do require attention.
Where Tracsoft Comes In
After nearly 30 years helping Columbus businesses navigate digital marketing, we built this study because we kept having the same conversation: business owners who knew something wasn’t working but had no clear picture of where they actually stood.
Now there’s a benchmark. And for most local businesses, the gap between where they are and where they need to be is smaller than they think, it just requires someone paying attention consistently.
As part of our Discovery process, we offer a complimentary GBP audit. We’ll score your profile against the same rubric we used in this study, show you exactly where your gaps are, and give you an honest picture of what it would take to move the needle.
No pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are and what might actually help.
