Primary research
Which Google reviews do businesses ignore?
Which reviews get the fewest replies?
Four-star reviews. Across 7,167 Google reviews across 78 local business profiles measured in September 2026, business owners replied to 51.1% of reviews overall — but only 33.9% of 4-star reviews, the lowest of any rating, against 49.8% for 1-star and 54% for 5-star. When owners did answer a 4-star review it took an average of 170.8 days. Owners answer complaints quickly and thank praise readily. The review in the middle — the one from a customer who was almost delighted, and who usually names the exact gap — is the one that sits unanswered.
I'm Ryan Goering. I run BaaDigi, and we manage Google Business Profiles for local businesses across the country. This isn't a survey or a synthesis of someone else's numbers — it's measured directly from the profiles we operate. Every figure below comes from one query against our own database, run on 2026-09-03.
How often do owners reply, by star rating?
| Rating | Share of all reviews | Owner replied | Avg days to reply |
|---|---|---|---|
| ★ | 3.4% | 49.8% | 101.1 |
| ★★ | 1.8% | 50.8% | 41.5 |
| ★★★ | 3.6% | 37.9% | 34.7 |
| ★★★★ | 10.5% | 33.9% | 170.8 |
| ★★★★★ | 80.7% | 54% | 175.9 |
The shape is a U. Reply rate sits near 49.8% at one star, sags to 33.9% at four, then jumps to 54% at five. Attention follows emotion — anger and delight — not usefulness. The most actionable feedback a local business receives is the feedback it is least likely to answer.
Why does this happen?
Because nobody is looking at reviews as data. A one-star review triggers an alert and a scramble. A five-star review feels good and gets a thank-you. A four-star review produces no emotional signal at all, so it produces no response — and the pattern only becomes visible when you put every review in one place and count. No owner decides to ignore their four-star reviews. It just happens, invisibly, for years.
That is the general problem this page exists to describe. The data almost always exists. It sits in seven different tools that don't talk to each other, so nobody ever sees the shape of it, and decisions get made on whichever number happened to be loudest that week.
What does the whole picture look like?
Reviews are one input of seven. The others follow the same pattern — each one lives in its own tool, each one gets glanced at in isolation, and the relationships between them go unseen. Pulling them into one place is the entire job:
- Rankingswhere you place
- AI citationswho AI recommends
- Reviewswhat customers say
- Google profilecalls, directions, views
- Trafficwho arrives
- Click-throughwho chooses you
- Site healthwhether it works
Frequently asked questions
- What percentage of Google reviews do business owners reply to?
- Across 7,167 Google reviews across 78 local business profiles measured by BaaDigi in September 2026, owners had replied to 51.1% of reviews. Reply rate is not evenly distributed: 1-star reviews were answered 49.8% of the time and 5-star reviews 54%, but 4-star reviews only 33.9% — the lowest of any rating.
- Which Google reviews do businesses ignore most?
- Four-star reviews. In a BaaDigi analysis of 7,167 Google reviews across 78 local business profiles, 4-star reviews had the lowest owner reply rate of any rating at 33.9%, versus 49.8% for 1-star and 54% for 5-star. Owners answer complaints and praise, and skip the middle, even though a 4-star review usually names the specific gap between a good experience and a great one.
- How long do businesses take to respond to Google reviews?
- Response time varies sharply by rating. In BaaDigi's September 2026 analysis of 7,167 Google reviews across 78 local business profiles, average days to reply were 34.7 for 3-star reviews, 41.5 for 2-star, 101.1 for 1-star, 170.8 for 4-star, and 175.9 for 5-star. Negative and middling reviews get answered fastest; positive reviews wait longest, because nothing about them feels urgent.
- What is the average Google star rating for local service businesses?
- 4.63 stars across 7,167 Google reviews across 78 local business profiles analysed by BaaDigi in September 2026, with 80.7% of all reviews being 5-star and 5.2% being 1- or 2-star. 75.4% of reviews included written text rather than a rating alone.
Methodology and limits
Source. 7,167 Google reviews across 78 Google Business Profiles, pulled from the Google Business Profile API for profiles BaaDigi manages. We count profiles rather than businesses because a business can hold more than one. Reviews span 2003-02-11 to 2026-09-03. Average rating 4.63; 75.4% included written text.
“Replied” means the profile carries an owner response. Response time is the difference between the review timestamp and the reply timestamp, so a reply edited later reads as slower than it was — the days-to-reply figures are an upper bound.
Known limits. These are the businesses we work with, not a random sample of American local businesses, and they skew toward home services. The sample is also incomplete: of 98 Google Business Profiles we have access to, 78 are included here. Most of the remaining 20 carry no reviews at all rather than being missing from the pull, and one profile failed to fetch.
Next review: 2026-12-03. Figures will be re-queried and restated, including any that move against us.
Related
- Contractor marketing benchmarks — published industry figures for cost per lead and conversion, with sources.
- Lead platform comparisons — what Angi, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor and others actually cost per lead.
- The blog — ongoing writing on local search and AI visibility.
Last updated 2026-09-03. Compiled by Ryan Goering, BaaDigi — Huntington Beach, California. Figures are measured from profiles we manage and are directional for the wider market, not nationally representative.