What the 50 Chicago plumbing listings we analyzed show about websites, reviews, and ratings — a city-level slice of SitePeek's 2026 study, with the sample caveats stated plainly.
Between May and July 2026, SitePeek's business-discovery pipeline — built on the Google Places API — returned 50 listings for plumbers in Chicago, Illinois. We analyzed each listing's website link, review count, and star rating, and compared the results against the 4,604-listing national sample from our 2026 Local Business Google Visibility Report. One caveat before the table: this is the sample our pipeline discovered, not a roster of every plumbing business operating in Chicago. Read each number as a competitive read on the analyzed field, never as a universal market share.
| Metric | Chicago sample | National study (n=4,604) |
|---|---|---|
| Listings analyzed | 50 | 4,604 |
| No website on the Google listing | 20.0% | 43.7% |
| Median Google review count | 85 | 45 |
| Listings with fewer than 10 reviews | 18.0% | 21.0% |
| Mean star rating | 4.63 | 4.6 |
Both columns describe analyzed samples — the 50 Chicago listings our pipeline discovered and the 4,604 listings in the national study — not every business in either market.
Website coverage ran ahead of the national benchmark in this sample: 20.0% of the 50 analyzed listings had no site linked from their profile, versus 43.7% nationally. For an owner, that cuts the other way — most of the Chicago plumbers we analyzed already give customers somewhere to land after the map result, so a listing without a website is the one that stands out, and not favorably.
The median listing in this sample had 85 Google reviews (the median across our full national study was 45), and 18.0% of the analyzed listings had fewer than 10 reviews (nationally: 21.0%). That is a high bar. In the Chicago plumbing listings we analyzed, half the field has already built 85 or more reviews — well above the national median — so a profile showing a couple dozen reads as the newcomer even when the business is older than its neighbors. Closing that gap is a volume game: a consistent ask after every completed job, every week, for as long as it takes.
Ratings, as almost everywhere, cluster near the top: the analyzed listings averaged 4.63 stars against the 4.6-star mean in our national study. A good star average alone will not differentiate a plumbing business in this field — review volume, recency, and whether the owner replies are where the listings we analyzed actually differed from one another.
Two habits move every number in the table above, in any market: give Google a website link so the profile has somewhere to send people, and ask for a review after every completed job. Neither costs money — and among the listings we analyzed, both remain unevenly adopted enough to be an edge.
Among the 12 Chicago categories we analyzed, review depth swings hard — from a median of 11 for handymen up to 146 for nail salons. The plumbing sample's median of 85 is best read against its own field, not the city overall: a count that looks thin next to one category can lead another outright.
Related samples in this study: Nail Salons in Chicago · Towing in Chicago · Car Repair in Chicago · Beauty Salons in Chicago · Hair Salons in Chicago · Pet Care in Chicago · Cleaning Services in Chicago · Laundromats in Chicago · Landscaping in Chicago · Electricians in Chicago · Handymen in Chicago.
Run your business through our free checker and get a letter grade against these same benchmarks — website link, review count, rating, photos — in about 5 seconds. No signup.
More snapshots: all 27 category-and-city samples · the national report.
Free instant check: your website link, review count, rating, and photos graded against the same benchmarks — in about 5 seconds. No signup, no credit card.