Methodology
How We Calculate Your Visibility Score
The Visibility Score is a 0-100 metric that measures how easily customers can find your business on Google Maps. It is calculated from 20 scored factors across Profile Completeness (11 checks), Performance (4 checks), Competitive Position (5 metrics).
What the score is actually about
Behind every factor below there is a real place with a door and opening hours. The score does not measure a website or a marketing budget. It measures how easily a person three streets away can find that door, from a phone, at the moment they need it.
That is why the model weights profile completeness and reviews above anything you can buy: they are the parts a searcher actually reads.
Three-Pillar Assessment
Your Visibility Score combines 3 independent pillars, each weighted by its importance to Google Maps rankings.
Profile Completeness
How thoroughly your Google Business Profile is filled out: description, categories, photos, hours, attributes, and more.
Performance
Your review rating and volume, plus estimates of how often and how recently reviews arrive, the signals Google uses to gauge customer trust.
Competitive Position
How you compare to the top 10 local competitors in your market on rating, reviews, photos, profile completeness and category coverage.
Dynamic weights: These weights adjust based on competitor availability: when too few competitors are found to compare against, the competitive pillar shrinks and the other two absorb it.
Pillar 1
Profile Completeness
Every field on your Google Business Profile contributes to your visibility. We evaluate 11 checks with a weighted point system.
| Factor | Max Points | What We Check |
|---|---|---|
| Claimed Profile | 15 | Whether the profile is claimed and verified by the business owner |
| Business Description | 10 | Length and completeness of the business description (500+ characters recommended) |
| Primary Category | 8 | At least one primary Google category selected |
| Additional Categories | 7 | Number of relevant secondary categories (3+ recommended) |
| Business Hours | 8 | Complete weekly hours published |
| Phone Number | 5 | Local phone number listed |
| Website | 7 | Business website URL linked |
| Photos | 12 | Photo quantity evaluated against industry-specific thresholds |
| Logo | 5 | Business logo uploaded |
| Attributes | 8 | Business attributes filled (5+ recommended) |
| Address | 8 | Full street address with city and ZIP code |
Pillar 2
Performance
Reviews are the strongest trust signal for Google Maps. We evaluate rating quality and review volume directly; velocity and recency are estimated from review volume, and the table says which is which.
| Factor | Max Points | What We Check |
|---|---|---|
| Star Rating | 25 | Average review rating (4.5+ is excellent, below 3.0 is critical) |
| Review Count | 25 | Total number of reviews (logarithmic scale, so each review matters more when you have fewer) |
| Review Velocityestimated | 16 | Estimated from review volume, a proxy for how often new reviews arrive |
| Review Recencyestimated | 12 | Estimated from review volume, a proxy for how recently reviews arrived |
Pillar 3
Competitive Position
Your profile doesn't exist in a vacuum. We compare you against the top 10 local competitors in your market using percentile rankings.
| Metric | Weight | How We Compare |
|---|---|---|
| Star Rating | 25% | How your rating compares to local competitors |
| Review Count | 25% | Your review volume vs. market median |
| Photo Count | 20% | Visual content compared to competitors |
| Profile Completeness | 15% | How thorough your profile is vs. others |
| Category Coverage | 15% | Number of relevant categories vs. competitors |
Each metric is converted to a percentile ranking (0-100), where 50 is the market median and 100 is the best in your area. This ensures fair comparison regardless of how competitive your market is.
Grade Thresholds
Your Visibility Score maps to a letter grade that summarizes your overall Google Maps readiness.
| Score | Grade | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | A+ | Exceptional. Top-tier profile, strong reviews, outperforms competitors |
| 80-89 | A | Excellent. Well-optimized with minor gaps |
| 65-79 | B | Good. Solid foundation, several areas to improve |
| 50-64 | C | Average. Visible but losing customers to better-optimized competitors |
| 35-49 | D | Below average. A significant Visibility Gap is hurting customer acquisition |
| 0-34 | F | Critical. Major profile issues, largely invisible on Google Maps |
Industry-Specific Thresholds
A restaurant needs more photos than a law firm. A medical practice needs a higher rating than a retail store. We automatically detect your industry and adjust scoring thresholds.
| Industry | Photos (Good) | Photos (Great) | Reviews (Good) | Reviews (Great) | Rating Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant | 15+ | 40+ | 50+ | 200+ | 4.2+ |
| Medical | 8+ | 20+ | 20+ | 80+ | 4.3+ |
| Legal | 5+ | 15+ | 15+ | 50+ | 4.5+ |
| Home Services | 10+ | 25+ | 25+ | 100+ | 4.3+ |
| Automotive | 10+ | 30+ | 30+ | 150+ | 4.2+ |
| Beauty & Wellness | 15+ | 40+ | 30+ | 100+ | 4.5+ |
| Fitness | 10+ | 25+ | 20+ | 80+ | 4.3+ |
| Retail | 10+ | 25+ | 15+ | 60+ | 4.2+ |
| Real Estate | 8+ | 20+ | 15+ | 50+ | 4.5+ |
| Financial | 5+ | 15+ | 10+ | 40+ | 4.3+ |
| Education | 10+ | 25+ | 15+ | 50+ | 4.2+ |
| Hospitality | 20+ | 50+ | 50+ | 200+ | 4+ |
Design Principles
- Measurable only. Every factor in the score is based on observable, measurable data from your Google Business Profile. We never penalize for data we can't verify.
- Industry-aware. Photo, review, and rating thresholds adjust automatically based on your business category. A dentist and a restaurant have different optimization targets.
- Competitively contextualized. Percentile rankings prevent unrealistic targets. If every business in your market has 20 reviews, having 25 is competitive. You don't need 200.
- Actionable. Every issue includes a severity level, current vs. target metric, and estimated effort to fix. You always know what to do next.
- Transparent. This page documents exactly how the score works. There are no hidden factors or proprietary black boxes.
The one question an owner cannot answer from behind their own counter
Everybody who walks in already found you. The people who did not are invisible from inside the shop, and no amount of local knowledge shows them to you. That is the gap the score is built to make visible.
It is a number you can check against your own profile, factor by factor, using the model above.
See Your Visibility Score
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Sources
Primary documents behind the claims on this page. Each was opened and quoted verbatim on 2026-08-26.
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google (Google Business Profile Help)
Last updated September 5, 2026. This page is maintained by the Maps Agent research team.