The Leeds Trades Google Gap 2026: what 320 Google Maps listings say about Leeds trades
By Andrew Heppinstall, Unavoidable Marketing, Leeds. Data retrieved 27 September 2026.
Nearly 6 in 10 Leeds trade businesses on Google Maps (59.7%) have fewer than 10 Google reviews. In our study of 320 listings across eight trades, the median listing had 6 reviews, a third (33.4%) showed no website and almost 1 in 4 (24.4%) appeared unclaimed. Star ratings were high almost everywhere, so the real gap is review volume and profile completeness.
Figures: Unavoidable Marketing research, 2026.
Headline findings
Nearly 6 in 10 Leeds trade listings (59.7%, 191 of 320) have fewer than 10 Google reviews; the median listing has 6, and 1 in 5 (20.3%) has none at all.
What to do: Ten reviews is a reachable bar. Ask every happy customer on the day the job is finished, with a direct review link sent by text.
Reviews are concentrated at the top: the best-reviewed 32 listings (10% of the sample) hold 61.2% of all 8,046 reviews counted.
What to do: Most of the field is thin, so a steady run of new reviews can lift a small firm past many of its neighbours.
Stars do not separate the field: of the 129 listings with 10 or more reviews, 80.6% are rated 4.8 or higher (average 4.81).
What to do: A high rating is the entry ticket, not the edge. Review volume, recent reviews and replies to reviews are where you can stand out.
A third of listings (33.4%, 107 of 320) show no website link. Those listings have a median of 1 review against 13 for listings that link to a site, and 88.8% of them have fewer than 10 reviews.
What to do: Add a website link, even a simple one-page site. A profile with nowhere to click gives a customer, and Google, less to go on.
Almost 1 in 4 listings (24.4%, 78 of 320) appear not to be claimed by their owner; 97.4% of those have fewer than 5 photos and their median is 1 review.
What to do: Claim and verify your Business Profile. It is free, and it is the only way to control your hours, photos, services and replies.
Nearly half of listings (47.2%, 151 of 320) have fewer than 5 photos, and 20.0% (64 of 320) list no opening hours at all.
What to do: Upload real job photos every month and set your hours. Both are small jobs that make a profile look open for business.
Builders are furthest behind on the basics: 70.3% of builder listings have fewer than 10 reviews, the median builder listing has 1 review, and 43.2% appear unclaimed (37 builder listings, so treat this as indicative).
What to do: For builders, simply claiming the profile and collecting a handful of reviews moves you ahead of much of the local field.
Also worth noting: locksmiths were again the best-reviewed trade in the sample (median 29 reviews, 25.7% under 10, 35 listings), and painters and decorators had the highest share under 10 reviews (74.4%, 39 listings). Both rest on fewer than 50 listings.
How firm are these numbers?
| Headline figure | Value | Sample behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 10 reviews (all trades) | 59.7% | 320 listings |
| No reviews (all trades) | 20.3% | 320 listings |
| Top 10% hold this share of reviews | 61.2% | 320 listings, 8,046 reviews |
| Rated 4.8 or higher | 80.6% | 129 listings with 10+ reviews |
| No website listed | 33.4% | 320 listings |
| Not claimed | 24.4% | 320 listings |
| Not claimed: fewer than 5 photos | 97.4% | 78 unclaimed listings |
| No website: fewer than 10 reviews | 88.8% | 107 listings with no website |
| Fewer than 5 photos | 47.2% | 320 listings |
| No opening hours | 20.0% | 320 listings |
| Builders: fewer than 10 reviews | 70.3% | 37 builder listings (fewer than 50) |
| Builders: not claimed | 43.2% | 37 builder listings (fewer than 50) |
Every all-trades figure rests on 320 listings, and the claimed and website comparisons on 78 to 242 listings. Every trade-level figure rests on fewer than 50 listings (35 to 44 per trade), and every trade-level rating figure on 10 to 26 listings. As a rough guide, if these were a simple random sample, a percentage from about 40 listings could be out by up to around 15 points either way, and one from 320 listings by up to around 5 or 6 points. The sample is not random (see the method), so treat trade-level figures as indicative and use the all-trades figures for firm claims.
The numbers by trade
| Trade | Listings analysed | Median reviews | Average reviews | Under 10 reviews | No reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 44 | 3 | 19.3 | 65.9% | 27.3% |
| Electricians | 40 | 7 | 17.1 | 60.0% | 15.0% |
| Heating and gas engineers | 42 | 10.5 | 33.5 | 50.0% | 14.3% |
| Roofers | 42 | 4 | 14 | 59.5% | 16.7% |
| Builders | 37 | 1 | 12.3 | 70.3% | 37.8% |
| Locksmiths | 35 | 29 | 87.5 | 25.7% | 5.7% |
| Landscapers and gardeners | 41 | 6 | 12.4 | 68.3% | 19.5% |
| Painters and decorators | 39 | 4 | 12.5 | 74.4% | 25.6% |
| All trades | 320 | 6 | 25.1 | 59.7% | 20.3% |
| Trade | Listings with 10+ reviews | Average rating (10+ reviews) | Rated 4.8+ (of 10+ reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 15 | 4.85 | 80.0% |
| Electricians | 16 | 4.88 | 87.5% |
| Heating and gas engineers | 21 | 4.63 | 76.2% |
| Roofers | 17 | 4.76 | 64.7% |
| Builders | 11 | 4.84 | 90.9% |
| Locksmiths | 26 | 4.89 | 88.5% |
| Landscapers and gardeners | 13 | 4.84 | 84.6% |
| Painters and decorators | 10 | 4.78 | 70.0% |
| All trades | 129 | 4.81 | 80.6% |
| Trade | Listings analysed | No website listed | Not claimed | No opening hours | Fewer than 5 photos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | 44 | 40.9% | 13.6% | 15.9% | 50.0% |
| Electricians | 40 | 37.5% | 32.5% | 12.5% | 47.5% |
| Heating and gas engineers | 42 | 21.4% | 21.4% | 19.0% | 45.2% |
| Roofers | 42 | 35.7% | 31.0% | 28.6% | 54.8% |
| Builders | 37 | 43.2% | 43.2% | 32.4% | 67.6% |
| Locksmiths | 35 | 11.4% | 2.9% | 8.6% | 14.3% |
| Landscapers and gardeners | 41 | 39.0% | 19.5% | 14.6% | 34.1% |
| Painters and decorators | 39 | 35.9% | 30.8% | 28.2% | 61.5% |
| All trades | 320 | 33.4% | 24.4% | 20.0% | 47.2% |
Each trade figure rests on 35 to 44 listings (trade rating figures on 10 to 26), fewer than 50 in every case, so read trade figures as indicative. The all-trades row (320 listings) is the most reliable.
| Group | Listings | Median reviews | Under 10 reviews | Fewer than 5 photos | No opening hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claimed | 242 | 10 | 49.2% | 31.0% | 8.7% |
| Not claimed | 78 | 1 | 92.3% | 97.4% | 55.1% |
| Website listed | 213 | 13 | 45.1% | 35.2% | 12.2% |
| No website listed | 107 | 1 | 88.8% | 71.0% | 35.5% |
These comparisons show association only. A firm that has not claimed its profile or added a website may also be newer, smaller or getting its work elsewhere.
What Leeds trades should do next
Reviews: get to 10, then keep going. Text a review link the day the job is finished and reply to every review.
Profile: claim and verify your Google Business Profile, set your hours, main category, services and areas covered.
Website: link a proper website, even a single clear page with what you do, where, your accreditations and your number.
Photos: upload real before and after photos every month.
Method
- Source
- Public Google Maps business listings, retrieved through the DataForSEO Business Listings database.
- Date
- Data retrieved on 27 September 2026. All 320 analysed listings had a DataForSEO refresh date, and 308 of 320 had been refreshed since 1 July 2026.
- Location
- A 10 km radius around Leeds city centre (53.7997, -1.5492). This covers the main Leeds urban area; it takes in a few fringe addresses in neighbouring districts and misses outer parts of the Leeds district such as Wetherby and Otley.
- Categories
- Plumbers (plumber); electricians (electrician); heating and gas engineers (heating_contractor, gas_engineer); roofers (roofing_contractor); builders (builder, general_contractor); locksmiths (locksmith); landscapers and gardeners (landscaper, gardener); painters and decorators (painter, painting, painter_and_decorator). A listing matches if the category is its main or an additional Google category. These are the same categories as version 1.
- Sample
- The database returns at most 10 listings per request, and this run was held to 40 requests, so the target of 150 listings per trade was not reachable. Instead, for six trades we took five blocks of 10 listings spread across the first 150 positions in the database's default order (positions starting at 0, 38, 75, 113 and 140). For builders (97 in the radius) we took five blocks spread across the whole list, and for locksmiths (70 in the radius) four blocks. The default order sorts by Google listing ID rather than by search ranking, rating or review count. That gave 390 records and 366 unique listings, against 240 records and 215 unique listings in version 1. The database held between 70 (locksmiths) and 301 (plumbers) matching listings per trade inside the radius.
- De-duplication
- 21 listings appeared under more than one trade. Each unique listing is counted once, under the trade that matches its main Google category, or otherwise the first trade search that returned it.
- Exclusions
- 26 permanently closed listings, 2 national company branches and 18 obvious non-trade results (for example a recruitment agency, a paint shop, hardware and building materials suppliers, an electrical wholesaler, a cleaning company, a charity, an energy developer and a monumental mason). 320 listings were analysed.
- Field rules
- Reviews and rating are the Google review count and average star rating; a listing with no rating is counted as having 0 reviews. "Not claimed" uses DataForSEO's owner-verification flag; listings without the flag set are counted as not claimed. "No opening hours" means no weekly timetable is listed. "No website" means the website field is empty. Photo counts use the listing's photo total; 12 listings had no photo total and are counted as having none. "Top 10%" means the 32 listings with the most reviews. Percentages are to one decimal place and are not rounded up. These rules are the same as version 1.
- Limitations
- This is a snapshot of one database on one day, not a census of every trade business in Leeds. The all-trades figures (320 listings) are the most reliable. Per-trade samples are 35 to 44 listings, so trade-level figures are indicative. The database order is not a random sample, and which listings DataForSEO holds depends on its own crawling. Version 1 and version 2 overlap (both include some of the same listings), so they are not independent samples. Comparisons such as website versus no website show association, not cause. Individual businesses are not named, ranked or assessed.
| Trade | Google categories searched | Listings in radius (database total) | Listings sampled | Database positions sampled (blocks of 10 from) | Analysed after de-duplication and exclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbers | plumber | 301 | 50 | 0, 38, 75, 113, 140 | 44 |
| Electricians | electrician | 294 | 50 | 0, 38, 75, 113, 140 | 40 |
| Heating and gas engineers | heating_contractor, gas_engineer | 227 | 50 | 0, 38, 75, 113, 140 | 42 |
| Roofers | roofing_contractor | 228 | 50 | 0, 38, 75, 113, 140 | 42 |
| Builders | builder, general_contractor | 97 | 50 | 0, 20, 35, 49, 75 | 37 |
| Locksmiths | locksmith | 70 | 40 | 0, 20, 35, 55 | 35 |
| Landscapers and gardeners | landscaper, gardener | 208 | 50 | 0, 38, 75, 113, 140 | 41 |
| Painters and decorators | painter, painting, painter_and_decorator | 177 | 50 | 0, 38, 75, 113, 140 | 39 |
Frequently asked questions
How many Google reviews does a typical Leeds tradesperson have?
In our sample of 320 Leeds trade listings, the median was 6 Google reviews and 59.7% had fewer than 10. 20.3% had none at all.
Which Leeds trades have the fewest Google reviews?
Painters and decorators (74.4% under 10 reviews) and builders (70.3% under 10, median 1) were furthest behind. Locksmiths were furthest ahead, with a median of 29 reviews. Each trade figure rests on 35 to 44 listings, so treat these as indicative.
Does a 5-star rating help a trade stand out on Google in Leeds?
Less than you might think. Of the 129 listings with 10 or more reviews, 80.6% were rated 4.8 or higher. With ratings that close, review volume, recent reviews and a complete profile do more of the work.
How many Leeds trades have not claimed their Google Business Profile?
24.4% of the listings we analysed (78 of 320) did not show as owner-verified. Those listings had a median of 1 review, and 97.4% had fewer than 5 photos.
How was this study done?
We retrieved public Google Maps listings through DataForSEO on 27 September 2026, within 10 km of Leeds city centre, for eight trades. After removing duplicates, closed listings, national company branches and non-trade results, 320 listings were analysed. Full method and limitations are on this page.
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Unavoidable Marketing, Leeds. You are welcome to cite this study with a link to this page.