What is a good Google rating for your line of work?
Above the middle of your own line of work in your own county, and that middle is higher than the four stars a national guide calls healthy. Across the lines of work we measured in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn in September 2026, the median listing is rated between 3.8 and 5.0, and in all but 2 of the 38 readings it is 4.5 or better. The exceptions are the ones worth knowing: Queens electricians at 3.8, and restaurants, where the median across 382 Nassau listings is 4.4. A customer is not comparing you to a national average. She is comparing you to the businesses on the same screen, so the number that matters is the median for your line of work in your county, how many of your neighbours sit at 4.5 or better, and whether your own score rests on ten reviews or a hundred.
By Busy Season Local, updated
Where the bar actually sits
Four counties, one instrument, September 2026. Each figure is businesses sitting on one side of a line, not an average.
Queens electricians are rated below four stars, and the median for the borough is 3.8. This is the one place we read where a rating in the low fours puts you above the middle of your line of work.
Nassau contractors show a perfect five on fewer than ten reviews. The median for the trade is 5.0, so a five is not a distinction there. It is the starting position, and on six reviews it reads as untested.
Nassau salons and barbershops sit at 4.5 or better. A rating in the low fours in that category is not a good rating. It sits below roughly four in every five neighbours on the same screen.
Brooklyn repair shops are rated below 4.5. Auto repair runs a lower bar than plumbing in every county we read: medians of 4.7 in Nassau, 4.8 in Suffolk, 4.6 in Queens and 4.5 in Brooklyn, so a 4.5 there means something it does not mean for a plumber.
Source: the September 2026 sweeps across Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn, 5387 businesses in total, plus the September 20th Nassau restaurant and dentist sweeps, each read once with the same instrument. A rating is the figure Google displayed for the listing on the day of the sweep; the sweep cannot see how many reviews sit under it, which is why the review count has its own page. All four counties were read on 20 September.
Why four stars is the wrong line
The middle is your line, not a national average
Guides that call a low four a healthy rating are averaging every kind of business across the whole country, and restaurants drag that average down hard. We measured both ends of it in the same county in the same month: the median Nassau restaurant is rated 4.4 and the median Nassau dentist 4.9. Your customer is looking at three plumbers in one town. If their medians sit at 4.8 and yours is in the low fours, you are the one she skips, and no national figure changes that.
A perfect five on ten reviews is a different claim from a 4.8 on ninety
For contractors and roofers, the median is a flat 5.0 in every county we read, which means a five is the crowd and not the standout. What separates businesses inside that crowd is the count under the score. A five resting on six reviews reads as untested. A 4.8 on ninety reads as a business that has been through a bad week and is still standing.
Your county moves the bar as much as your line of work does
Electricians are the clearest case. The median is 4.7 in Nassau, 4.9 in Suffolk, 4.7 in Brooklyn and 3.8 in Queens, where 55 of 107 listings sit below four stars. The same 4.6 is a strong rating on one side of the county line and a weak one on the other.
Check yours in about thirty seconds
Search your line of work and your town on a phone and read the ratings on the three businesses above you. That is your real bar, not a number from a guide.
Find your line of work in the county table below. If you are under the median, the rating is the problem. If you are over it, it is not, and the next things to look at are hours, category and photos.
Count the reviews under your score. A five on fewer than ten reads as untested, whatever the number says.
See what a customer meets at your web address
Text us the address from your own phone. A person opens it on a phone, the way your customers do, and texts back what is in the way. Or check your Google listing right here, read live.
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Rather talk? Call (917) 397-0493
What the picture looks like trade by trade
Plumbers
13 publish no hours at all, in a trade people search at midnight.
HVAC
6 send callers to a website link that will not load.
Electricians
8 reviews is the middle of this trade, and 20 have none of their hours on Google.
Roofers
Every one of them publishes its hours. 64 have under twenty five reviews.
Auto repair
A median of 107 reviews, the most of nine trades, and 47 percent still missing from their own town's list.
Landscapers
37 of 81 never appear in the first sixty for their own town.
Contractors
56 hold a perfect five on fewer than ten reviews, which reads as no evidence.
Salons
265 salons across eight towns, and 98 are under fifty reviews.
Med spas
On a listing customers choose by looking, 45 carry fewer than ten photos.
Restaurants
465 reviews is the middle of this category and the median rating is 4.4, the lowest of any Nassau line of work measured.
Dentists
116 of 326 sit on a flat five, and 177 show fewer than ten photos.
The median rating, line of work by line of work, county by county
Every row below is the median rating Google showed for that trade in that county in September 2026, then how many listings sit at 4.5 or better out of the listings read. Read the same way in all four counties, on 20 September.
Plumbing
Median: Nassau 4.8, Suffolk 4.7, Queens 4.8, Brooklyn 4.9. At 4.5 or better: 61 of 86 in Nassau, 37 of 57 in Suffolk, 62 of 92 in Queens, 86 of 108 in Brooklyn.
Heating and cooling
Median: Nassau 4.8, Suffolk 4.7, Queens 4.9, Brooklyn 4.9. At 4.5 or better: 57 of 83 in Nassau, 41 of 56 in Suffolk, 68 of 90 in Queens, 88 of 118 in Brooklyn.
Electrical
Median: Nassau 4.7, Suffolk 4.9, Queens 3.8, Brooklyn 4.7. At 4.5 or better: 40 of 72 in Nassau, 51 of 61 in Suffolk, 45 of 107 in Queens, 63 of 115 in Brooklyn.
Roofing
Median: Nassau 5.0, Suffolk 5.0, Queens 5.0, Brooklyn 5.0. At 4.5 or better: 91 of 112 in Nassau, 99 of 112 in Suffolk, 87 of 98 in Queens, 109 of 121 in Brooklyn.
Landscaping
Median: Nassau 4.8, Suffolk 4.9, Queens 4.5, Brooklyn 4.9. At 4.5 or better: 61 of 81 in Nassau, 65 of 85 in Suffolk, 17 of 32 in Queens, 38 of 62 in Brooklyn.
General contracting
Median: Nassau 5.0, Suffolk 5.0, Queens 5.0, Brooklyn 5.0. At 4.5 or better: 170 of 199 in Nassau, 150 of 163 in Suffolk, 149 of 162 in Queens, 151 of 159 in Brooklyn.
Auto repair
Median: Nassau 4.7, Suffolk 4.8, Queens 4.6, Brooklyn 4.5. At 4.5 or better: 151 of 220 in Nassau, 146 of 189 in Suffolk, 65 of 99 in Queens, 69 of 117 in Brooklyn.
Salons and barbershops
Median: Nassau 4.8, Suffolk 4.9, Queens 4.7, Brooklyn 4.8. At 4.5 or better: 220 of 265 in Nassau, 171 of 197 in Suffolk, 151 of 185 in Queens, 190 of 218 in Brooklyn.
Med spas
Median: Nassau 4.9, Suffolk 5.0, Queens 4.9, Brooklyn 4.8. At 4.5 or better: 134 of 153 in Nassau, 69 of 77 in Suffolk, 131 of 146 in Queens, 120 of 153 in Brooklyn.
Restaurants and dentists, Nassau only
Median: restaurants 4.4 across 382 listings, dentists 4.9 across 326. At 4.5 or better: 163 restaurants and 269 dentists. These two sit far apart, which is why a rating quoted without its line of work says almost nothing.
Common questions
- Is 4.5 a good Google rating?
- It depends on the screen you appear on. For auto repair in Brooklyn, where the median is 4.5, a 4.5 is the middle of the trade. For roofers, where the median is 5.0 in every county we read, a 4.5 sits below at least three in every four competitors. Find your line of work in the table above; the answer is the number beside your county.
- What is a good Google rating for a restaurant?
- Above 4.4, which is the median across the 382 restaurants Google returns in eight Nassau towns. That is the lowest median of the eleven Nassau lines of work we have measured, and it is not a sign the food is worse. A restaurant collects a rating from everyone who walks in, on a bad night as well as a good one, while a roofer collects one from the customers who chose to write. So 219 of the 382 sit below 4.5 and only 18 sit below 4.0: the whole category is packed between four and four and a half, and two tenths is the distance between you and the place next door.
- What is a good Google rating for a dentist?
- Higher than most people expect. The median across the 326 Nassau dentists we measured is 4.9, and 116 of them sit on a flat five, so a 4.6 that would look strong in any trade reads as below average here. What actually separates practices is the count under the stars and the photos, because 19 of those perfect fives rest on fewer than ten reviews.
- Is a 5.0 better than a 4.8?
- Only if it rests on more reviews. A five on six reviews is a business nobody has stress tested, and a homeowner reads it that way without being able to say why. A 4.8 on ninety is evidence. In Nassau, 56 of 199 contractors are a perfect five on fewer than ten reviews, and that is the position to get out of first.
- Does my rating decide whether I show up on Google Maps?
- Far less than owners assume. When we counted the Nassau businesses missing from the first sixty results for their own town, they were not the badly rated ones; most were rated 4.5 or better. What separates the ones who appear is duller: the right primary category, hours, a website link that loads, photos on the listing, and a profile that is filled in. The rating decides whether you get picked once you appear. The full reading is on the page about not showing up on Google Maps.
- What is the average Google rating on Long Island?
- We do not publish an average, because an average across trades is not a number anyone competes against. The medians by trade and county are in the table above; across them the middle sits between 3.8 and 5.0. Yours is compared to one of those cells and to nothing else.
What to do about it
Reviews that win the pick
The asking system that moves a rating honestly, and why we will not write a review for you or buy one.
How many reviews you actually need
Ten first, then the middle of your own category, which runs from 1 in Queens to 30 in Suffolk for electricians.
How many photos should the listing have
The other number a customer reads before the rating, and how much of your line of work sits under ten.
Restaurant marketing, measured
Why the lowest median rating we have measured is not a sign of worse food, and what moves it.
Dental marketing, measured
The other end: 116 of 326 on a flat five, and the photos nobody has.
See your rating beside your county's median
Free, usually the same day. Send your business name and town, and the reply shows your rating and review count against the three businesses above you and against the trade median in your county.
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