Tree services on Google: the 2026 benchmark report
Reviews, ratings, websites and hours for 87,219 tree service companies, computed from public Google Business Profile listings across 51 states.
Reviews
| Review count | Value |
|---|---|
| Median | 17 |
| Average (mean) | 101.2 |
| 25th percentile | 3 |
| 75th percentile | 64 |
| 90th percentile | 196 |
Share of tree service companies by review count:
| Bucket | Share of listings |
|---|---|
| 0 reviews | 12.6% |
| Under 10 | 39.1% |
| Under 25 | 57.1% |
| 100 or more | 18.1% |
| 500 or more | 3.9% |
Ratings
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Average rating | 4.63 |
| Rated 5.0 | 41.1% |
| Rated 4.5 or higher | 77.2% |
| Rated under 4.0 | 9.4% |
| No rating yet | 8.2% |
Websites
| Website status | Share |
|---|---|
| Website listed | 74.5% |
| No website listed | 25.5% |
| Own domain | 71% |
| Social profile only | 2.7% |
| Free or DIY builder | 0.8% |
Median review count for tree service companies with a website: 27. Without one: 4.
Profile completeness and hours
| Profile field | Share |
|---|---|
| Has a profile photo | 96% |
| Public email on profile | 19.9% |
| Open 24 hours | 14.6% |
| Open Saturday | 39.6% |
| Open Sunday | 25.7% |
| No hours listed | 41.5% |
Where the listings are
| State | Listings |
|---|---|
| CA | 3,175 |
| FL | 2,878 |
| TX | 2,818 |
| OH | 2,510 |
| PA | 2,304 |
| MI | 2,147 |
| MA | 2,118 |
| NC | 1,954 |
| WA | 1,948 |
| GA | 1,947 |
| NJ | 1,899 |
| VA | 1,888 |
Primary categories
| Google category | Listings |
|---|---|
| Tree service | 43,760 |
| Landscaper | 9,791 |
| Lawn care service | 5,609 |
| Landscape designer | 1,589 |
| Garden center | 998 |
| Arborist service | 918 |
| Plant nursery | 753 |
| Excavating contractor | 735 |
Read the percentiles, not the average
The number that matters most in this report is 17. That is the median review count for a tree service on Google, and it means half the trade sits at or below it. The mean is 101.2, which is a useless figure here: it is dragged upward by a few large multi-crew operations with thousands of reviews. Ignore it.
The spread underneath is steep. The 25th percentile is 3 reviews. The 75th is 64. The 90th is 196. 12.6% of tree companies have no reviews at all and 57.1% have fewer than 25, while 3.9% have passed 500. Google's map pack shows three businesses. In any metro worth working, the three that win it are living up near 196, not near the median. Set your target off the top decile.
There is a structural reason the median sits so low in this trade. A homeowner calls a tree company once every several years, not several times a season, so there are fewer chances to ask. That is exactly why an asking process on every job compounds here: your competitors are not asking either.
Ratings are table stakes, not a differentiator
The average rating is 4.6 stars, 77.2% of tree services are at 4.5 or better, and 41.1% show a perfect 5.0. A 4.9 does not distinguish you. Most perfect scores belong to companies with a handful of reviews, and homeowners read them that way. A company at 4.7 with 240 reviews outsells a 5.0 with 11.
The one place the star number decides things is the floor. 9.4% of tree companies sit below 4.0, and below 4.0 a homeowner about to hand you a $3,000 removal next to their roof simply moves on. Another 8.2% carry no rating at all, which reads to a cautious buyer as no track record.
The website gap is the widest opening in the trade
25.5% of tree services list no website on their Google profile. The median review count for a company with a site is 27. For a company without one it is 4. That is close to a seven-to-one difference.
We are not claiming the website produces the reviews. Companies that run the business seriously tend to do both. But it makes the missing site the clearest marker of a competitor who will not fight you for the map pack, and the clearest thing to fix if it is yours. It matters more here than in low-ticket trades because the decision is larger and slower. Someone spending $2,500 checks whether you are a real company with an address, a certification and proof of insurance, and a bare Google listing shows them none of that.
Hours, photos and the category problem
41.5% of tree services list no hours at all and only 14.6% show as open 24 hours, which is a miss in a trade where storm calls arrive at 11 p.m. and go to whoever appears reachable. 39.6% list Saturday hours, 25.7% list Sunday. 96% have at least one photo, so having none puts you in the bottom few percent of the entire trade. Only 19.9% publish an email address, which is worth knowing if you want property managers and HOA boards to reach you without a phone call.
Category is its own leak. A large share of these listings are filed under landscaper, lawn care service or landscape designer rather than tree service or arborist service. If yours is one of them, you are competing for the wrong searches all year.
What to do with this
- Pull your own three numbers first: review count, star rating, and whether a website is linked on your profile.
- Place yourself honestly. Below 17 is the bottom half. Below 64 is the bottom three quarters. 196 and up is where the map-pack winners sit.
- If you are in the 25.5% with no site, fix that before anything else. Five pages, tap-to-call, your ISA certification number and insurance limits stated plainly.
- Set your primary category to tree service and add arborist service, then list removal, trimming and pruning, stump grinding, emergency and storm work, and cabling as separate services.
- Start one review ask per completed job, at the truck, before you pull away. Twelve jobs a week at even a 40% conversion clears the 75th percentile of 64 within a year. The reviews guide has the scripts.
- Put real hours up, note whether you take after-hours storm calls, and turn on missed-call text-back. The calculator shows what the gap costs at your ticket size.
- Only then buy ads. Traffic sent to a profile with 6 reviews and no website funds your competitor's learning.
Method
This report aggregates 87,219 public Google Business Profile listings collected from Google Maps searches for tree service companies across every US state, deduplicated by place. Review counts and ratings are as displayed on the listing at collection time. "Website listed" means the profile links to any URL; we classify the URL as an owned domain, a social profile, or a free site builder by hostname. Figures are refreshed monthly. Cite this page as: Tree Company Playbook, "Tree service companies on Google benchmark report", 2026.