State of the Trinity · July 2026
We Audited 180 Local Businesses Already Ranking on Google Maps. The Average One Passed 8.39 of 12 Checks.
180 top-20 Maps businesses across 6 trades and 5 metros, run through the same 12-check Trinity auditwe run on every business we take on. These aren't struggling businesses — they're the ones winning right now. Here's what they still get wrong.
8.39
mean Trinity Score (of 12)
9
median score
16%
scored under 7 of 12
What the audit found
- 1.16.0% of the 175 local service businesses we audited scored below 7 of 12 on the Trinity audit — the same threshold that qualifies a business for a full website rebuild.
- 2.The average business passed just 8.39 of the 12 checks Google and AI search tools use to decide who shows up (median 9).
- 3.49.7% have no usable schema markup at all — meaning ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok literally can't read who they are or what they do.
- 4.1.1% have a name, address, or phone number on their website that doesn't match their Google Business Profile — a mismatch Google treats as a trust problem.
- 5.42.9% are missing a city-and-category-optimized meta description, the one-line pitch Google shows searchers.
- 6.Barbers scored worst of the trades we audited (mean 6.34/12); dentists scored best (mean 9.55/12).
- 7.0.6% of businesses passed 3 or fewer of the 12 checks — effectively invisible to AI-driven local search.
- 8.Only 30.9% passed 10 or more checks — the top tier that Google and AI tools can fully read, verify, and recommend.
Fail rate by check — all 175 scored businesses
Percent of ranking businesses that fail each check. Orange = the majority-fail zone.
Mobile page speed (check #12) was not measured in this study — scores are out of 12 with the speed check never failing. n = 175.
Where the scores land
Trinity Score = checks passed, 0–12. Under 7 is the threshold that qualifies a business for a full rebuild — 28 of 175 ranking businesses (16%) landed there.
0–3 of 12
1
businesses · 0.6%
4–6 of 12
27
businesses · 15.4%
7–9 of 12
93
businesses · 53.1%
10–12 of 12
54
businesses · 30.9%
Benchmarks by trade
Worst-scoring trade first. Click a trade for its full breakdown — every fail rate, the three biggest holes, and what they mean for your business.
| Trade | Scored | Mean (of 12) | Score under 7 | Most-failed checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barber » | 29 | 6.34 | 62.1% | Map embed (96.6%) · H1 (89.7%) · Schema (86.2%) |
| Plumber » | 29 | 8.48 | 10.3% | Footer hours (79.3%) · H1 (72.4%) · Map embed (65.5%) |
| Roofer » | 29 | 8.52 | 3.4% | Footer hours (82.8%) · Schema (75.9%) · Map embed (69%) |
| Electrician » | 30 | 8.60 | 16.7% | Map embed (86.7%) · Footer hours (73.3%) · H1 (53.3%) |
| HVAC » | 29 | 8.86 | 3.4% | Footer hours (79.3%) · Map embed (75.9%) · H1 (62.1%) |
| Dentist » | 29 | 9.55 | 0% | H1 (58.6%) · Footer hours (48.3%) · Map embed (44.8%) |
How we ran the study
180
businesses audited
6 trades
barber, dentist, electrician, HVAC, plumber, roofer
5 metros
Las Vegas, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Tampa
12 checks
the same Trinity engine we run on real leads
In July 2026 we pulled the businesses already ranking in the Google Maps top 20for 6 trades across 5 metros — 6 businesses per trade-city combination, 30 combinations, 180 targets. Only businesses with a live website were audited; 5 audits couldn't be completed (audit errors or blocked requests — not necessarily the site's fault), leaving 175 scored.
Every site went through the same 12-check Trinity audit enginewe run on real prospects — schema, meta description, H1, heading structure, map embed, footer hours, and the rest — scored with each business's city, trade, and Google Business Profile name. One exception: the mobile page-speed check (check #12) was not measured, so every score here is out of 12 with the speed check never failing. Real-world scores would be equal or lower.
We publish aggregates only. No individual business is named or identifiable anywhere in this study.
| Metro | Scored | Mean Trinity Score (of 12) |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas TX | 35 | 8.60 |
| Denver CO | 34 | 8.65 |
| Las Vegas NV | 36 | 8.17 |
| Phoenix AZ | 36 | 8.56 |
| Tampa FL | 34 | 8.00 |
These are the businesses already ranking. See how yours scores.
Every business in this study is already in the Maps top 20 — and the average one still fails 3–4 of the 12 checks Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok read. Your competitors' numbers are on this page. Yours take 30 seconds — free.