DFW HVAC Google Business Profile (Study)

Original Research

DFW HVAC Google Business Profile Study:
What 100 Map Pack Listings Reveal About Local Visibility

We analyzed the top 10 Google Business Profile listings returned by “ac repair [city]” searches across 10 Dallas–Fort Worth cities — examining what it takes to appear in the map pack, what separates top-3 performers from the rest, and how factors like category selection, address proximity, and review volume interact with visibility. Business names and addresses are withheld; all findings are reported at the city or market level.

100 GBP listings analyzed 10 DFW cities 10 listings per city, rank order Search query: “ac repair [city]” Haversine distance calculations

100

Listings Analyzed
Across 10 Cities

780

Overall Average
Review Count

Lowest Reviews
in a Top-3 Slot

2,411

Most Reviews
Outside Top 3

Top-3 Listings
Under 100 Reviews

26%

Ranks 4–10
Under 100 Reviews

Reviews: High Volume Doesn’t Guarantee Top Placement

The relationship between review count and rank position is not linear — and the floor for top-3 viability is lower than most contractors expect

Review count and rank position have a messy, non-linear relationship across this dataset. In Irving, a listing with 1,828 reviews sits at #8. In Grand Prairie, one with 2,142 reviews ranks #9. In Denton, a listing with 2,411 reviews — the highest count of any listing outside a top-3 position in the entire study — ranks #10. Meanwhile, listings with 65, 138, and 144 reviews hold top-3 positions in their respective cities.

↑ Top-3 Rank, Low Review Count

Listings that cracked the top 3 with fewer than 200 reviews

Grand Prairie #3

No UTM, in-city address, AC contractor

65 reviews

Frisco #3

UTM-tracked, 0.25 mi from centroid

138 reviews

Arlington #1

UTM-tracked, HVAC contractor

144 reviews

Dallas #2

No UTM, AC repair service category

146 reviews

Arlington #3

No UTM, 0.36 mi from centroid

175 reviews

↓ Low Rank, High Review Count

Listings with 1,000+ reviews outside the top 7

Irving #8

UTM-tracked, AC contractor category

1,828 reviews

Frisco #9

UTM-tracked, 6.5 mi from centroid

1,199 reviews

Grand Prairie #9

UTM-tracked, HVAC contractor

2,142 reviews

Denton #10

UTM-tracked, Heating contractor

2,411 reviews

Review Bracket	Rank #1–3	Rank #4–6	Rank #7–10	Total	Pattern
Under 100	2	7	11	20	Concentrated in lower ranks — but not absent from top 3
100 – 249	5	9	6	20	Meaningful top-3 presence; competitive across all positions
250 – 499	8	5	6	19	Slight top-3 lean; viable in any rank tier
500 – 999	5	2	8	15	Unusual distribution — more at extremes than mid-table
1,000 – 2,000	6	5	6	17	Nearly uniform across all positions — high reviews don’t consolidate to top
2,000+	4	2	3	9	Slight top-3 lean — but 5 of 9 still appear outside the top 3
Total	30	30	40	100	No review bracket is concentrated exclusively in any rank tier

The practical threshold: Getting to 100+ reviews appears to be the most meaningful floor — sub-100 listings account for 26% of ranks 4–10 but only 7% of top-3 positions. Beyond that floor, additional review volume doesn’t mechanically move listings up the rankings. The contractors accumulating 2,000+ reviews aren’t doing it to rank higher — they’re doing it because they have more customers, longer operating histories, and better follow-up systems. Rank position may be one downstream benefit of that, but it’s not a guaranteed result.

Category Selection: Query Alignment Matters

“Air conditioning repair service” placed more listings in the top 3 than any other category — likely because of how it aligns with the “ac repair” search query

Because this data was collected specifically from “ac repair [city]” searches, the category breakdown reveals a meaningful pattern about query-to-category alignment. “Air conditioning repair service” placed 13 listings in the top 3 — the most of any category — at a 45% placement rate. “HVAC contractor,” the most common category in the dataset (40 listings), placed only 6 in the top 3 for a 15% rate. That inversion is worth examining carefully.

Primary Category	Total Listings	In Top 3	Placement Rate	Avg Rank	Avg Dist (mi)
Air conditioning repair service	29	13	45%	4.31	3.5
Air conditioning contractor	23	8	35%	5.57	2.8
Heating contractor	3	1	33%	5.67	1.5
Furnace repair service	3	1	33%	6.33	3.3
Heating equipment supplier	1	1	100%	2.00	1.2
HVAC contractor	40	6	15%	6.22	2.2
Air conditioning store	1	0	0%	10.00	0.7

Important context on the category finding: Because these results came from “ac repair [city]” searches specifically, “air conditioning repair service” may be receiving a query-relevance boost in Google’s ranking logic. This does not mean it will outperform “HVAC contractor” for heating queries or broader seasonal searches. What the data does suggest is that category-query alignment is a real factor — and that full-service operators may want to evaluate which primary category best represents the mix of searches they most need to appear in. Neither category is universally superior; the right choice depends on the business’s primary revenue mix and which query types matter most. For a full walkthrough of GBP category selection and profile optimization, see our HVAC Google Business Profile guide.

Address Proximity: Matters at the Extremes, Not in the Middle

The average distance from city center is nearly identical for top-3 and ranks 4–10 — but listings with truly out-of-area addresses face real limits

Top 3 — Avg Profile

Avg distance from centroid2.73 mi

Median distance from centroid1.79 mi

Within 5 mi of centroid87%

Has physical address100%

Avg reviews1,047

Ranks 4–10 — Avg Profile

Avg distance from centroid2.71 mi

Median distance from centroid1.69 mi

Within 5 mi of centroid82%

Has physical address96%

Avg reviews665

The gap is nearly nonexistent within a normal range: Average and median distance from city center differ by fractions of a mile between the top-3 and lower ranks. The 5-percentage-point difference in “within 5 mi” rates (87% vs. 82%) is too small to treat as significant. What the data does show is that no out-of-city registered address cracked the top 3 — suggesting that proximity functions more as a floor requirement than a gradient ranking factor. Once a business is reasonably within the market area, address location doesn’t appear to be a differentiating advantage.

Per-listing distance from city centroid, by rank position. Seven listings appear with addresses registered in a different city than the search — none reach top-3.

Green = under 3 mi Yellow = 3–8 mi Red = 8+ mi SAB = no address

City	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9	#10	Avg
Dallas	10.5	2.8	3.2	12.7	2.2	7.3	14.6	7.3	4.5	12.3	8.1
Fort Worth	7.8	4.4	9.5	0.0	13.9	6.6	2.3	14.1	6.3	3.3	6.8
Arlington	2.6	2.8	0.4	2.6	0.4	2.2	5.3	2.5	2.0	0.4	2.1
Plano	1.7	1.2	4.6	4.6	1.7	1.7	1.2	1.7	1.7	1.7	2.2
Irving	3.5	3.5	4.6	0.0	1.2	0.0	1.5	0.0	0.0	0.6	1.5
Garland	1.1	13.3	0.3	0.7	1.8	1.1	0.7	0.3	1.8	0.7	2.2
Frisco	1.8	0.0	0.3	SAB	6.5	SAB	SAB	0.3	6.5	0.0	2.2*
McKinney	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.1	0.0	2.1	2.1	0.0	0.6
Grand Prairie	0.0	0.5	0.0	1.7	3.9	1.6	1.6	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.9
Denton	0.0	0.0	1.8	0.8	1.8	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.1	0.0	0.7
Cross-city avg	3.1	2.8	2.5	2.5	3.7	2.2	3.1	4.6	2.6	1.9	—

* Frisco avg excludes 3 SAB listings with no registered address. Dallas and Fort Worth higher averages reflect legitimate out-of-area registrations (Carrollton TX; North Tarrant suburban corridor) that still rank in the map pack for those city searches.

UTM Tracking: Proxy for Marketing Maturity, Not a Ranking Signal

Top-3 and ranks 4–10 have nearly the same UTM adoption rate — 47% vs. 40%

Top-3 listings
(n=30)

47% have UTM tracking

Ranks 4–10
(n=70)

40% have UTM tracking

The 7-point gap is not large enough to treat as a meaningful signal. Notably, all four of the high-review, low-rank cases identified earlier carry UTM parameters — including the Denton listing with 2,411 reviews ranking #10. If UTM were a direct ranking factor, those listings should be considerably higher.

What UTM tracking actually signals: Businesses using UTM parameters in their GBP website URL are actively measuring the traffic their listing sends. That typically means someone — an agency, a marketing manager, or an internal system — is paying attention to their digital presence. Those same businesses tend to have better review request workflows, faster review responses, more complete profile data, and more consistent information across directories. The UTM itself doesn’t produce better rankings; it’s a visible marker of the surrounding marketing infrastructure that does.

City-by-City Review Landscape

What the actual review floor looks like for top-3 positions in each market

City	City Avg	Top-3 Avg	Top-3 Floor	Field Minimum	Market Notes
Irving	897	2,211	1,209	36	Most demanding top-3 floor in the study — all three exceed 1,200 reviews
McKinney	996	1,922	410	33	Strong field; deep pool of established local operators across all ranks
Frisco	960	1,907	138	30	3 SABs rank without addresses; fast-growth suburb, competitive but enterable
Fort Worth	912	1,094	457	141	Geographically spread market; addresses span a wide corridor from downtown to outer suburbs
Garland	1,093	401	5	5	One outlier listing (5,944 reviews) inflates city avg; top-3 avg misleadingly low
Denton	680	749	327	38	Moderate competition; multi-service operators (plumbing, heating) lead
Grand Prairie	582	993	65	17	Accessible top-3; one listing enters with just 65 reviews
Plano	535	753	323	87	Most fragmented mid-tier field; no single dominant operator
Arlington	671	210	144	89	Lowest top-3 avg in the study; high-review operators rank mid-pack, not at top
Dallas	472	230	146	146	Every listing in the top 10 has at least 146 reviews — highest floor of any city in the study
All cities	780	1,047	65	5	Top-3 avg is 58% higher than overall avg, but the floor is just 65 reviews

Profile Completeness: Baseline Requirements

What every top-3 listing has — and what the exceptions at lower ranks reveal

100%

Top-3 Listings Have a Physical Address

Every listing in a top-3 position has a physical address on file. The 3 service area businesses (SABs) with no address all rank in positions 4–9. No SAB-style listing without an address appeared in the top 3 across any of the 10 cities.

Listings With No Website

Five listings carry no website URL: two in Grand Prairie (ranks #6 and #10), one each in Irving (#6), McKinney (#7), and Denton (#5). The McKinney listing at #7 has 1,080 reviews — demonstrating that a well-established local brand with a deep review history can sustain map pack presence without a website, though it faces a ceiling.

Service Area Businesses in the Pack

Three listings have no registered address — all in Frisco. One carries 1,692 reviews and ranks #7. SABs can appear and accumulate strong review histories, but appear constrained in reaching the top 3 — likely because Google’s proximity calculation requires a physical address anchor.

Out-of-City Registered Addresses

Seven listings have registered addresses outside the search city: four in Dallas (including a Carrollton address at rank #7), two in Fort Worth (North Tarrant suburbs), and one in Garland physically located in Allen TX, 13+ miles away. That Allen listing has just 5 reviews — the lowest in the study. Out-of-area listings can rank, but none appear in top-3 positions.

Methodology

This research was conducted by HVAC Webmasters. Data was collected from Google Maps search results for the query “ac repair [city]” across 10 Dallas–Fort Worth cities: Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Irving, Garland, Frisco, McKinney, Grand Prairie, and Denton. The top 10 organic map pack listings per city were recorded in rank order, yielding 100 total listings.

Variables captured include: registered address (where visible), primary GBP category, website URL presence, UTM parameter usage in the GBP website field, and review count at time of capture. Addresses were geocoded and distances calculated using the Haversine formula against published geographic centroids for each city. Service area businesses with no listed address are noted as SAB and excluded from distance calculations.

Business names and addresses are withheld in this published analysis. All findings are reported at the city or market level. This is an observational dataset — correlation findings should not be interpreted as causal claims. Review counts, category selections, and address registrations interact with Google’s local ranking algorithm in ways this study cannot fully disentangle. All searches used the “ac repair” query specifically, which affects category relevance weighting and may not generalize to other query types.