How the GBP audit score is calculated
The GBPcentral GBP audit scores a Google Business Profile from 0 to 100 across nine categories. Every weight and grade band is published here, so you can see exactly how your score is produced and what would move it.
Last reviewed June 17, 2026
The nine GBP scoring categories
The overall GBP score is a weighted sum of nine categories. The weights below are the same values the scoring engine applies, and they always add up to 100. A profile can score lower in one category and still earn a strong overall score when the rest are healthy.
Every category is scored out of 100 on its own, and the percentage beside it is the share of your overall score it carries. Eight of the nine can be scored full marks by any business that does everything the category asks for. The exception is business hours, and the reason is set out below.
Category Optimization
17%Checks that the primary category is specific rather than generic, and that the business has set relevant secondary categories.
Profile Completeness
16%Scores whether the profile has a complete name, address, phone, website, hours, and business status set on Google.
Review Volume
16%Compares the total number of Google reviews against the typical review volume for the business category.
Website & Online Presence
16%Looks at the linked website for HTTPS, load time, mobile responsiveness, matching contact information, and local-business structured data.
Review Rating
12%Scores the average star rating of reviews on the business's Google listing.
Review Sentiment & Quality
8%Scores the sentiment, recurring themes, and depth of the sample reviews Google returns for the listing. Google's Places API returns up to five reviews sorted by relevance, not recency, so all signals in this category are sample-derived and clearly labelled as such.
Attributes & Services
7%Counts the business attributes set on the profile, including payment options, accessibility, parking, and service features relevant to the category.
Business Hours Optimization
5%Checks that opening hours are published for the week, counting days marked closed and around-the-clock schedules as published, and that secondary hours for holidays or special schedules are also set.
Photos & Visual Content
3%Counts the photos that appear on the business profile.
Category weights always total 100%
Why the weights are what they are
The nine categories fall into three groups. Publishing how the score divides between them matters more than any single category number, because the split is what decides whether a Google Business Profile audit is really measuring the profile.
Your profile: 48%
Categories, completeness, attributes, hours and photos. These are the fields you control directly inside Google Business Profile, and they carry the largest share because they are what the product is named after. Your primary category holds the single heaviest weight of any category, because it is the strongest controllable signal for which searches you appear in.
Your reviews: 36%
Volume, rating and the sentiment of the reviews Google returns. Review count and average rating are read exactly as Google reports them, which makes this group one of the most reliable things the audit measures.
Your website: 16%
Whether the site loads, serves over HTTPS with a valid certificate, responds quickly, renders on mobile, matches the name, address and phone on your profile, and publishes structured data. It is weighted below the profile groups on purpose. Roughly half of these checks are technical hygiene that most sites already pass, and the audit does not read your page content, so it makes no claim about how well your pages are written or targeted.
Why some weights are deliberately small
A category earns weight by telling profiles apart. Photos carries 3% because Google returns at most ten photo references for any listing, so the audit cannot tell a profile with ten photos from one with two hundred. Weighting a measurement heavily when it cannot discriminate would move scores without reflecting anything real.
GBP Score Grade Bands
Each score maps to a letter grade and a plain-language rating. The bands are fixed, so two profiles with the same score always receive the same grade.
How the GBP audit works
The audit reads publicly available profile data and reports a point-in-time snapshot. These are the boundaries of what it measures and how current the result is.
Where the data comes from
Every signal is read from publicly available Google Business Profile data through the Google Places API, plus a one-time check of the website linked on the profile. The audit only reads data. It never signs in, never edits your profile, and leaves no trace on your listing.
Reviews are a sample
Google returns up to five reviews per listing, sorted by relevance rather than by date. The review sentiment category is based on that sample and is labelled as such in your report, so you always know which signals are sample-derived.
How fresh your score is
A report is treated as current for 24 hours, so asking again within that window returns the same measurement rather than paying Google for an identical answer. A fresh audit can be requested at any time from the report page; every fresh run creates a new report, and the business accumulates a score history you can track.
Google policy check
Alongside the nine weighted categories, every audit checks the published business name against Google's Business Profile naming guidelines: piped-on keyword lists, promotional claims like "best" or "#1", service categories appended to the brand, or a phone number or web address inside the name. The check never changes the score. The audit measures the profile as it stands and the report carries the findings as a caution, because a name issue is one of the few problems that can put a whole listing at risk rather than a few points, and we would rather a business hear that from a report that is on its side than from a suspension notice. The check is automated and deliberately conservative; where a name pattern is often legitimate, such as a chain's location descriptor, the report notes it for information only. The Excellence Award program applies its own stricter naming standard, described on the award methodology page, because an award certifies the exact name it prints.
What it does not measure
The audit scores the quality and completeness of your profile and its website. It does not measure your live position in the Google local pack for a search, which depends on the searcher's location and intent. Profile quality influences ranking, but it is not the same as a rank check.
Limits we cannot read around
Some things are invisible to any audit that reads only public data, and we would rather name them than let a score imply otherwise. Google returns at most ten photo references, so a listing showing ten may hold far more. It returns at most five reviews per listing, chosen by relevance rather than by date, so review recency, how fast reviews arrive, and whether you reply to them are all out of reach. Posts, products, services, messaging and booking activity are not exposed on the public profile. Neither are the numbers in your own dashboard, such as calls, direction requests and website clicks, or the searches people used to find you.
Those limits have one honest exit: your own authorisation. When you connect your Google Business Profile to a GBPcentral account and audit your own listing, the report adds a connected tier measured through that connection: your full review history and reply record, true post cadence, your complete photo library, real customer actions, and your listing's verification standing. The connected tier is scored separately from the public score, because the public score only ever claims what public data can see, and it is visible only to you, never on the public report.
Full marks on business hours are not open to everyone
The hours category credits published opening hours, then adds credit for additional service hours and for holiday hours. Google only offers the additional service hours field to some kinds of business, such as a restaurant setting kitchen or happy hour times. A dental practice or a law firm has no equivalent to set, so those profiles top out below full marks in this category no matter what they do. Across the listings we have audited, none has held both of those extras at once. Hours carries one of the smallest weights partly for this reason, and we would rather publish the limitation than let the number imply a target that is not available to you.
Website checks read one page
The website category loads the address published on your profile and inspects that page only. If your business name, address or phone number appears solely on a separate contact page, the consistency check will not find it there. The audit also makes no judgement about your page content, keywords or the strength of your site in search.
Reviews are read in English
Google supplies reviews translated into English alongside the customer's original wording, and the sentiment analysis reads the translation. Where that applies, your report says so on the review sentiment card, so a theme drawn from a translated review is never presented as the customer's own phrasing.
See your own GBP score
Run a free GBP audit in under a minute. No signup, no credit card. Then work through the checklist to lift each category.
Frequently asked questions
How the GBP audit score is calculated, what it measures, how to read your grade, and how the score relates to your visibility on Google.
How is the GBP audit score calculated?
The overall score is a weighted sum of nine category scores. Each category is scored from 0 to 100 on its own, then multiplied by its published weight, and the results are added to produce a single score from 0 to 100. The weights reflect how much each area affects a healthy, findable profile, and they always total 100, so no single category can dominate the result on its own.
What does the GBP audit score measure?
The score measures the quality and completeness of your Google Business Profile and the website it links to, across nine categories: profile completeness, review volume, category optimization, review rating, website and online presence, review sentiment, attributes and services, business hours, and photos. It reflects how well your profile is set up and maintained, which are the signals you can directly control. It does not measure your live position in local search results.
Is the GBP audit score an official Google score?
No. Google does not publish an official audit or health score for Business Profiles. The GBPcentral score is our own independent assessment, built from publicly observable profile data and well-established local search signals. It is a practical way to see how complete and optimized your profile is, not a number that comes from Google.
What data does the GBP audit use?
The audit reads publicly available profile data through the Google Places API and runs a one-time check of the website linked on your profile. It only reads data, so it never signs in, never edits your profile, and leaves no trace on your listing. The website signals are measured live at the time of the audit and saved with the result.
How accurate is the GBP audit score?
The scoring is deterministic, so the same profile data produces the same score every time, with no random variation. It reflects the public information available at the moment the audit runs, so it is as current as your profile and linked website were at that point. Because it reads only public data, it cannot see private dashboard insights such as call or message volume.
What is a good GBP audit score?
A score of 80 or above, which is a B+ or higher, indicates a well-optimized profile. Scores from 70 to 79 are solid but show clear room to improve, and scores below 60 usually point to gaps that are holding back your visibility. Most businesses land somewhere in the middle on their first audit and improve steadily as they close the gaps.
How do the letter grades from A+ to F map to scores?
The bands are fixed. A grades cover 85 and above (A+ at 95 to 100, A at 90 to 94, A minus at 85 to 89), B grades cover 70 to 84, C grades cover 60 to 69, D covers 50 to 59, and F is anything below 50. Two profiles with the same score always receive the same grade, since the bands never change.
What is the difference between the score and the letter grade?
The score is the precise number from 0 to 100, and the letter grade is the band that number falls into, with a plain-language label such as Excellent or Decent. The grade makes it easy to see at a glance where you stand, while the score lets you track smaller changes over time. They always agree, because the grade is derived directly from the score.
Do I need a perfect 100 score?
No. A perfect score is rarely necessary to compete well, and the last few points often come from areas with limited practical payoff. The better goal is a strong score with no weak categories dragging you down, so focus on closing real gaps rather than chasing a perfect number. A consistently healthy profile serves customers better than a perfect score on paper.
Why are the nine categories weighted differently?
Not every part of a profile influences findability and customer trust equally, so each category carries a weight that reflects its real impact. Profile completeness, review volume, and category optimization carry the most weight because they have the strongest effect on how well your profile matches searches and earns clicks. Lighter areas such as photos still matter, but they move the overall score less.
Which categories have the biggest impact on my score?
Profile completeness carries the most weight at 19 percent, followed by review volume and category optimization at 17 percent each. Review rating adds 12 percent and website and online presence adds 10 percent. Together these five areas make up most of your score, so they are the best place to start when you want to improve.
Can my profile score low in one category and still earn a good overall score?
Yes. Because the score is a weighted average, strength in the higher-weighted categories can offset a weak spot elsewhere. A profile can score lower in a lighter category such as photos and still earn a strong overall grade when completeness, categories, and reviews are healthy. That said, closing weak spots is usually the fastest way to lift the total.
Why is the primary category weighted so heavily?
Your primary category is one of the strongest signals of what your business does and which searches you are eligible to appear for, so it carries significant weight in the category optimization score. A vague or incorrect primary category limits the searches your profile can show up for, no matter how complete the rest of the profile is. Choosing the most specific category that fits your core business is one of the highest-impact changes you can make.
How does the audit score my reviews?
Reviews influence three separate categories, review volume, review rating, and review sentiment, which together account for more than a third of your overall score. Volume compares your review count against the typical range for your business category, rating scores your average stars, and sentiment looks at the themes and depth of the reviews Google returns. This spread reflects that both the quantity and the quality of reviews matter.
How does the audit score my website?
The website and online presence category, worth 10 percent, checks the site linked on your profile for a secure HTTPS connection, fast load time, mobile friendliness, contact details that match your profile, and local business structured data. A fast, consistent, mobile-friendly site supports customer trust and your local visibility. If no website is linked, the profile cannot earn the signals this category looks for.
Why does the audit use only a sample of my reviews?
The Google Places API returns up to five reviews per listing, sorted by relevance rather than by date, so the review sentiment category is based on that sample. The audit labels these signals as sample-based so you know they reflect a representative set rather than every review you have ever received. Review volume and rating still use the full counts and average that Google reports.
How often is my GBP audit score updated?
Each audit is cached for 30 days, so running the same profile again within that window returns the same report rather than spending a fresh lookup. After 30 days you can run a new audit to capture any changes you have made. This cadence matches a sensible review rhythm and keeps the score stable enough to track real progress.
Why did my GBP score change between audits?
A score changes when the underlying profile changes, for example when you add photos, earn reviews, correct your category, or complete missing fields. It can also shift when the website you link changes, since those signals are measured fresh each time a new audit runs. Occasionally we refine the scoring engine itself, and when that happens the change is applied consistently to every profile.
Can I use the GBP audit score to track progress over time?
Yes. Because the scoring is deterministic and the categories and weights are fixed, scores from different dates are directly comparable. Running a fresh audit after you make improvements shows whether your changes moved the number and which categories still need work. This makes the score a practical way to measure progress between reviews.
Does my GBP audit score affect my Google ranking?
Not directly. Google ranks local results on relevance, distance, and prominence, and improving your profile strengthens the relevance and prominence signals you can control, which can help your visibility. The audit score is not a ranking, though, and a higher score does not guarantee a higher position, because ranking also depends on factors outside your profile such as how close the searcher is to your business.
What does the GBP audit not measure?
The audit scores the quality and completeness of your profile and its linked website. It does not measure your live position in the Google local pack for a given search, your proximity to an individual searcher, or private performance data such as call and message volume from the Google dashboard. Profile quality influences ranking, but it is a different thing from a live rank check.
How is the score different from a simple profile completeness percentage?
A completeness percentage only checks whether fields are filled in. The GBPcentral score goes further by weighting nine categories, including the quality of your reviews, the health of your linked website, and how your review volume compares to others in your category. Two profiles that are both fully filled in can earn very different scores, because the audit measures quality and competitiveness, not just whether a field has content.