A statewide audit of 11,534 Google Business Profiles across 18 SC counties — scoring each on GBP completeness, AI search readiness, and overall digital presence.
GBP grades skew A/B — most businesses have reasonably complete profiles. AI readiness tells a different story: no business earned an A, and nearly one-third score D or F.
Toggle between metrics. Click any column header in the table to re-sort.
| # | County | Digital Presence | GBP Score | AI Readiness | Profiles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greenville | 67.6 | 83.8 | 59.7 | 1,362 |
| 2 | Charleston | 67.3 | 83.5 | 59.3 | 1,293 |
| 3 | Horry | 66.6 | 83.2 | 58.8 | 823 |
| 4 | Lexington | 66.0 | 82.1 | 57.8 | 852 |
| 5 | York | 65.7 | 81.8 | 56.8 | 754 |
| 6 | Richland | 65.0 | 81.0 | 56.2 | 1,205 |
| 7 | Anderson | 65.0 | 81.0 | 56.1 | 415 |
| 8 | Dorchester | 65.0 | 80.8 | 56.2 | 432 |
| 9 | Berkeley | 64.9 | 80.5 | 56.1 | 815 |
| 10 | Spartanburg | 64.7 | 80.7 | 55.9 | 801 |
| 11 | Beaufort | 63.7 | 79.5 | 54.3 | 413 |
| 12 | Aiken | 63.2 | 78.8 | 54.5 | 439 |
| 13 | Greenwood | 63.1 | 78.1 | 54.2 | 302 |
| 14 | Florence | 62.9 | 78.8 | 53.0 | 414 |
| 15 | Pickens | 60.8 | 76.0 | 50.8 | 290 |
| 16 | Laurens | 57.8 | 72.3 | 46.8 | 301 |
| 17 | Orangeburg | 57.3 | 71.8 | 45.7 | 305 |
| 18 | Sumter | 56.0 | 70.0 | 43.9 | 318 |
| # | Category | AI Readiness | GBP Score | Profiles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roofing Contractor | 62.9 | 83.4 | 555 |
| 2 | Urgent Care | 61.8 | 80.0 | 508 |
| 3 | Gym | 61.7 | 84.2 | 557 |
| 4 | Dentist | 61.6 | 86.2 | 884 |
| 5 | Plumber | 61.1 | 83.7 | 353 |
| 6 | Moving Company | 59.7 | 86.4 | 154 |
| 7 | Hair Salon | 58.9 | 81.3 | 756 |
| 8 | Caterer | 58.9 | 80.6 | 246 |
| 9 | Auto Repair | 57.7 | 82.2 | 806 |
| 10 | Car Dealership | 57.6 | 82.2 | 1,130 |
| # | Category | AI Readiness | GBP Score | Profiles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pediatrician | 45.7 | 70.5 | 1,065 |
| 2 | General Contractor | 49.7 | 76.2 | 451 |
| 3 | Cleaning Service | 50.6 | 81.8 | 130 |
| 4 | Pest Control | 50.7 | 83.3 | 280 |
| 5 | Attorney | 52.0 | 78.7 | 1,074 |
Search by business name, county, or category. Sorted by AI gap — largest first.
| Business | County | Category | GBP | AI Readiness | Gap |
|---|
Measures how complete and competitive a Google Business Profile is as a traditional search listing. Four components are weighted and summed:
| Component | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Trust | 35% | Star rating, review volume, sentiment |
| Conversion | 30% | Website, phone, hours, price level |
| Completeness | 25% | Name, address, categories, rating present |
| Engagement | 10% | Review count >5, owner responses |
Measures how well a profile is structured for AI-driven search. Seven signals scored:
| Signal | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Structured Data | 25% | Hours, price level, multiple categories |
| Trust Signals | 20% | Rating quality + review volume |
| Entity Clarity | 20% | Editorial summary, website presence |
| Freshness | 15% | Review recency, review count >20 |
| Visual Content | 10% | Photos present, photo count >4 |
| Response Engagement | 5% | Owner responses to reviews |
| Accessibility | 5% | Wheelchair accessible entrance listed |
| Dimension | Weight |
|---|---|
| GBP Score | 40% |
| AI Readiness | 30% |
| Mobile Readiness | 20% |
| Social Presence | 10% |
| Grade | Score Range | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| A | 85–100 | Highly optimized |
| B | 70–84 | Above average |
| C | 55–69 | Average — improvement needed |
| D | 40–54 | Below average — significant gaps |
| F | 0–39 | Critical — foundational issues |
Data was collected in February 2026 using the Google Places API across 18 SC counties and 20 business categories using a grid-based geographic search:
| Tier | Counties | Grid | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 — Major Metro | Greenville, Richland, Charleston | 3×3 cells, 4km radius | 1,500 each |
| Tier 2 — Secondary | Spartanburg, Horry, Lexington, York, Berkeley | 2×2 cells, 5km radius | 800 each |
| Tier 3 — Micropolitan | Anderson, Beaufort, Florence, Aiken, Dorchester | 2×2 cells, 7km radius | 400 each |
| Tier 4 — Rural | Pickens, Sumter, Orangeburg, Greenwood, Laurens | 1 cell, 10km radius | 300 each |
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AI Gap | The difference between GBP Score and AI Readiness. A positive gap means the profile looks better on traditional search than it is structured for AI discovery. |
| At-Risk | Businesses with GBP Score above 70 and AI Readiness below 50 — strong traditional presence, vulnerable to AI-driven search shifts. |
| AI-Ready | A business with an AI Readiness Score of 60 or higher — meeting baseline threshold for structured, entity-clear, fresh data. |
| Entity Clarity | How clearly a business's identity, category, and purpose are communicated in structured fields that AI systems use to build business knowledge. |
| Freshness | Recent review activity — businesses with reviews in the last 90 days and 20+ total reviews score higher on this signal. |
| Mobile Readiness | Estimated score based on website URL patterns. A full implementation uses Google PageSpeed Insights for real lighthouse scores. |
| Limitation | Impact | Planned Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Review text not collected | Owner response rate and sentiment default to neutral, understating Engagement sub-scores. | Re-run with FETCH_REVIEWS = True. |
| Editorial summaries not collected | Entity Clarity loses up to 12 points for businesses with Google editorial summaries — AI Readiness may be slightly understated. | Re-run with FETCH_EDITORIAL = True. |
| Mobile score is heuristic-only | Estimated from URL patterns, not real performance data. Treat as directional. | Integrate Google PageSpeed Insights API. |
| Social score is a stub | Estimated from website existence only — too weak to be actionable. | Integrate SerpAPI or manual enrichment pass. |
| Geographic sampling bias | Tier 1 counties have 5× more profiles than Tier 4 — rural businesses are underrepresented. | Normalize by county business density using census data. |