Research · 2026 Q2
The Dorset Online Reputation Footprint
We searched 500 Dorset businesses for their Google Business Profile. Of the 322 we could confidently match, 34.8% have fewer than five reviews — and 16.5% have a live listing with no reviews at all.
Dorset (BH and DT postcode areas) · captured 2026-06 · free and open data · methodology · cite this report
The numbers
How visible is the average Dorset business?
500 Dorset businesses searched on Google Business Profile. Rates are over the 322 we could confidently match to a Google listing; the other 178 could not be matched to the registered business and are excluded — inconclusive, not confirmed absences.
16.5%
have a Google listing but no reviews
83.5%
have at least one Google review
4.69
average star rating (of those reviewed)
17.5
median reviews per business
121.7
mean reviews per business
34.8%
have fewer than five reviews
Coverage
How many we could match
64.4%
confidently matched to a Google listing (322 of 500)
178
could not be matched — inconclusive, not confirmed absent
A non-match is not proof a business has no Google presence. It mixes genuine absences, registered-name vs trading-name mismatches and online-only businesses, so every rate in this report is computed over the 322 we could confidently match.
Depth of reputation
How many reviews do they have?
0 reviews16.5% · 53
1–4 reviews18.3% · 59
5–19 reviews17.1% · 55
20–49 reviews16.8% · 54
50+ reviews31.4% · 101
The correlation
No website, no reviews
18%
of businesses with no website also have no reviews
12%
of businesses with a website have no reviews
Online presence compounds: the businesses missing from search are usually missing their reputation too.
By industry
Which Dorset sectors are most invisible?
| Industry | Matched | No reviews | Avg rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pets & Animals | 19 | 5.3% | 4.69 |
| Automotive | 37 | 8.1% | 4.69 |
| Health & Beauty | 33 | 9.1% | 4.79 |
| Hospitality & Food | 32 | 9.4% | 4.42 |
| Education & Childcare | 41 | 12.2% | 4.79 |
| Leisure & Fitness | 32 | 15.6% | 4.77 |
| Retail & Shops | 25 | 16% | 4.55 |
| Property | 25 | 24% | 4.80 |
| Professional Services | 23 | 26.1% | 4.67 |
| Other | 26 | 30.8% | 4.56 |
| Trades & Construction | 29 | 31% | 4.90 |
By area
Across Dorset
Bournemouth, Poole & Christchurch
233 businesses
17.6% no reviews4.68 rating
Dorchester, Weymouth & wider Dorset
89 businesses
13.5% no reviews4.73 rating
Key findings
What the data says
34.8% of Dorset businesses with a Google Business Profile we could confidently match (112 of 322) have fewer than five reviews.
16.5% (53 of 322) have a live Google listing but not a single review.
Where Dorset businesses are reviewed, they are reviewed well: an average rating of 4.69 across 269 rated listings, with 221 rated 4.5★ or higher.
Reputation is split: the median matched business has just 17.5 Google reviews, yet 101 businesses (31.4%) have 50 or more.
Trades & Construction is the thinnest sector — 31% of matched listings have no reviews, against a median of just 2; Hospitality & Food is the deepest, at a median of 155.
Of 500 Dorset businesses sampled, only 322 (64.4%) could be confidently matched to a Google listing on the registered business name — the other 178 are inconclusive, not confirmed absences.
The good news
What the best Dorset businesses prove
269
businesses are actively reviewed
221
hold a 4.5★+ average rating
101
have 50 or more reviews
3784
reviews on the single most-reviewed business
Aggregates only — no business is named. A strong, recent review profile is well within reach.
Methodology
How we measured this
- Sample frame
- 500 businesses drawn from the Sandbanks Digital lead database across Dorset, balanced across 11 industry categories and including businesses with and without a website.
- Areas
- BH (Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch) and DT (Dorchester, Weymouth and wider Dorset) postcode areas.
- Platforms
- Google Business Profile only. This study measures Google presence and review depth specifically — it is not a measure of overall online presence. Other platforms (Checkatrade, Yell) were out of scope for this edition.
- Measurement
- Each business was searched on Google Maps by registered name and postcode. Where a listing was confidently matched, we captured Google's own review count and star rating. The matcher is accurate-or-absent: a confident match is trusted; a non-match is treated as inconclusive, not as a confirmed absence.
- What counts as measured
- A business contributes to the rates above only if it was confidently matched to a Google listing (322 of 500). The 178 we could not match — name mismatches between the registered legal name and trading name, B2B/online-only businesses, or measurement misses — are excluded from every rate, not counted as 'no reviews'.
- Review recency
- Review recency could not be measured this edition: a most-recent-review date was captured for only 1 of 269 reviewed businesses — below the 50% coverage needed — so no staleness figure is published.
- Exclusions
- 178 of 500 sampled businesses could not be confidently matched to a Google listing and are excluded from every rate above. They are inconclusive — a mix of genuine absences, name mismatches and measurement misses — not confirmed absences.
- Anonymisation
- This report publishes aggregates only. No individual business is named or singled out. Named examples, where shown, are positive standouts included with permission.
Cite this report
Free to use, free to cite
Published under CC BY 4.0 — quote it, link it, build on it.
Dorset Online Reputation Footprint 2026 Q2, Sandbanks Digital. https://sandbanksdigital.com/research/dorset-online-reputation-footprint