Market Research Report - May 2026
2026 Tri-Cities Home Services Digital Visibility Study
A systematic audit of 75 HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and tree service companies across Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol, Tennessee — measuring website health, Google Business Profile quality, and composite digital visibility.
Produced by 1-FIND SERVICES – Johnson City, TN – 75 companies audited – 5 trade categories
📄 Full report available: Download the complete findings, methodology, and press release headline formats.
72.0
Avg Combined Visibility Score
out of 100 possible points
17 pts
GBP vs Website Gap
GBP avg 82.8 – Website avg 65.8
20%
Have Critical Risk Flags
robots blocks, noindex, or no HTTPS
15/75
Scored 8 or above
No company cracked 90
Executive Summary
A systematic audit of 75 home services companies across Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol finds a market where digital presence is widespread but uneven, and where the gap between the strongest and weakest performers spans nearly 50 points on a 100-point composite visibility scale. The study evaluated HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and tree service contractors active in the Tri-Cities region, scoring each across five weighted dimensions: schema markup, technical SEO, HTTPS security, Lighthouse performance, and Core Web Vitals field data.
The study’s central finding is structural: local contractors have invested more attention in their Google Business Profiles than in the underlying websites those profiles link to. Across all 75 audited businesses, the average GBP Health Score was 82.8 out of 100, while the average Website Health Score trailed at 65.8 — a 17-point gap consistent across every trade category. No company in the sample scored 90 or above on the Combined Visibility Score, and only 11 of the 75 entries crossed the 80-point threshold.
Tree service and roofing companies account for a disproportionate share of the lowest-scoring entries. Tree service recorded the lowest average CVS at 67.7 and was the only trade category where no company scored 80 or above. Plumbing companies led all five categories with an average CVS of 74.2. Fifteen of the 75 audited companies carried critical risk flags — technical configurations that can materially suppress organic visibility regardless of other optimization efforts.
Key Findings
📊 The GBP-Website Gap Is the Market's Defining Pattern
Average GBP Health Score: 82.8/100. Average Website Health Score: 65.8/100. That 17-point gap is consistent across every trade category — meaning well-optimized Google profiles regularly direct customers to websites that may undercut the trust those profiles built.
⚠️ 1 in 5 Companies Has a Configuration That May Block Search Visibility
15 of 75 audited companies (20%) carried at least one critical risk flag: 10 had robots.txt files blocking all crawlers, 2 had noindex on their homepages, and 3 were serving pages over HTTP. These aren’t subtle disadvantages — they can prevent a site from appearing in search results.
⭐ Review Volume, Not Ratings, Is the Actual Differentiator
Mean star rating across 70 profiles: 4.81 — so tight that ratings offer almost no competitive signal. Review counts ranged from 1 to 3,690. The median was 68. Plumbing averaged 602 reviews per profile; roofing averaged 77.
🏷️ Schema Adoption Is Wide But Shallow
78.7% of audited sites had some form of structured data. Only 52.0% had LocalBusiness schema specifically, and FAQ schema appeared on just 5 of 75 sites (6.7%). Average schema score: 9.1 out of a possible 15.
Industry Score Summary
| Trade | Avg CVS | Website | GBP | Avg Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing | 74.2 | 67.9 | 85.6 | 602 |
| HVAC | 73.7 | 67.2 | 83.5 | 479 |
| Electrical | 73.6 | 68.0 | 82.0 | 390 |
| Roofing | 70.8 | 63.0 | 82.4 | 77 |
| Tree Service | 67.7 | 62.8 | 80.3 | 82 |
CVS = Combined Visibility Score. 15 entries per trade category. n=75 total.
Methodology
The 2026 Tri-Cities Home Services Digital Visibility Study was conducted by 1-FIND SERVICES between January and May 2026. The study evaluated 75 company-industry entries representing five trade categories — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and tree service — drawn from businesses identified through structured Google Maps searches across Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol. Each trade category contained 15 entries. Companies operating across multiple trades were evaluated independently per category.
The Website Health Score is a composite of five components: schema markup (up to 15 points), technical SEO signals including sitemap, canonical, robots.txt, and meta configuration (up to 20 points), HTTPS security (up to 10 points), Lighthouse lab score aggregate (up to 30 points), and Core Web Vitals field performance (up to 20 points). Data was gathered via the Google PageSpeed Insights API and direct HTTP/HTML parsing of each company’s homepage.
The GBP Health Score covers profile completeness (up to 35 points), category selection quality (up to 20 points), review volume and rating (up to 25 points), and NAP consistency between the GBP listing and the website (up to 20 points). The Combined Visibility Score (CVS) weights the Website Health Score and GBP Health Score equally at 50% each.
| Component | Max Pts | What It Measures |
|---|---|---|
| Schema Markup | 15 | Type presence, LocalBusiness, FAQ |
| Technical SEO | 20 | Sitemap, canonical, robots.txt, meta |
| HTTPS Security | 10 | TLS on primary domain |
| Lighthouse Score | 30 | Performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO |
| Core Web Vitals | 20 | LCP, CLS, INP field data |
| Website Health Score | 100 | Combined website component |
| Combined Visibility Score | 100 | 50% Website + 50% GBP Health |
Limitations
- Sample size and selection: The 75-entry sample identifies market-level patterns but is not large enough for granular statistical inferences. Businesses with low existing visibility may be underrepresented.
- Point-in-time data: All measurements reflect conditions at the time of collection. Configurations, GBP listings, and review counts change continuously.
- Homepage-level scope: The Website Health Score reflects homepage technical signals only. It does not assess internal page quality, content depth, backlink profiles, or keyword targeting.
- Core Web Vitals field data: Real-user CWV data was available for only 6 of 75 audited sites. Most CWV component scores reflect lab-based estimates, not measured field performance.
- GBP data access: GBP data was collected via the Places API and may not capture all profile attributes visible to consumers, including photo count, Q&A completeness, or service item detail.
- Category double-counting: Companies operating across multiple trades appear as separate entries per category. Readers comparing company-level results should account for this structure.
- No organic ranking data: The CVS is not a ranking predictor. This study collected no keyword ranking data and makes no causal claims about the relationship between CVS and search performance.
Media Contact
Casey Carmical
Owner, 1-FIND SERVICES – Johnson City, Tennessee
1-FIND SERVICES is a digital marketing agency based in Johnson City, Tennessee, serving the Tri-Cities region. This study was produced independently; no audited company paid to be included or excluded.