ABA Therapy Study (2026): How a Few Google Reviews Change Who Families Find
Most families looking for applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy start with a Google search. So we wanted to know what they actually find, and what happens after they call.
Over the last few months, Danny Gavin, Chief Strategist and Founder of Optidge, teamed up with Arjun Sangwan and Yext Research to study every open US Google Business Profile that lists ABA as its main category. That’s 2,135 profiles, 986 map searches from 207 locations, and about 18 months of anonymized data from a small number of the ABA providers we work with.
The short version: ABA providers keep complete profiles but collect very few reviews. The first handful of reviews, and fresh ones after that, go with far more top map spots.
How to read the numbers
Distance to the searcher drives map rank more than anything else. Top-3 results sit a median 2.7 km from the searcher, against 10.5 km for everything else. So every ranking number below compares a group’s top-3 rate with what its distance predicts. 1x means as often as expected. 2x means twice as often.
One caveat up front: these results show what goes together, not what causes what. The map searches weren’t designed for this study and cluster in a few states, so treat them as directions to test.
1. ABA providers have few reviews. The first five matter most.
The median ABA profile has 5 Google reviews. A physical therapy clinic has 30 and a dentist has 135. One ABA profile in five has none. Parents are slow to review care for their child, so every review counts for more.
The jump comes early. Going from no reviews to five or more goes with three times the top-3 rate. Past that, more reviews add little.
2. A perfect 5.0 does not rank best
One ABA profile in three shows a perfect 5.0, usually from a handful of reviews. One in seven is below 4.0. Profiles rated 4.0 to 4.9 reach the top 3 more often than perfect-5.0 profiles.
A 5.0 from three reviews tells a family less than a 4.6 from forty. Volume and rating move together, so part of this gap is review count.
3. Fresh reviews, owner replies and photos go with more top-3 spots
A profile with a review in the last 90 days reaches the top 3 1.7 times as often as its distance predicts. A profile whose newest review is over a year old does worse than expected. Owners who reply to nearly every review, and profiles with lots of photos, also show up more.
4. ABA profiles are more complete than their peers
92% of ABA profiles have a business description, 97% link a website and 95% list hours. 44% posted an update in the last year. That’s higher than every nearby health category we looked at.
That’s good news and bad news. Because nearly every ABA provider has the basics, the basics alone won’t set you apart.
5. Listing ABA as the main category goes with more visibility
Profiles with ABA as their main Google category hold 53% of top-3 spots in ABA searches. Profiles that list ABA only as a secondary category do worse than their distance predicts. Having “ABA” or “behavior analysis” in the business name goes with a 1.7x rate, against 1.0x without it.
6. Three chains hold almost a third of top-3 spots
Caravel Autism Health, ACES ABA and Action Behavior Centers hold 31% of all top-3 spots in these searches. Of the 2,313 ABA providers that appeared, 593 ever reached the top 3. Brands with 20 or more locations reach the top 3 1.7 times as often as distance predicts. Single-location providers: 0.8 times.
This is the result most shaped by the search sample. The searches were set up in markets where the big chains operate, so it needs a purpose-built scan before it can stand on its own.
7. Center-based providers show up more often than in-home ones
In much of the US, most ABA care happens at home, yet 97% of ABA profiles show a street address. So we sorted providers by what their description and website say: 27% describe center-based care only, 12% in-home only, 13% both, and 48% don’t say.
For a single clinic, describing center-based care goes with about twice the map visibility of in-home only. And in our client data, hiding the address cost only direction requests: per 1,000 impressions, service-area profiles got 88 calls and website clicks, against 82 for address profiles.
What happens after the search
This is where our client data comes in. We looked at Google profile performance, call tracking and intake records up to admission for a small number of ABA providers. A few providers can’t show how common something is. They can show how it works, and where the usual profile metrics mislead.
8. Only 1 in 17 profile callers became a family case
One multi-location ABA provider tracks calls from its Google profiles all the way into its CRM. Over roughly a year, about 1,100 people called. 66 became family cases, and 28 of those became clients. Google’s own call count was within 2% of the tracking, so the call count is right.
Some of the other callers are likely current families, staff and job applicants. Either way, a report that counts every profile call as a lead overstates leads.
9. Profile callers become clients as often as ad callers
For the same provider, 42% of families who called from its Google profiles became clients. For families who called after clicking a Google ad, it was 39%. A family that finds you on your profile is not a weaker lead.
10. Web analytics miss most families who found you on Google
One provider asks every family how they heard about it. Over about a year, roughly 300 said Google. Its web analytics credited Google search, organic and paid together, with about 60. A family that calls straight from the profile never visits the website, so there’s nothing to track.
Families name Google five times as often as web analytics do. And AI referrals? 1 of about 370 tracked cases.
11. Two profiles, one provider: reviews went with more calls, not more views
One provider started two service-area profiles a month apart, in two markets. The larger-market profile got about ten reviews, nearly all on a single day in spring 2026. The other got none. Visibility was already growing before the reviews. What changed after them was action: calls and website clicks went from about 19 a month to about 62 a month. Over the same months, the profile with no reviews slipped from about 17 a month to about 11.
12. One provider’s profiles get fewer clicks. The cause isn’t clear yet.
Comparing five months of 2026 with the same five months of 2025, one provider’s calls fell 18% and website clicks fell 34%. Impressions rose 10%, but nearly all of that came from one profile whose desktop Maps impressions jumped about tenfold, most likely a rank-tracking tool. Without that jump, impressions rose about 2%.
It’s tempting to blame AI Overviews. This data can’t show that either way. The provider’s Google Ads spend rose about 63% over the same window, so some families who would have clicked the profile probably clicked an ad instead. Clicks fell more than calls, which fits AI answers taking clicks, but that’s consistent, not evidence.
What ABA providers should do now
- Get the first five reviews. Ask families who are happy with their care to leave a review. The step from none to five goes with the biggest change in visibility.
- Keep reviews and replies coming. Aim for at least one new review every 90 days, and reply to each one. Add photos and post updates so the profile stays active.
- Say what you do and where. Use ABA as the main category. Say in the description whether care happens at a center, at home or both, and which insurance you take.
- Count families, not clicks. Track profile calls through to intake and admission, and ask every family how they found you. Profile actions overstate leads, and web analytics miss most families who came from Google.
How we did it
The study uses Scout’s latest scan of open US Google Business Profiles. 2,135 list “Applied behavior analysis therapist” as their main category. ABA is compared with seven peer categories: speech pathologist, occupational therapist, child psychologist, pediatrician, mental health clinic, physical therapy clinic and dentist. The 986 map searches ran from May to September 2026 for “applied behavior analysis therapist,” “ABA therapy” and “pediatric ABA” from 207 searcher locations, nearly half in California, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Ads are excluded. A top-3 spot is an organic rank of 1 to 3, and each appearance is compared with what one of 20 distance bands predicts.
The client data is anonymized and comes from a small number of ABA providers Optidge works with. Providers are not labeled across findings, counts and dates are rounded, and no contact records or health information were shared.
Research by Danny Gavin, Founder and Chief Strategist at Optidge, and Arjun Sangwan, Director of Data Strategy at Yext.
If you run an ABA practice and want to know how your profiles stack up, or where your families really come from, let’s talk.