The most competitive Bangalore areas on Google Maps (real data)

We searched Google Maps for 10 common business types — restaurants, cafes, dental clinics, salons, gyms, hotels, real estate agents, lawyers, car service centres and pest control — in 40 Bangalore areas. That's 400 searches and around 8,000 business listings.

Here's what we found.

Restaurants: the toughest race in the city

Across all 40 areas, the top 3 restaurants averaged about 6,800 Google reviews, while a typical restaurant in those results had about 2,700. In a few areas the leaders are even further ahead:

• JP Nagar — top 3 average about 17,400 reviews
• Hennur — about 15,600
• MG Road — about 13,800
• Frazer Town — about 13,500
• RT Nagar — about 12,400
• Jayanagar — about 11,500
• Malleshwaram — about 11,200

For a new restaurant, breaking into the top 3 for "restaurants in [area]" here takes time. The smarter move is to target specific searches: a cuisine, a dish or a landmark.

Where restaurants can still break through

Areas where the top 3 had far fewer reviews included Thanisandra (about 800), Domlur (about 1,100), Sahakar Nagar (about 1,400) and KR Puram (about 1,400).

Other business types

Average reviews held by the top 3 across all 40 areas:

• Cafes — about 2,400
• Hotels — about 2,000
• Salons — about 2,000
• Dental clinics — about 620
• Pest control — about 600
• Car service centres — about 600
• Gyms — about 580
• Lawyers — about 360
• Real estate agents — about 170

The big opportunity

In some categories, most businesses barely use Google reviews. Around 77% of real estate agents and 73% of lawyers in our results had fewer than 100 reviews. About half of car service centres and pest control businesses did too. In these categories, a steady review habit can move you to the top quickly.

What this means for you

• In crowded categories (restaurants, cafes, salons), compete on specific searches and keep a weekly review habit.
• In under-used categories (real estate, legal, home services), act now — the top 3 is within reach.

See the numbers for your area on our Bangalore area pages.

Frequently asked questions