The numbers behind how drivers search behavior for collision repair — and what they mean for your shop

Before treating any figure on this page as a fixed rule for your market, understand how this data was assembled — and its limits.

The benchmarks here draw from three categories of sources:

• Third-party industry reports from automotive aftermarket research firms, digital marketing platforms, and consumer behavior studies. Where specific publications are cited, links are provided. Where ranges are given without a single source, they reflect consensus across multiple reports.
• General digital marketing benchmarks applied to the auto body context — for example, mobile search share data from Google's own published research, interpreted through the lens of collision repair consumer behavior.
• Observed patterns from campaigns we've managed for collision repair businesses. These are directional, not statistically representative of all shops.

Key limitation: Auto body shop search behavior varies considerably by geography. A shop in a dense metro area competes in a fundamentally different map pack than a shop in a mid-size market with two or three competitors. Benchmarks here represent general patterns — your actual numbers may land above or below depending on local competition, your shop's existing authority, and the insurance carrier mix in your area.

Where we use qualifiers like 'many shops report' or 'industry benchmarks suggest,' that language is intentional. It means the direction of the trend is well-supported but a single precise number would be misleading. Treat all figures as planning inputs, not performance guarantees.

The search journey for collision repair is unlike most other local service searches. It is rarely planned. A driver who just had an accident is stressed, often on the side of the road or in a parking lot, and making decisions under time pressure. That context shapes everything about how they search — and how you need to show up.

Mobile dominates post-accident search

Published research from Google and automotive aftermarket associations consistently shows that the majority of local service searches happen on mobile devices. For collision repair specifically, the urgency of the situation makes mobile the default. Most searches happen within the first few hours after an incident, before the driver has had time to sit at a desktop.

'Near me' and map pack queries are the primary discovery channel

Search queries like 'auto body shop near me,' 'collision repair near me,' and 'body shop open now' consistently appear among the highest-volume terms for this category. These searches trigger the Google Map Pack — the three-business block that shows above organic results — which means map pack visibility is not optional for shops that want inbound leads from search.

The role of review signals in initial selection

Industry benchmarks across multiple consumer research studies indicate that the majority of people read online reviews before choosing a local service business. For collision repair — a high-cost, high-stress category where trust matters enormously — review volume and recency carry even more weight. Many vehicle owners report that they check reviews before they check pricing.

What this means for your shop

If your Google Business Profile is incomplete, your review count is low, or your profile photos are outdated, you are losing to competitors who have addressed those basics — regardless of how good your actual repair work is. The search moment is won or lost before the driver ever calls.

For decades, insurance company direct repair programs (DRPs) were the primary referral engine for many collision shops. That dynamic is changing as digitally-confident consumers take more control of the selection process.

Consumer confidence in independent research is growing

Multiple consumer surveys in the automotive space show a trend: a growing share of vehicle owners report that they research their own shop options before accepting an insurer's recommendation — or in addition to it. This does not mean DRP relationships are worthless. They remain a significant volume driver, particularly for high-frequency shops in large DRP networks. But the ceiling on DRP-only business development is becoming clearer.

Why digital presence now functions as a trust verification layer

Even when an insurance adjuster recommends a shop, a growing percentage of consumers will Google that shop before agreeing to send their vehicle there. What they find — or don't find — determines whether they follow the referral or ask for an alternative. Shops with strong Google Business Profiles, recent reviews, and a professional website convert insurance referrals at higher rates than shops with thin or outdated digital footprints.

The implication for shop marketing strategy

Shops that rely exclusively on DRP volume are exposed to two risks: insurer program changes that can shift referral volume overnight, and the growing share of customers who opt out of insurer recommendations in favor of their own research. Building organic search visibility is not an alternative to DRP relationships — it is a hedge against dependency on them, and a channel that delivers customers with higher average repair orders because they chose the shop themselves.

Benchmarks on this shift vary significantly by region and by insurance carrier mix. Markets with stronger consumer protection laws around shop choice tend to show higher rates of independent shop selection.

Local SEO performance for auto body shops can be measured across several dimensions. Here is what published research and observed campaign data suggest about each.

Google Business Profile completeness and ranking correlation

Google's own documentation and multiple third-party local SEO studies consistently show that completeness of the Google Business Profile correlates with local pack visibility. Shops with complete profiles — accurate categories, services listed, photos uploaded, Q&A populated, and regular post activity — appear in more searches than shops with minimal profile information. In our experience working with collision repair businesses, profile gaps are one of the most common and most correctable ranking disadvantages.

Review velocity matters as much as total count

A shop with 200 reviews and no new reviews in eight months often performs worse in local rankings than a shop with 60 reviews and consistent weekly activity. Google's local algorithm treats recency as a freshness signal. Industry benchmarks suggest that shops actively requesting reviews after job completion maintain review velocity that supports sustained local visibility — whereas shops that let reviews accumulate passively tend to plateau.

Citation consistency and directory presence

For collision repair businesses specifically, industry-relevant directories carry meaningful weight alongside general directories. Platforms like Carwise (NAPA AutoCare's consumer-facing search tool), AutoBody-Review, and insurer-adjacent platforms are cited in local SEO research as particularly relevant for body shop citation authority. Inconsistent name, address, and phone number (NAP) data across these directories creates confusion signals that suppress local rankings.

Website traffic source breakdown

Across local service businesses broadly, organic and local search consistently deliver the highest share of website traffic. For collision repair shops specifically, paid search (Google Ads) can produce fast visibility but typically carries a higher cost-per-lead than organic. Industry benchmarks suggest organic traffic converts at comparable or higher rates than paid traffic for this category, with the trade-off being the time required to build ranking authority.

Understanding where drivers go after they search — and what causes them to call — is as important as understanding how they find shops in the first place.

Click distribution across map pack and organic results

Published research on local search click behavior consistently shows that the top three map pack results capture a disproportionate share of clicks for local service queries. For collision repair searches, this concentration is even more pronounced because the searches are high-urgency — drivers rarely browse past the first three options when they need a shop today. Shops outside the map pack for their primary keywords are functionally invisible to most post-accident searchers.

Click-to-call as the primary conversion action

For local service businesses, the phone call remains the dominant conversion action — particularly on mobile. Industry data shows that 'click to call' is the most common next step after a user views a local business listing. This means your Google Business Profile phone number, your website's tap-to-call button, and your call response rate all directly affect how many searches convert to actual jobs.

Website speed and mobile experience as conversion factors

Google's Core Web Vitals research and broader conversion rate optimization studies show that mobile page load speed directly affects bounce rate and conversion. For collision repair — where the customer is already stressed and impatient — a slow-loading mobile site or a website that is difficult to navigate on a phone increases the probability that the driver moves on to the next result. Many body shop websites, particularly those built more than four years ago, fail basic mobile experience benchmarks.

What a realistic conversion funnel looks like

From search impression to booked job, the funnel typically moves: impression in map pack or organic → profile or website click → phone call or contact form submission → job booked. Drop-off can occur at any stage. Benchmarks vary by market and by how well each stage is optimized, but the biggest use points for most shops are map pack visibility and review quality — both of which influence whether the click happens at all.

Statistics are only useful if they change what you do. Here is how to use these benchmarks as a diagnostic framework rather than passive trivia.

Start with where your shop currently ranks for core queries

If your shop does not appear in the map pack for 'auto body shop near me' or 'collision repair [your city],' the benchmarks above explain what you are missing: mobile-first customers who decide within seconds. That is not a branding problem — it is a local SEO infrastructure problem with identifiable fixes.

Use review velocity as an operational metric, not a vanity metric

Track how many new reviews your shop earns per month. Compare it to your top two or three local competitors. If they are consistently generating more recent reviews than you, that gap alone may explain a map pack ranking difference — even if your total review count is comparable.

Evaluate your DRP dependency honestly

Calculate what percentage of your current monthly volume comes from insurer referrals versus self-referred customers. If insurer referrals represent the large majority, the insurance referral trend data above is directly relevant to your business risk profile. Organic search visibility is one of the most durable ways to reduce that dependency over time.

Mobile experience is not optional

Run your shop's website through Google's PageSpeed Insights on mobile. If your score is poor or your site is difficult to navigate on a phone, you are losing customers at the conversion stage even when your map pack ranking delivers the impression. This is a fixable technical problem, not a marketing philosophy question.

For a structured approach to identifying which of these gaps your shop has and in what priority order to address them, the auto body shop SEO resource hub maps out the full framework. If you want to understand how search engine optimization for collision repair businesses translates into a month-by-month strategy, the SEO for auto body shops page covers the specific services and approach we use.