Where your competition is in Iowa
The largest concentrations of locksmith businesses in our Iowa data are in Des Moines, Ankeny, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Cedar Falls, Council Bluffs, Bettendorf and Urbandale. Competition for the map pack is heaviest there, and so is the reward: the same review count that dominates a small town is invisible in Des Moines.
The map pack in Iowa
In Iowa, 34.6% of locksmith businesses have fewer than ten reviews. That is the good news if you have twenty: most of your local competitors are not trying. The bad news is that the three shops in the map pack for Ankeny searches are not in that group. They are near 166 reviews and they ask every customer.
The website gap in Iowa
Website presence in Iowa: 78.8% of locksmith businesses link one, 21.2% do not. The national figure is 22.2% without. Google and the AI answer engines both use the site to confirm what you do and where, so a missing site costs more than the leads it would have produced on its own.
Hours and after-hours calls
15.4% of Iowa locksmith businesses list themselves as open 24 hours. If you take after-hours calls, say so in your profile hours, because Google shows "Closed" in red on a profile that says it is closed. If you do not, list real hours and let missed-call text-back cover the gap, so the caller gets a reply instead of dialing the next name.
How Iowa compares
Of the 46 states in our data, Iowa ranks 32nd for the number of locksmith businesses, 21st for median review count, and 25th for the share with no website. The review bar sits in the middle of the pack.
| State | Listed | Median reviews | No site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa | 52 | 61.5 | 21.2% |
| Illinois | 156 | 56 | 17.9% |
| Indiana | 107 | 41 | 23.4% |
| Kansas | 41 | 35 | 24.4% |
| Michigan | 139 | 60 | 28.8% |
| Minnesota | 87 | 65 | 24.1% |
| Missouri | 102 | 52.5 | 17.6% |
| Nebraska | 46 | 75 | 15.2% |
| North Dakota | 15 | 41 | 13.3% |
What to do first in Iowa
- Set a review velocity. One review per job day, asked at the door, moves a 61.5-review shop past the Iowa 75th percentile (122) within a year. The guides have the scripts.
- Finish the Google profile: primary category, every service you offer, real job photos, and hours that match reality. It is free and it is where Iowa customers decide.
- Turn on missed-call text-back. Run the calculator with your own numbers to see what unanswered calls cost.
- Then, and only then, spend on ads. Pointed at a profile with 61.5 reviews and no website, ads pay for your competitor's education. Pointed at a finished profile, they work.
The full national picture, with percentiles, ratings and hours, is in the benchmark report. The method is on the about page.