# Who gets found in Des Moines?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 5 page-one leaders changed hands 22 new pages in the top 5

THE SEARCH LEDGER · DES MOINES EDITION · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

Every month, Des Moines types 317,900 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $741.6K chasing them. Somebody gets found. Somebody doesn't. This is the weekly ledger of who, at what price, and what's still up for grabs — refreshed weekly.

BY [SEO BANDWAGON](https://seobandwagon.com/about) · UPDATED WEEKLY · COLLECTED SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 · [METHODOLOGY](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines#methodology)

317,900

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$741.6K

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

893

LISTINGS TRACKED

1,656

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Des Moines searches 746,770 times a month in total. The other 428,870 are branded or navigational — someone already knows where they are going.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. "Searches in play" counts commercial and transactional intent only, classified by our own heuristics rather than by Google. Ad-equivalent value is Σ volume × CPC — one click priced for every tracked search, a ceiling on what the traffic would cost to buy, not spend and not revenue. Listings: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, deduped by place\_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro.

Free · sign in with Google · no credit card

## The demand

Before anyone wins a customer, the customer has to ask. Here is what Des Moines asks Google for in an average month.

317,900

searches in an average month across the 706 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **11,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Des Moines.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 43% of everything Des Moines searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 61 percent, Travel & Transit 12 percent, Other 11 percent, Health & Wellness 4 percent, Attractions 3 percent, Home Services 3 percent, Shopping 3 percent, Hotels & Lodging 3 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026, bucketed by our own vertical classifier — Google supplies no category. Squares are percentages of the addressable set, not of all search, and are largest-remainder rounded to 100.

Food & Dining 61% Travel & Transit 12% Other 11% Health & Wellness 4% Attractions 3% Home Services 3% Shopping 3% Hotels & Lodging 3%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **61% of the addressable demand** in Des Moines, against 12% for Travel & Transit. The board in Chapter 2 prices every one of those searches.

### When the demand comes

Search interest by month, 0–100 per vertical. The pink outline marks each vertical's peak — the month the phones ring.

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target · pulled September 8, 2026. Each row is indexed to its own peak month, so cells compare a vertical against itself and never against another row. Not a search count, and not [Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/).

| VERTICAL | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Shopping | 61 | 58 | 69 | 67 | 80 | 80 | 83 | 100 | 72 | 73 | 76 | 80 |
| Attractions | 40 | 40 | 61 | 60 | 84 | 100 | 90 | 94 | 70 | 58 | 42 | 41 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 64 | 68 | 74 | 80 | 82 | 89 | 95 | 100 | 77 | 81 | 64 | 66 |
| Food & Dining | 73 | 82 | 83 | 82 | 93 | 88 | 100 | 98 | 83 | 87 | 71 | 70 |
| Entertainment | 13 | 14 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 17 | 24 | 100 | 18 | 13 | 12 | 11 |
| Personal Care | 54 | 56 | 70 | 67 | 77 | 69 | 79 | 100 | 74 | 58 | 59 | 59 |
| Education | 100 | 67 | 70 | 67 | 59 | 59 | 70 | 96 | 63 | 63 | 70 | 70 |
| Travel & Transit | 73 | 69 | 89 | 75 | 91 | 94 | 94 | 100 | 75 | 89 | 90 | 84 |
| Health & Wellness | 100 | 85 | 96 | 88 | 87 | 88 | 94 | 93 | 96 | 93 | 84 | 89 |
| Real Estate | 79 | 73 | 85 | 82 | 85 | 84 | 75 | 90 | 100 | 84 | 76 | 67 |
| Home Services | 61 | 48 | 61 | 73 | 95 | 100 | 75 | 68 | 87 | 76 | 59 | 54 |
| Professional Services | 97 | 91 | 100 | 64 | 67 | 27 | 45 | 76 | 58 | 55 | 42 | 45 |
| Legal | 95 | 85 | 100 | 87 | 72 | 77 | 81 | 92 | 93 | 100 | 74 | 74 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Des Moines over the last twelve months of Google Ads volume (Aug 2025 – Jul 2026). Growth compares each keyword's last three months against its own twelve-month average, so it tops out at 300% by construction.

fairfield inn & suites by marriott des moines downtown ▲ 265% BREAKOUT

des moines roofing ▲ 256% BREAKOUT

des moines window replacement ▲ 255% BREAKOUT

art fair des moines ▲ 245% BREAKOUT

water lantern festival des moines ▲ 242% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026. Not [Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/), and not a weekly series — the window closes one to two months before the pull.

### Where the demand sits

Priced keywords that name one of the places we mine for Des Moines — its seed suburbs plus the boroughs Maps returned at least twice — grouped by that name. A metro is not one market. This ranks the places we look for, not every place that exists — a landmark or district we do not mine is absent however much demand names it, and a metro can miss a place that would have ranked near the top.

West Des Moines SUBURB 8,030/mo

31 keywords · $13.4K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Downtown Des Moines NEIGHBORHOOD 6,980/mo

46 keywords · $11.9K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Urbandale SUBURB 4,480/mo

5 keywords · $3.4K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Ankeny SUBURB 4,050/mo

50 keywords · $9.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

East Village NEIGHBORHOOD 2,730/mo

6 keywords · $1.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Beaverdale NEIGHBORHOOD 2,120/mo

9 keywords · $1.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Merle Hay NEIGHBORHOOD 1,570/mo

22 keywords · $1.3K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Source: Computed from Google Ads search volume × CPC via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, September 8, 2026 — keywords grouped by the place name they contain. Rows are grouped by NAME CONTAINMENT, not by place: a keyword joins every row whose name it contains, so it is counted in both when it names two places AND when one row's name sits inside another's. So a shorter name sitting inside a longer one carries the longer one’s keywords too, and those two rows are not independent places. Rows rank names and do not sum to a metro total. Ad-equivalent value is Σ volume × CPC — a ceiling on what the traffic would cost to buy, not spend and not revenue.

**West Des Moines** alone carries 8,030 searches a month across 31 keywords, worth $13.4K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Des Moines", that is demand you are not addressing.

## The money

Attention in this city has a spot price, and Google publishes it: the cost per ad click. Here's what a customer's attention trades for in Des Moines.

"DES MOINES CAR ACCIDENT LAWYER" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$436.36

One click. Not a customer — a *click*. That's what a single visit from this search trades for in Des Moines right now.

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 1,592 of 1,656 tracked keywords Google Ads returns a cost-per-click for, on a log scale. Amber gets deeper as the click gets pricier.

Strip plot of 1592 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: events in des moines area at $0.01. Most expensive: des moines car accident lawyer at $436.36.

### The price board

The 1,592 of 1,656 tracked keywords Google Ads returns a cost-per-click for. Volume and CPC are twelve-month averages, so neither moves week to week.

| # | KEYWORD | CPC | SEARCHES/MO | COST TO BUY ALL | Δ VS. LAST PULL |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | des moines car accident lawyer · LEGAL | $436.36 | 30 | $13.1K | — |
| 2 | garage door opener repair des moines · HOME SERVICES | $277.12 | 10 | $2.8K | — |
| 3 | des moines custody lawyers · LEGAL | $167.27 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 4 | garage door repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $134.67 | 90 | $12.1K | — |
| 5 | bath remodel des moines · HOME SERVICES | $97.96 | 110 | $10.8K | — |
| 6 | des moines garage door repair · HOME SERVICES | $96.05 | 170 | $16.3K | — |
| 7 | roofing contractors des moines · HOME SERVICES | $95.04 | 20 | $1.9K | — |
| 8 | roofing contractor near me · HOME SERVICES | $90.37 | 50 | $4.5K | — |
| 9 | garage door company des moines · HOME SERVICES | $89.22 | 20 | $1.8K | — |
| 10 | owi lawyer des moines · LEGAL | $79.40 | 30 | $2.4K | — |
| 11 | best roofers in des moines · HOME SERVICES | $77.22 | 10 | $772 | — |
| 12 | des moines accident attorney · LEGAL | $74.45 | 10 | $745 | — |
| 13 | emergency plumber des moines · HOME SERVICES | $74.25 | 20 | $1.5K | — |
| 14 | ludwig roofing des moines iowa · HOME SERVICES | $70.91 | 10 | $709 | — |
| 15 | city wide heating and cooling des moines · HOME SERVICES | $66.94 | 10 | $669 | — |
| 16 | long distance moving companies des moines · OTHER | $66.14 | 10 | $661 | — |
| 17 | termite inspection des moines · OTHER | $62.14 | 10 | $621 | — |
| 18 | des moines residential electricians · HOME SERVICES | $59.77 | 10 | $598 | — |
| 19 | hvac repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $59.50 | 20 | $1.2K | — |
| 20 | deck contractors des moines · HOME SERVICES | $58.87 | 10 | $589 | — |
| 21 | des moines window replacement · OTHER | $58.35 | 1,000 | $58.4K | — |
| 22 | cpa des moines · PROFESSIONAL SERVICES | $57.60 | 40 | $2.3K | — |
| 23 | criminal attorneys des moines iowa · LEGAL | $57.58 | 110 | $6.3K | — |
| 24 | des moines air conditioner service · HOME SERVICES | $57.33 | 10 | $573 | — |
| 25 | tax lawyer des moines iowa · LEGAL | $57.23 | 20 | $1.1K | — |
| 26 | green's appliance repair des moines · HOME SERVICES | $55.25 | 10 | $553 | — |
| 27 | stamped concrete des moines · OTHER | $53.01 | 10 | $530 | — |
| 28 | best pest control des moines · HOME SERVICES | $52.63 | 20 | $1.1K | — |
| 29 | springer pest solutions des moines iowa · HOME SERVICES | $52.39 | 10 | $524 | — |
| 30 | janssen pest control des moines · HOME SERVICES | $51.99 | 20 | $1.0K | — |
| 31 | movers in des moines area · OTHER | $51.47 | 10 | $515 | — |
| 32 | ac repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $50.99 | 90 | $4.6K | — |
| 33 | ac repair des moines · HOME SERVICES | $50.50 | 170 | $8.6K | — |
| 34 | a1 movers des moines · OTHER | $47.99 | 10 | $480 | — |
| 35 | pro bono lawyers in des moines iowa · LEGAL | $47.52 | 40 | $1.9K | — |
| 36 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $47.22 | 30 | $1.4K | — |
| 37 | divorce lawyer near me · LEGAL | $45.88 | 10 | $459 | — |
| 38 | commercial hvac des moines · HOME SERVICES | $45.15 | 30 | $1.4K | — |
| 39 | moving help des moines · OTHER | $44.06 | 10 | $441 | — |
| 40 | wildlife removal des moines · OTHER | $41.49 | 10 | $415 | — |
| 41 | family law lawyers in des moines iowa · LEGAL | $40.09 | 10 | $401 | — |
| 42 | insurance broker des moines · OTHER | $38.71 | 10 | $387 | — |
| 43 | wolf roofing des moines · HOME SERVICES | $38.28 | 10 | $383 | — |
| 44 | des moines furnace · OTHER | $37.36 | 30 | $1.1K | — |
| 45 | kitchen remodel des moines · HOME SERVICES | $37.03 | 90 | $3.3K | — |
| 46 | daycare downtown des moines · EDUCATION | $37.02 | 10 | $370 | — |
| 47 | electrical companies des moines · HOME SERVICES | $36.83 | 70 | $2.6K | — |
| 48 | aaa roofing des moines · HOME SERVICES | $35.17 | 10 | $352 | — |
| 49 | childcare des moines · OTHER | $34.61 | 30 | $1.0K | — |
| 50 | electrician near me · HOME SERVICES | $33.72 | 260 | $8.8K | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. Bar length is CPC on a linear scale. "Cost to buy all" is searches × CPC — what the traffic would cost at Google's posted price if every search became a click, which is a ceiling, not a forecast. Δ compares each keyword's CPC against the Aug 30 pull; Google refreshes these figures roughly monthly, so most rows do not move between weekly pulls.

### Why would anyone pay $436 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $436 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$43,636

15 become phone calls (15% call rate, benchmark)

3 become signed cases (20% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 3 signed cases +$75,000 · 1.7× the spend

Call and close rates are vertical benchmarks, not promises. But the principle sets every price on the board: **a click costs what the customer behind it is worth.** Bounce rate is priced in.

ONE CUSTOMER FUNDS

How many clicks a single customer's revenue buys back, at that keyword's CPC. Customer values are industry benchmarks.

des moines car accident lawyer

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $436.36/click

57 clicks

garage door opener repair des moines

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $277.12/click

34 clicks

southside dental in des moines iowa

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $21.95/click

145 clicks

des moines marriott downtown grand avenue des moines ia

~$1,800 customer value (benchmark) · $0.01/click

180,000 clicks

Source: CPC: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. Call rate, close rate and customer value are industry benchmarks hardcoded in this page — not measured for this metro, and not for your business. Spend, revenue and the multiple are all products of that one CPC and those assumptions.

Same market, different economies. This is why "is $X a click expensive?" has no answer without knowing what a customer is worth to *you*.

### What owning a vertical costs

Monthly ad-equivalent value of all clicks in each vertical — what you'd pay Google to buy the demand you could rank for.

Home Services $213,000/mo

Food & Dining $160,000/mo

Travel & Transit $110,000/mo

Health & Wellness $85,000/mo

Legal $59,000/mo

Other $37,000/mo

Ranking organically doesn't pay that bill — it makes it someone else's.

## The fight

A market this valuable doesn't sit unclaimed. Here's who holds Des Moines's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

27%

of Des Moines's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name — en.wikipedia.org, www.facebook.com, www.tripadvisor.com — their share is large, and it is beatable: Google prefers a good local answer when one exists. The other 73% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.

Waffle chart: 27 of 100 tracked page-one slots held by one of 40 named national directories, 73 by everything else.

out-of-town directories · 27 everything else · 73

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Des Moines coordinate · pulled September 8, 2026. "Directory" means the domain's registrable label matches one of 40 named national directory brands; everything else is counted as the remainder, which includes national brands we do not classify.

### Two pulls of "weekend events in des moines"

Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: **www.desmoinesregister.com moved ▼ 6 spots**. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.

Bump chart of page-one positions for weekend events in des moines between Aug 30 and Sep 8: www.desmoinesregister.com moved from position 2 → 8.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▼ 11

The Green Olive

map rank for "restaurant"

#7 → #18

▼ 10

Revelry Room Bar & Kitchen

map rank for "restaurant"

#1 → #11

▼ 6

www.desmoinesregister.com

weekend events in des moines

#2 → #8

▲ 6

www.tripadvisor.com

3 queries — restaurants near me · pizza near me · childrens museum des moines

3 up · 0 down

NEW

www.reddit.com

roof repair des moines · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

www.tripadvisor.com

restaurants near me · new to page one

— → #2

▲ 66

Machine Shed Restaurant

reviews

7,150 → 7,216

▲ 41

The Breakfast Club

reviews

1,835 → 1,876

▲ 0.3★

Lockout Legends

rating

4.7★ → 5.0★

▼ 0.1★

Unlock Iowa Locksmith Services

rating

4.4★ → 4.3★

Movement = week-over-week snapshot diff · arrows and signed numbers, always

### Most contested keywords

Who currently leads the top 6 fights worth having. Leader = top organic result; OPEN RACE = no [map pack](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#local-pack) on the page.

restaurants near me

90,500 searches/mo

www.catchdesmoines.com LOCAL

des moine airport

18,100 searches/mo

www.flydsm.com OPEN RACE

de moine airport

12,100 searches/mo

www.flydsm.com OPEN RACE

pizza near me

8,100 searches/mo

locations.papajohns.com LOCAL

iowa events center des moines

5,400 searches/mo

www.iowaeventscenter.com OPEN RACE

car wash near me

4,400 searches/mo

www.silverstarcarwashes.com LOCAL

NO MAP PACK

**8 of the 21 keywords we track show no map pack at all.** Google is answering those with links, not a map — so the way in is a page, not a profile. [See what that takes](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines#move).

### What page one is made of

Share of 21 tracked keywords showing each [SERP feature](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#serp-feature).

People Also Ask 95%

Map pack 62%

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Des Moines coordinate · pulled September 8, 2026. Feature presence as Google returned it; a featured snippet appeared on none of these SERPs and paid results on 2%, so neither is charted.

[People Also Ask](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#people-also-ask) boxes show on **95%** of these searches — answer those questions and you're on page one twice.

ANATOMY OF A #1

Royale Flush Gaming, LLC

Top-rated of 24 tracked Casino

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 4.4)

Reviews 580 (median 580)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, deduped by place\_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro.

None of this is magic. It's a rating edge and steady reviews. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 893 businesses we track in Des Moines's map results, **115** have no website at all — 13% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

115

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **807 reviews** and a 4.4 rating. If they are beating you, it is not because of their website.

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, deduped by place\_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro. "No website" is the absence of a site link on the Google listing.

### Who holds the map pack

35 businesses hold the 39 pack seats across the 13 tracked keywords that return a map pack. # is the best position each held; seats counts the keywords they appear on.

#1

Holt Plumbing & Heating, Inc.

4.8 ★ · 4,000 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

True Comfort Heating, Cooling and Plumbing

5.0 ★ · 1,100 reviews

2 SEATS

#2

Clog Busters Drain Cleaning & Repair

4.8 ★ · 3,300 reviews

2 SEATS

#2

Des Moines Heating & Cooling,LLC

4.9 ★ · 778 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Fong's Pizza

4.5 ★ · 4,300 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Precision Garage Door of Des Moines

5.0 ★ · 3,400 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Dentistry 801 Grand

4.9 ★ · 1,000 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Recon Roofing & Construction

4.9 ★ · 573 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**26 of the 35 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Des Moines.** That gap is a property of OUR roster, not of Google: every metro pulls the same 14 categories, and where they do not overlap the tracked keywords the share runs to 100% before Google is consulted. It says these packs were not measured by our category pull — not that categories do not matter.

Source: Google local pack via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 13 tracked keywords anchored on the Des Moines metro coordinate, September 8, 2026. Rank is position within the pack as returned, not a ranking claim. Businesses are keyed on the cid Google returns; ratings and review counts are the listing's own, read once and not averaged.

### Nobody has claimed these

Of the 893 businesses we track in Des Moines's map results, **90** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 10% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

90

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **2,443 reviews** and a 4.6 rating and still nobody controls the profile. Claiming one is free.

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Des Moines city geo-target, deduped by place\_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro. "Unclaimed" is Google's own flag on the listing.

## The city itself

Search demand doesn't come from nowhere. What follows is the rest of what we track about Des Moines — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

214K

PEOPLE

Median age 34.2. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$149,700

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

What the typical owner in the city proper says the home is worth — the city, not the metro.

$916

MEDIAN RENT / MO

Median gross rent in the city proper — rent plus the utilities the tenant pays.

Source: US Census Bureau, [American Community Survey](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs) 5-year estimates (2021 release), place level — Des Moines city proper, not the metro; fetched 2026-09-08. Population, median age, home value and rent all come from this one block; nothing on these cards is typed in.

### Des Moines vs. the nation

Three household figures — the city proper against the whole country, from the same survey on both sides.

| | DES MOINES | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $58,444 a year | $69,021 | −15% |
| Median home value | $149,700 | $244,900 | −39% |
| Median gross rent | $916 a month | $1,163 | −21% |

Source: both sides US Census Bureau, [American Community Survey](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs) 5-year estimates, 2021 release (2017–2021) — the city at place level (Des Moines city proper, not the metro; fetched 2026-09-08) and the nation as one geography (fetched 2026-09-09). Difference is the city over the national figure, computed. Unemployment, taxes, power and broadband are not here: no fetched source on both sides.

### The rest of the ledger

Everything else we track about living and working here — one line each, open what you need.

This week in town 74 upcoming events Iowa Cubs vs. Toledo Mudhens · Principal Park

74 upcoming tracked events, led by Iowa Cubs vs. Toledo Mudhens at Principal Park.

METHODOLOGY

Search volume, cost-per-click and SERP data from DataForSEO, collected September 8, 2026. Business listings, ratings and map positions from a live read of Google Maps in the same pull. Rank movement is a diff against the previous pull of our snapshot archive. Ad-equivalent value is searches × CPC — it prices the traffic, not your revenue. Call rates, close rates, and customer values in the unit-economics section are industry benchmarks, not measurements. Every other module on this page renders only where the underlying figure exists; where it does not, the module is absent rather than estimated.

Collected and published by [SEO Bandwagon](https://seobandwagon.com/about), tracking local search since 2010. The Des Moines edition comes from the same weekly sweep as [Google Business Profile Benchmarks](https://seobandwagon.com/research/gbp-benchmarks), whose method and verification are published in full. If a number here is wrong, [tell us](https://seobandwagon.com/contact).

## Your move

318K

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$436

PRICIEST CLICK

27%

PAGE ONE DIRECTORY SHARE

8 of 21

TRACKED SERPS WITH NO MAP PACK

4 numbers, one conclusion: the demand is real, the price of ignoring it compounds, and the leaderboard is not settled. The only question the ledger can't answer is whether you're on it.

STEP 1 · FREE

### See where you stand

Run the free scan against your site — rankings, backlinks and page speed, free with a Google sign-in.

[Scan your site free](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines#scan)

STEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP

### Claim your seat

8 of the 21 contested keywords show no map pack at all — Google answers those with links, not a map.

[Claim your business](https://business.google.com/)

STEP 3 · EVERY PULL

### Read the next edition

The ledger reprints every week — movers, price changes, and open seats, in your inbox before your competitors read it.

[New to this? Start with the blog — plain-English guides, no jargon →](https://seobandwagon.com/blog)

## Linked ledgers

The three nearest tracked metros on the map, and the one our data says behaves most like this one.

[NEAREST · 179 MI Kansas City, MO 2,931,540 searches/mo · 1,303 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/kansas-city) [NEAREST · 235 MI Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 1,518,500 searches/mo · 1,109 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/minneapolis-st-paul) [NEAREST · 309 MI Milwaukee, WI 1,888,610 searches/mo · 1,207 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/milwaukee) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE Richmond, VA 562,570 searches/mo · 1,012 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/richmond)

Linked within the 54 metros we track, and nowhere else. Distance is straight-line between each metro's single anchor point — a downtown coordinate, not a centroid. Lookalike is the closest match on four measured features — search volume, ad prices, listing density and review depth — excluding the neighbours above and everything inside 500 km, so it surfaces a market you would not otherwise think to compare. Recomputed on every build, so it moves as the markets do. SRC: the 54-metro collection, pulled across September 8, 2026 and the day either side · [all metros →](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo#cities)

GO DEEPER · THE LEDGER BY VERTICAL

[FOOD & DINING 195K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines/food-dining) [ENTERTAINMENT 29K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines/entertainment) [HOME SERVICES 12K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines/home-services)

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Canonical page: https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/des-moines
Every metro: https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo#cities
Data reuse license: https://seobandwagon.com/data-license
Site overview for agents: https://seobandwagon.com/llms.txt · API docs: https://seobandwagon.com/docs/api