LOCAL BENCHMARK · SPARSE

Dental in Des Moines, IA.

Every business below was observed on Google Maps for "dentist" targeted at Des Moines. Review counts, ratings, and ranks are from the IMPIOUS benchmark snapshot (internal benchmark, Apr 2026).

MEDIAN REVIEWS — TOP 3

409

P25 — MIN TO COMPETE

211

AVG RATING — TOP 3

4.73

DENSITY TIER

SPARSE

TOP-3 MEDIAN REFERRING DOMAINS

210

TOP-3 MEDIAN DFS RANK

98

AI MENTIONS — TOP 3 CITED

1 / 3

AI PLATFORMS

GPT

# BUSINESS REVIEWS RATING REF. DOMAINS AI CITED
1 Downtown Dental Care PLLC 409 5.0 217
1 Emergency Dentist Des Moines 241 4.8 262
1 Dentistry 801 Grand 955 4.9 210
1 Des Moines Dentures and Implants 35 4.9 34 cited
2 Dentistry On 5th 114 4.2 60
2 Emergency Dental Care USA 1306 4.5 728
3 Capital View Dentistry 211 4.4 7
4 Affordable Dentures & Implants 898 4.8
5 Gateway Dental Group 614 4.9

Market read

Des Moines dental ranks SPARSE, yet top-3 practices maintain a 67% spam rate—suggesting review authenticity standards remain loose across the market. The median top-3 business holds 409 reviews (internal benchmark, Apr 2026) with a 4.73 average rating, while pack-entry floor sits at 211 reviews. Review velocity averages 6.92 monthly submissions (internal benchmark, Apr 2026), indicating steady organic activity. Google Business Profile completeness lags at 63/100 for leaders. Backlink authority shows median 210 referring domains and DFS rank 128 among top performers. AI citation data reveals ChatGPT names one top-3 dentist when prompted for local recommendations. A p25 entrant reaching top-3 status requires tripling review count while maintaining rating integrity and establishing meaningful domain authority—a multi-quarter effort in a market with minimal competitive density.

See "The Review Gap Is Smaller Than Everyone Thinks" for the cross-city pattern and "What the Top-3 Actually Have on Their Backlink Profile" for the backlink + AI-citation breakdown.