LOCAL BENCHMARK · SPARSE
Plumbing in Akron, OH.
Every business below was observed on Google Maps for "plumber" targeted at Akron. Review counts, ratings, and ranks are from the IMPIOUS benchmark snapshot (internal benchmark, Apr 2026).
MEDIAN REVIEWS — TOP 3
563
P25 — MIN TO COMPETE
71
AVG RATING — TOP 3
4.87
DENSITY TIER
SPARSE
TOP-3 MEDIAN REFERRING DOMAINS
247
TOP-3 MEDIAN DFS RANK
229
AI MENTIONS — TOP 3 CITED
0 / 3
AI PLATFORMS
none
| # | BUSINESS | REVIEWS | RATING | REF. DOMAINS | AI CITED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup | 2161 | 4.9★ | 7939 | — |
| 1 | Hefty Plumb Home Repair Services | 71 | 4.9★ | 49 | — |
| 2 | Big Tom's Plumbing & Drain Inc. | 164 | 4.7★ | 64 | — |
| 2 | H. Jack's Plumbing and Heating Akron | 663 | 4.7★ | 312 | — |
| 3 | J&J Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, & Electric | 3814 | 4.8★ | 251 | — |
| 3 | Plumbing 911 | 3512 | 4.9★ | 247 | — |
| 3 | Novak Heating & Cooling | 462 | 5.0★ | 55 | — |
| 4 | Rooter Man | 629 | 4.8★ | — | — |
Market read
Akron's plumbing market shows minimal AI-driven discovery: ChatGPT named zero of Google's top-3 when asked for the best local plumber. The internal benchmark (Apr 2026) reveals top-3 median reviews at 563 against a p25 entry floor of 71—an 8x gap. Top-3 businesses average 4.87 stars with 8.17 monthly reviews, though 17% spam rates and 67/100 GBP completeness suggest quality control issues. The SPARSE density tier indicates low competitive saturation. Median referring domains for top-3 reach 155.5 with DFS rank 172. For p25 businesses targeting top-3 status, the path requires sustained review velocity and domain authority investment; the review gap alone demands 500+ additional reviews to reach parity.
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.