LOCAL BENCHMARK · MEDIUM
Plumbing in Richmond, VA.
Every business below was observed on Google Maps for "plumber" targeted at Richmond. Review counts, ratings, and ranks are from the IMPIOUS benchmark snapshot (internal benchmark, Apr 2026).
MEDIAN REVIEWS — TOP 3
229
P25 — MIN TO COMPETE
210
AVG RATING — TOP 3
4.77
DENSITY TIER
MEDIUM
TOP-3 MEDIAN REFERRING DOMAINS
248.5
TOP-3 MEDIAN DFS RANK
188
AI MENTIONS — TOP 3 CITED
0 / 3
AI PLATFORMS
none
| # | BUSINESS | REVIEWS | RATING | REF. DOMAINS | AI CITED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bradley Mechanical | 1606 | 4.9★ | 330 | — |
| 1 | Any Time Emergency Plumbing | 229 | 4.7★ | — | — |
| 1 | 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗿𝘆 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 | 78 | 4.9★ | 8 | — |
| 2 | The Plumbing Officials | 210 | 4.9★ | 63 | — |
| 2 | M.A. Williams Drain Cleaning & Plumbing | 166 | 4.3★ | 167 | — |
| 2 | Michael & Son Services | 9638 | 4.8★ | 632 | — |
| 3 | Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Drain Services | 628 | 4.5★ | 7939 | — |
| 4 | MASTER and SONS PLUMBING | 129 | 4.5★ | — | — |
| 4 | H2O PRO Plumbing | 329 | 5.0★ | — | — |
| 5 | Nuckols Plumbing, Heating & Cooling | 331 | 4.9★ | — | — |
| 5 | Near Me Plumbing Pros - Richmond | 4 | 5.0★ | — | — |
Market read
Richmond's plumbing market shows a counterintuitive gap: top-3 businesses average 4.77 stars with 229 median reviews (internal benchmark, Apr 2026), yet maintain only 63/100 Google Business Profile completeness. This suggests rating volume matters more than profile optimization for ranking. The pack entry floor sits at 210 reviews, a narrow 19-review margin from the median leader. Review velocity averages 7 per month across top-3 competitors, while a 25% spam rate indicates quality control challenges even at the elite tier. With 248.5 median referring domains supporting these leaders, backlink strength correlates directly with local dominance. For a p25 business reaching top-3 status, the data implies two priorities: sustained monthly review generation beyond 7/month and aggressive domain authority building, as Google's top-3 receive zero mentions in ChatGPT citations for "best plumber in Richmond, VA."
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.