A locksmith's website normally has five pages about lockouts and keys. This one is the research we did before choosing where to work, published in full with the method and the sources: 40 US cities, what people search, what the click is worth to advertisers, who is on page one, and how strong they actually are.
Last updated September 2026. Every figure is computed from the source files, not typed in.
The median city has 700 locksmith searches a month at a CPC of 16.70 USD. Across the 40 cities, monthly searches for 'locksmith' plus the city range from 210 to 2390. The median Google Ads CPC is 16.70 USD; the highest is Broomfield, CO at 25.86 USD. Lockouts are urgent, which is why advertisers pay what they do for the click.
A local pack showed in 37 of the 40 cities. We checked the live results for each city rather than trusting a cached label. Where the three-business map pack shows, it takes the first clicks before any website is seen; in the 3 cities without one, the organic results are the whole page.
Directories hold a median of 4 of the ten organic spots. Yelp, Thumbtack, Angi and their peers take a median of 4 of the top ten. The first actual locksmith website ranks at a median position of 1, and in some cities not until page two.
26 of the 40 #1 locksmith sites have three or fewer real links. After removing shorteners, scrapers and expired-domain networks, 26 of the 40 top-ranked locksmith sites have three or fewer real referring domains, and 9 have none at all. Only 4 of the 40 #1 spots are held by a national chain. The ranking bar in most of these cities is low.
Ordered by monthly searches. 'Directories in top 10' counts Yelp, Thumbtack, Angi and similar sites among the ten organic results. 'First locksmith site ranks' is the position of the first result that is an actual locksmith.
| City | Searches / month | Google Ads CPC (USD) | Local pack | Directories in top 10 | First locksmith site ranks | #1 site | Real referring domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Palm Beach, FL | 2390 | 19.70 | yes | 3 | #1 | wilsonrowanlocksmith.com | 0 |
| Denton, TX | 2010 | 18.55 | yes | 3 | #1 | bryanandsonslocksmithdenton.com | 5 |
| Greenville, SC | 2000 | 18.46 | yes | 3 | #1 | americanlocksc.com | 1 |
| Killeen, TX | 1960 | 8.11 | yes | 4 | #1 | popalock.com | 100+ |
| Fayetteville, NC | 1900 | 10.42 | yes | 3 | #1 | 4gotkeys.com | 10 |
| Myrtle Beach, SC | 1740 | 11.27 | yes | 3 | #1 | theaffordablelockandkey.com | 2 |
| Lakeland, FL | 1690 | 16.82 | yes | 4 | #1 | lakelandlocksmith.com | 0 |
| Aurora, IL | 1610 | 11.82 | yes | 5 | #2 | goldylocksinc.com | 14 |
| Fort Myers, FL | 1380 | 19.21 | yes | 2 | #1 | koonslocksmiths.com | 72 |
| Fairfax, VA | 1310 | 8.77 | yes | 3 | #2 | artieslockandkey.com | 1 |
| Renton, WA | 1030 | 12.99 | yes | 4 | #1 | rentonlockandkey.com | 1 |
| Kissimmee, FL | 970 | 20.79 | yes | 6 | #1 | royssafeandlock.com | 2 |
| Daytona Beach, FL | 930 | 17.83 | yes | 3 | #1 | aaalocksmithsecurity.com | 3 |
| Cape Coral, FL | 900 | 22.95 | yes | 4 | #1 | locksmithcapecoralfl.com | 1 |
| Summerville, SC | 890 | 24.96 | yes | 3 | #1 | summervillelocksmiths.com | 1 |
| Murfreesboro, TN | 890 | 12.39 | yes | 6 | #1 | locksmith-murfreesborotn.com | 2 |
| Kenner, LA | 880 | 12.45 | yes | 5 | #2 | kennerlocksmith.org | 0 |
| Palm Coast, FL | 880 | 18.14 | yes | 5 | #1 | popalock.com | 100+ |
| Clearwater, FL | 840 | 14.26 | yes | 2 | #1 | clearwaterlocksmith.org | 0 |
| San Marcos, TX | 780 | 21.57 | yes | 5 | #1 | rickslockandkeyinc.com | 0 |
| High Point, NC | 620 | 14.78 | yes | 5 | #1 | highpointlocksmith.net | 9 |
| Deland, FL | 610 | 24.89 | yes | 5 | #1 | delandlocksmith.net | 2 |
| Apex, NC | 590 | 19.64 | yes | 3 | #1 | apexlockandkey.com | 6 |
| Galveston, TX | 590 | 16.58 | yes | 7 | #1 | gtxlockandkey.com | 0 |
| Round Rock, TX | 590 | 21.09 | yes | 3 | #2 | acelocksmithtx.com | 3 |
| Wake Forest, NC | 480 | 18.32 | yes | 5 | #1 | wakeforestlocksmith.org | 0 |
| Toms River, NJ | 480 | 12.65 | yes | 6 | #1 | tomsriverlocksmith.com | 1 |
| Largo, FL | 390 | 14.23 | yes | 5 | #1 | largolock.com | 3 |
| Trenton, NJ | 320 | 10.13 | yes | 6 | #1 | trentonlocksmithnj.com | 6 |
| Keller, TX | 320 | 20.05 | yes | 4 | #1 | michaelskeyslocksmith.com | 28 |
| Waterbury, CT | 320 | 12.33 | yes | 4 | #1 | waterburylocksmithpro.com | 2 |
| Woodbury, MN | 320 | 14.16 | yes | 5 | #1 | woodburylocksmith.org | 9 |
| Peoria, AZ | 260 | 20.55 | yes | 4 | #2 | popalock.com | 100+ |
| New Rochelle, NY | 260 | 14.76 | yes | 5 | #1 | alrovinslocksmith.com | 0 |
| Mountain View, CA | 260 | 17.34 | no | 0 | #- | key.me | 96 |
| Marlborough, MA | 260 | 12.04 | no | 5 | #1 | marlborolocksmith.com | 2 |
| Rowlett, TX | 210 | 22.40 | no | 2 | #1 | michaelskeyslocksmith.com | 28 |
| Broomfield, CO | 210 | 25.86 | yes | 5 | #1 | jimmielockandkey.com | 0 |
| Wentzville, MO | 210 | 16.41 | yes | 5 | #1 | wentzvillelocksmith.com | 1 |
| Quincy, MA | 210 | 14.16 | yes | 4 | #1 | granitelock.com | 3 |
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<a href="https://crosscutlocksmithgreenville.com/locksmith-search-study-2026">Locksmith Search in 40 US Cities (2026)</a> - Crosscut Locksmith & Key, September 2026. Google Ads and live search data via DataForSEO.
Search volume and CPC: Google Ads keyword data via the DataForSEO API, keyword 'locksmith' plus the city, city-level location codes, September 2026. Page one: live Google organic results per city via DataForSEO, desktop, twenty results deep. Referring domains: DataForSEO backlinks index, live links only, top 100 by rank per site, junk removed by rule. Local pack: read from the same live result, from the city center.
Limits: Google Ads rounds volumes, so small cities show as 20, 30 or 40. A pack can differ by where the searcher stands. Referring-domain counts are capped at 100 per site.
Search volumes and CPC are Google Ads keyword data for 'locksmith' plus the city, pulled through DataForSEO with city-level location codes in September 2026. Pack, directory counts and first-locksmith position are from live Google results per city, twenty deep. Referring domains are DataForSEO's backlink index with shorteners, scraper sites and free-hosted throwaway domains removed.
They are the cities we researched when choosing where to open. Every one is kept, including the ones we passed on, so the table isn't a highlight reel.
A site listing many locksmiths rather than being one: Yelp, Thumbtack, Angi, Nextdoor, Facebook pages, YellowPages and the like.
One that would exist if search engines didn't. Link shorteners, 'website worth' scrapers and expired-domain networks made up most of the raw count on several sites, so they're removed.
Yes, with a link back to this page as the source. Ask and we'll send the underlying file.
Quarterly. The date at the top changes when it is.
Call and we send someone out.
