# Who gets found in Charleston?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 4 page-one leaders changed hands 28 new pages in the top 5

THE SEARCH LEDGER · CHARLESTON EDITION · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

Every month, Charleston types 1,420,220 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $2.88M 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/charleston#methodology)

1,420,220

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$2.88M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,273

LISTINGS TRACKED

2,983

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Charleston searches 2,298,380 times a month in total. The other 878,160 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/), Charleston DMA, 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/), Charleston DMA, 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 Charleston asks Google for in an average month.

1,420,220

searches in an average month across the 1,281 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **47,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Charleston.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 62% of everything Charleston searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 68 percent, Other 10 percent, Attractions 10 percent, Shopping 3 percent, Personal Care 3 percent, Health & Wellness 2 percent, Real Estate 2 percent, Hotels & Lodging 2 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charleston DMA, 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 68% Other 10% Attractions 10% Shopping 3% Personal Care 3% Health & Wellness 2% Real Estate 2% Hotels & Lodging 2%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **68% of the addressable demand** in Charleston, against 10% for Attractions. 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/), Charleston DMA · 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Entertainment | 65 | 65 | 87 | 77 | 100 | 91 | 65 | 54 | 63 | 74 | 85 | 97 |
| Attractions | 57 | 62 | 92 | 94 | 91 | 100 | 100 | 82 | 71 | 78 | 78 | 85 |
| Home Services | 99 | 87 | 91 | 83 | 84 | 84 | 86 | 97 | 100 | 87 | 69 | 70 |
| Travel & Transit | 64 | 60 | 100 | 79 | 76 | 89 | 86 | 68 | 58 | 69 | 75 | 65 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 64 | 67 | 95 | 98 | 92 | 95 | 100 | 84 | 76 | 90 | 75 | 86 |
| Food & Dining | 71 | 71 | 99 | 98 | 100 | 98 | 98 | 93 | 84 | 87 | 75 | 74 |
| Shopping | 68 | 58 | 95 | 93 | 94 | 96 | 100 | 95 | 85 | 86 | 82 | 86 |
| Education | 83 | 73 | 86 | 72 | 68 | 77 | 68 | 100 | 74 | 64 | 52 | 53 |
| Real Estate | 86 | 81 | 92 | 88 | 88 | 82 | 83 | 100 | 86 | 83 | 75 | 73 |
| Personal Care | 69 | 69 | 92 | 92 | 92 | 84 | 89 | 100 | 85 | 79 | 74 | 75 |
| Health & Wellness | 95 | 82 | 93 | 88 | 84 | 88 | 89 | 93 | 100 | 96 | 88 | 89 |
| Legal | 81 | 84 | 62 | 49 | 42 | 35 | 52 | 54 | 100 | 68 | 46 | 47 |
| Professional Services | 100 | 89 | 82 | 56 | 39 | 38 | 41 | 70 | 67 | 74 | 57 | 55 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Charleston 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.

charleston july 4th events ▲ 280% BREAKOUT

4th of july events charleston sc ▲ 280% BREAKOUT

4th of july charleston ▲ 279% BREAKOUT

cole swindell charleston sc ▲ 278% BREAKOUT

dierks bentley charleston ▲ 271% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charleston DMA, 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 Charleston — 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. 3 more clear the bar below these.

North Charleston SUBURB 58,160/mo

43 keywords · $102.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

West Ashley NEIGHBORHOOD 45,020/mo

141 keywords · $96.5K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Park Circle NEIGHBORHOOD 21,270/mo

4 keywords · $23.5K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Summerville SUBURB 17,880/mo

37 keywords · $51.3K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Mount Pleasant SUBURB 12,810/mo

17 keywords · $16.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Goose Creek SUBURB 4,510/mo

7 keywords · $2.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Daniel Island NEIGHBORHOOD 3,700/mo

4 keywords · $7.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Harleston Village NEIGHBORHOOD 1,010/mo

2 keywords · $2.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Riverland Terrace NEIGHBORHOOD 830/mo

2 keywords · $349/mo in ad-equivalent value

Radcliffeborough NEIGHBORHOOD 730/mo

2 keywords · $108/mo in ad-equivalent value

Source: Computed from Google Ads search volume × CPC via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charleston DMA, 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.

**North Charleston** alone carries 58,160 searches a month across 43 keywords, worth $102.7K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Charleston", 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 Charleston.

"CHARLESTON WORKERS COMP LAWYER" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$302.41

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 2,874 of 2,983 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 2874 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: whataburger charleston sc at $0.01. Most expensive: charleston workers comp lawyer at $302.41.

### The price board

The 2,874 of 2,983 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 | charleston workers comp lawyer · LEGAL | $302.41 | 480 | $145.2K | — |
| 2 | plumbing contractor charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $185.84 | 10 | $1.9K | — |
| 3 | best roofing company charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $171.30 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 4 | plumbing repair charleston · HOME SERVICES | $150.82 | 10 | $1.5K | — |
| 5 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $148.44 | 2,400 | $356.3K | — |
| 6 | benjamin franklin plumbing charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $127.73 | 20 | $2.6K | — |
| 7 | charleston injury lawyer · LEGAL | $109.44 | 1,300 | $142.3K | — |
| 8 | charleston renovations · OTHER | $108.98 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 9 | ac company charleston · OTHER | $106.95 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 10 | identity theft lawyers in charleston · LEGAL | $102.76 | 10 | $1.0K | — |
| 11 | workers comp lawyer charleston sc · LEGAL | $97.56 | 70 | $6.8K | — |
| 12 | george sink law firm charleston sc · LEGAL | $96.66 | 10 | $967 | — |
| 13 | charleston sc insurance agents · PROFESSIONAL SERVICES | $95.66 | 20 | $1.9K | — |
| 14 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $92.62 | 210 | $19.5K | — |
| 15 | pool cleaning companies charleston sc · OTHER | $92.57 | 10 | $926 | — |
| 16 | van smith concrete charleston sc · OTHER | $91.54 | 10 | $915 | — |
| 17 | rebath charleston sc · OTHER | $87.43 | 10 | $874 | — |
| 18 | green law firm charleston sc · LEGAL | $85.36 | 10 | $854 | — |
| 19 | pest control services charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $77.96 | 20 | $1.6K | — |
| 20 | anchor roofing charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $76.01 | 10 | $760 | — |
| 21 | charleston garage door repair · HOME SERVICES | $74.34 | 210 | $15.6K | — |
| 22 | charleston termite company · OTHER | $73.43 | 10 | $734 | — |
| 23 | hvac repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $70.76 | 140 | $9.9K | — |
| 24 | garage door repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $70.51 | 260 | $18.3K | — |
| 25 | best hvac companies in charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $69.24 | 30 | $2.1K | — |
| 26 | williford roofing charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $68.97 | 10 | $690 | — |
| 27 | roofing contractor near me · HOME SERVICES | $68.57 | 170 | $11.7K | — |
| 28 | carpet baggers charleston sc · OTHER | $67.74 | 30 | $2.0K | — |
| 29 | charleston roofing repair · HOME SERVICES | $67.46 | 140 | $9.4K | — |
| 30 | car wreck lawyer charleston · LEGAL | $66.00 | 880 | $58.1K | — |
| 31 | roofing america charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $65.54 | 10 | $655 | — |
| 32 | shelly leeke law firm charleston · LEGAL | $64.39 | 10 | $644 | — |
| 33 | ac heating and air charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $64.15 | 30 | $1.9K | — |
| 34 | shelly leeke law firm charleston sc · LEGAL | $63.13 | 30 | $1.9K | — |
| 35 | accident lawyer charleston · LEGAL | $62.63 | 260 | $16.3K | — |
| 36 | ac repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $62.61 | 720 | $45.1K | — |
| 37 | mr rooter charleston sc · OTHER | $61.05 | 10 | $611 | — |
| 38 | concrete driveway charleston sc · OTHER | $60.08 | 10 | $601 | — |
| 39 | palmetto termite charleston sc · OTHER | $59.77 | 10 | $598 | — |
| 40 | best plumbers in charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $58.67 | 30 | $1.8K | — |
| 41 | remodeling contractors charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $57.88 | 30 | $1.7K | — |
| 42 | residential contractors charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $57.71 | 10 | $577 | — |
| 43 | hvac repair charleston · HOME SERVICES | $56.64 | 170 | $9.6K | — |
| 44 | rodent removal charleston sc · OTHER | $55.86 | 10 | $559 | — |
| 45 | lawyers charleston sc · LEGAL | $55.72 | 590 | $32.9K | — |
| 46 | charleston air conditioning · HOME SERVICES | $55.27 | 90 | $5.0K | — |
| 47 | charleston hvac service · HOME SERVICES | $54.10 | 70 | $3.8K | — |
| 48 | plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $53.87 | 2,400 | $129.3K | — |
| 49 | heating and air charleston sc · HOME SERVICES | $51.59 | 140 | $7.2K | — |
| 50 | ac repair charleston · HOME SERVICES | $50.56 | 110 | $5.6K | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charleston DMA, 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 $302 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $302 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$30,241

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

3 become signed cases (20% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 3 signed cases +$75,000 · 2.5× 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.

charleston workers comp lawyer

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $302.41/click

82 clicks

plumbing contractor charleston sc

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $185.84/click

51 clicks

charleston animal clinic

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $49.04/click

65 clicks

charleston concert calendar

~$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/), Charleston DMA, 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.

Legal $842,000/mo

Home Services $642,000/mo

Food & Dining $495,000/mo

Health & Wellness $271,000/mo

Other $208,000/mo

Attractions $93,000/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 Charleston's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

21%

of Charleston's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name. The other 79% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.

Waffle chart: 21 of 100 tracked page-one slots held by one of 40 named national directories, 79 by everything else.

out-of-town directories · 21 everything else · 79

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Charleston 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 "accident lawyer charleston"

Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: **mdswlegal.com moved ▼ 5 spots**. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.

Bump chart of page-one positions for accident lawyer charleston between Aug 30 and Sep 8: mdswlegal.com moved from position 2 → 7.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▲ 16

MUSC Health Rutledge Tower

map rank for "urgent care"

#20 → #4

▲ 15

CVS

map rank for "grocery store"

#20 → #5

▼ 8

www.yelp.com

6 queries — aquarium charleston south carolina · restaurants near me · charleston movers +3

0 up · 6 down

▲ 7

www.charlestonrotorooter.com

2 queries — plumber near me · emergency plumber near me

2 up · 0 down

NEW

www.charlestoncvb.com

restaurants near me · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

www.yelp.com

locksmith near me · new to page one

— → #1

▲ 85

Hyman's Seafood

reviews

50,561 → 50,646

▲ 53

V Modern Italian

reviews

900 → 953

▼ 0.1★

The Haven at Indigo Square

rating

4.7★ → 4.6★

▼ 12

Society at Laurens

map rank for "apartments"

#5 → #17

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

450,000 searches/mo

www.charlestoncvb.com LOCAL

pizza near me

40,500 searches/mo

www.timberpizza.com LOCAL

grocery store near me

40,500 searches/mo

stores.foodlion.com LOCAL

charleston airport

14,800 searches/mo

iflychs.com OPEN RACE

urgent care near me

14,800 searches/mo

www.getcare.muschealth.org LOCAL

aquarium charleston south carolina

12,100 searches/mo

scaquarium.org OPEN RACE

NO MAP PACK

**4 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/charleston#move).

### What page one is made of

Share of 20 tracked keywords showing each [SERP feature](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#serp-feature).

People Also Ask 90%

Map pack 80%

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Charleston 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 **90%** of these searches — answer those questions and you're on page one twice.

ANATOMY OF A #1

Anchor Heating and Air LLC

Top-rated of 73 tracked Ac Repair

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 4.9)

Reviews 1,510 (median 117)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charleston DMA, 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 12.9× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,273 businesses we track in Charleston's map results, **156** have no website at all — 12% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

156

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **917 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/), Charleston DMA, 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

37 businesses hold the 47 pack seats across the 16 tracked keywords that return a map pack. # is the best position each held; seats counts the keywords they appear on.

#1

Bringardner Injury Law Firm

5.0 ★ · 227 reviews

4 SEATS

#1

Roden Law

4.9 ★ · 106 reviews

4 SEATS

#3

Ty Robinson Personal Injury & Car Accident Law Firm

4.9 ★ · 149 reviews

3 SEATS

#1

Charles Towne Plumbing

4.9 ★ · 107 reviews

2 SEATS

#2

World Class Plumbing 2.0

4.9 ★ · 14 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Henry's On The Market

4.2 ★ · 2,800 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Old Slave Mart Museum

4.4 ★ · 2,500 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Holy City Heating & Air, LLC

4.9 ★ · 1,200 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**8 of the 37 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Charleston.** 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/), 16 tracked keywords anchored on the Charleston 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 1,273 businesses we track in Charleston's map results, **142** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 11% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

142

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **2,113 reviews** and a 4.8 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/), Charleston DMA, 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 Charleston — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

148K

PEOPLE

Median age 35.5. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$369,500

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$1,400

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 — Charleston 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.

### Charleston vs. the nation

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

| | CHARLESTON | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $76,556 a year | $69,021 | +11% |
| Median home value | $369,500 | $244,900 | +51% |
| Median gross rent | $1,400 a month | $1,163 | +20% |

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 (Charleston 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 62 upcoming events The Rat Pack · The Charleston Music Hall

62 upcoming tracked events, led by The Rat Pack at The Charleston Music Hall.

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 Charleston 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

1.42M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$302

PRICIEST CLICK

21%

PAGE ONE DIRECTORY SHARE

4 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/charleston#scan)

STEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP

### Claim your seat

4 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 · 177 MI Charlotte, NC 3,663,260 searches/mo · 1,318 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte) [NEAREST · 197 MI Jacksonville, FL 2,043,280 searches/mo · 1,273 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/jacksonville) [NEAREST · 201 MI Greenville, SC 330,440 searches/mo · 957 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/greenville) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE Columbus, OH 2,257,720 searches/mo · 1,257 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/columbus)

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 1.0M/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston/food-dining) [HEALTH & WELLNESS 43K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston/health-wellness) [ENTERTAINMENT 42K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston/entertainment) [REAL ESTATE 30K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston/real-estate) [HOME SERVICES 27K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston/home-services) [LEGAL 10K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston/legal)

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Canonical page: https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston
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