# Who gets found in Charlotte?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 3 page-one leaders changed hands 14 new pages in the top 5

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

Every month, Charlotte types 3,663,260 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $8.73M 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/charlotte#methodology)

3,663,260

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$8.73M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,318

LISTINGS TRACKED

5,343

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Charlotte searches 6,346,210 times a month in total. The other 2,682,950 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/), Charlotte 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/), Charlotte 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 Charlotte asks Google for in an average month.

3,663,260

searches in an average month across the 2,302 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **122,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Charlotte.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 58% of everything Charlotte searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 60 percent, Travel & Transit 12 percent, Other 11 percent, Health & Wellness 4 percent, Shopping 4 percent, Attractions 3 percent, Personal Care 3 percent, Real Estate 3 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charlotte 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 60% Travel & Transit 12% Other 11% Health & Wellness 4% Shopping 4% Attractions 3% Personal Care 3% Real Estate 3%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **60% of the addressable demand** in Charlotte, against 12% for Travel & Transit. 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/), Charlotte 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Shopping | 74 | 67 | 79 | 78 | 93 | 89 | 92 | 98 | 75 | 86 | 92 | 100 |
| Education | 74 | 68 | 78 | 85 | 83 | 71 | 88 | 91 | 86 | 100 | 69 | 67 |
| Attractions | 60 | 64 | 88 | 87 | 93 | 100 | 97 | 94 | 85 | 88 | 77 | 80 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 79 | 75 | 82 | 86 | 85 | 90 | 100 | 83 | 77 | 88 | 75 | 81 |
| Food & Dining | 75 | 76 | 85 | 84 | 89 | 96 | 98 | 100 | 85 | 88 | 85 | 85 |
| Entertainment | 41 | 42 | 48 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 66 | 95 | 100 | 85 | 55 | 44 |
| Travel & Transit | 81 | 79 | 100 | 95 | 96 | 98 | 100 | 96 | 83 | 100 | 95 | 95 |
| Health & Wellness | 100 | 81 | 90 | 86 | 82 | 87 | 86 | 91 | 94 | 95 | 85 | 100 |
| Real Estate | 92 | 79 | 99 | 90 | 91 | 88 | 87 | 100 | 90 | 86 | 76 | 76 |
| Home Services | 100 | 95 | 80 | 70 | 63 | 67 | 69 | 78 | 82 | 77 | 84 | 81 |
| Personal Care | 61 | 68 | 82 | 82 | 92 | 83 | 82 | 100 | 82 | 74 | 74 | 74 |
| Professional Services | 97 | 100 | 92 | 68 | 42 | 39 | 45 | 66 | 74 | 84 | 75 | 75 |
| Legal | 95 | 80 | 92 | 64 | 62 | 61 | 59 | 99 | 99 | 100 | 64 | 75 |
| Jobs & Careers | 58 | 94 | 99 | 96 | 100 | 88 | 71 | 47 | 44 | 35 | 28 | 25 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Charlotte 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.

4th of july charlotte ▲ 286% BREAKOUT

carowinds 4th of july ▲ 281% BREAKOUT

ti concert charlotte nc ▲ 270% BREAKOUT

charlotte july 4th events ▲ 268% BREAKOUT

charlotte peruvian festival ▲ 250% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charlotte 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 Charlotte — 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. 21 more clear the bar below these.

Ballantyne NEIGHBORHOOD 72,890/mo

150 keywords · $163.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Concord SUBURB 47,320/mo

71 keywords · $68.0K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Huntersville SUBURB 35,040/mo

18 keywords · $52.5K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Gastonia SUBURB 27,150/mo

25 keywords · $62.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Davidson SUBURB 20,800/mo

13 keywords · $52.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Pineville SUBURB 20,430/mo

44 keywords · $48.0K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Downtown NEIGHBORHOOD 18,580/mo

57 keywords · $29.9K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Mooresville SUBURB 15,350/mo

18 keywords · $18.9K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Monroe SUBURB 14,510/mo

10 keywords · $24.5K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Matthews SUBURB 12,690/mo

30 keywords · $28.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

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

**Ballantyne** alone carries 72,890 searches a month across 150 keywords, worth $163.1K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Charlotte", 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 Charlotte.

"PERSONAL INJURY CHARLOTTE NC" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$302.16

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 5,114 of 5,343 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 5114 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: tripadvisor cornelius nc at $0.01. Most expensive: personal injury charlotte nc at $302.16.

### The price board

The 5,114 of 5,343 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 | personal injury charlotte nc · OTHER | $302.16 | 20 | $6.0K | — |
| 2 | charlotte accident attorney · LEGAL | $244.58 | 40 | $9.8K | — |
| 3 | best pest control charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $231.36 | 10 | $2.3K | — |
| 4 | best law firms charlotte nc · LEGAL | $219.89 | 30 | $6.6K | — |
| 5 | landscape nursery charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $199.45 | 10 | $2.0K | — |
| 6 | pest control 28269 · HOME SERVICES | $182.24 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 7 | wasp control charlotte · OTHER | $165.46 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 8 | best personal injury lawyer charlotte nc · LEGAL | $156.70 | 70 | $11.0K | — |
| 9 | southern star roofing charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $148.43 | 70 | $10.4K | — |
| 10 | accident lawyer charlotte · LEGAL | $146.33 | 40 | $5.9K | — |
| 11 | commercial roofing contractors charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $145.26 | 70 | $10.2K | — |
| 12 | 21 roofing charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $140.70 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 13 | charlotte wrongful death lawyer · LEGAL | $135.82 | 260 | $35.3K | — |
| 14 | injury lawyer charlotte · LEGAL | $134.78 | 2,400 | $323.5K | — |
| 15 | 24 hour plumber charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $130.99 | 40 | $5.2K | — |
| 16 | best car accident lawyers in charlotte nc · LEGAL | $126.43 | 90 | $11.4K | — |
| 17 | electrician 28277 · HOME SERVICES | $122.48 | 10 | $1.2K | — |
| 18 | bathroom remodel cost charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $120.38 | 10 | $1.2K | — |
| 19 | the mosquito authority of charlotte · OTHER | $118.91 | 10 | $1.2K | — |
| 20 | emergency electrician charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $118.60 | 10 | $1.2K | — |
| 21 | emergency plumbing charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $118.57 | 170 | $20.2K | — |
| 22 | garage repair charlotte · OTHER | $117.66 | 20 | $2.4K | — |
| 23 | charlotte hvac service · HOME SERVICES | $117.35 | 70 | $8.2K | — |
| 24 | wasp removal charlotte nc · OTHER | $117.12 | 10 | $1.2K | — |
| 25 | masters roofing charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $115.81 | 20 | $2.3K | — |
| 26 | roof installation charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $111.99 | 70 | $7.8K | — |
| 27 | foundation contractors charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $110.09 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 28 | roof maxx charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $107.56 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 29 | mosquito spray charlotte · OTHER | $107.11 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 30 | workers comp lawyer charlotte · LEGAL | $103.80 | 720 | $74.7K | — |
| 31 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $101.80 | 2,400 | $244.3K | — |
| 32 | rodent exterminator charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $100.11 | 10 | $1.0K | — |
| 33 | 24 hour ac repair charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $99.61 | 10 | $996 | — |
| 34 | charlotte car accident lawyer · LEGAL | $97.94 | 3,600 | $352.6K | — |
| 35 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $95.91 | 1,300 | $124.7K | — |
| 36 | charlotte air conditioning · HOME SERVICES | $95.45 | 50 | $4.8K | — |
| 37 | ac contractor charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $93.48 | 10 | $935 | — |
| 38 | new windows charlotte · OTHER | $91.90 | 10 | $919 | — |
| 39 | flat roof repair charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $91.43 | 10 | $914 | — |
| 40 | residential hvac charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $82.91 | 10 | $829 | — |
| 41 | best hvac charlotte · HOME SERVICES | $80.42 | 10 | $804 | — |
| 42 | employment law firms charlotte nc · LEGAL | $78.76 | 10 | $788 | — |
| 43 | rodent removal charlotte · OTHER | $78.57 | 10 | $786 | — |
| 44 | drywall installers charlotte · OTHER | $76.81 | 10 | $768 | — |
| 45 | charlotte ac maintenance · OTHER | $74.67 | 10 | $747 | — |
| 46 | charlotte garage door repair · HOME SERVICES | $74.42 | 2,900 | $215.8K | — |
| 47 | charlotte window replacement · OTHER | $74.30 | 480 | $35.7K | — |
| 48 | air conditioning charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $73.06 | 30 | $2.2K | — |
| 49 | emergency garage door repair charlotte nc · HOME SERVICES | $72.85 | 10 | $729 | — |
| 50 | plumber 28277 · HOME SERVICES | $72.36 | 10 | $724 | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charlotte 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 −$30,216

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.

personal injury charlotte nc

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $302.16/click

82 clicks

best pest control charlotte

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $231.36/click

41 clicks

pet clinic charlotte nc

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $57.11/click

56 clicks

american eagle charlotte premium outlets

~$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/), Charlotte 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.

Home Services $2,405,000/mo

Food & Dining $1,457,000/mo

Legal $1,315,000/mo

Health & Wellness $1,083,000/mo

Travel & Transit $686,000/mo

Other $546,000/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 Charlotte's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

24%

of Charlotte's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name. The other 76% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.

Waffle chart: 24 of 100 tracked page-one slots held by one of 40 named national directories, 76 by everything else.

out-of-town directories · 24 everything else · 76

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Charlotte 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 "plumber near me"

Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: **queencityplumbingcharlotte.com moved ▼ 7 spots**. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.

Bump chart of page-one positions for plumber near me between Aug 30 and Sep 8: queencityplumbingcharlotte.com moved from position 1 → 8.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▼ 10

Charlotte Garage Doors

map rank for "garage door repair"

#7 → #17

▲ 10

Atrium Health SouthPark Emergency Department

map rank for "urgent care"

#18 → #8

▼ 7

queencityplumbingcharlotte.com

plumber near me

#1 → #8

▲ 6

www.reddit.com

charlotte garage door repair

#9 → #3

NEW

www.yelp.com

pizza near me · new to page one

— → #2

NEW

www.yelp.com

grocery store near me · new to page one

— → #2

▲ 85

Kitchen + Kocktails by Kevin Kelley - Charlotte

reviews

19,759 → 19,844

▲ 48

Uptown Elegance Gym, Pool, Wine

reviews

38 → 86

▲ 9

Packard Tavern

map rank for "restaurant"

#15 → #6

▼ 9

Lottie’s Cafe

map rank for "restaurant"

#6 → #15

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

1,220,000 searches/mo

www.yelp.com AGGREGATOR

charlotte douglas intl airport

301,000 searches/mo

www.cltairport.com OPEN RACE

pizza near me

110,000 searches/mo

sapienzaclt.com LOCAL

grocery store near me

110,000 searches/mo

stores.foodlion.com LOCAL

urgent care near me

60,500 searches/mo

atriumhealth.org LOCAL

apartments near me

40,500 searches/mo

www.apartments.com AGGREGATOR

NO MAP PACK

**6 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/charlotte#move).

### What page one is made of

Share of 21 tracked keywords showing each [SERP feature](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#serp-feature).

People Also Ask 100%

Map pack 71%

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Charlotte 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 **100%** of these searches — answer those questions and you're on page one twice.

ANATOMY OF A #1

RCS Garage Doors

Top-rated of 96 tracked Garage Door Repair

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 4.9)

Reviews 2,140 (median 98)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Charlotte 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 21.8× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,318 businesses we track in Charlotte's map results, **166** have no website at all — 13% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

166

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **749 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/), Charlotte 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

36 businesses hold the 44 pack seats across the 15 tracked keywords that return a map pack. # is the best position each held; seats counts the keywords they appear on.

#1

Rosensteel Fleishman Car Accident & Injury Lawyers

5.0 ★ · 1,200 reviews

4 SEATS

#1

Price Petho & Associates

4.9 ★ · 645 reviews

4 SEATS

#2

DeMayo Law Offices, LLP

4.9 ★ · 1,700 reviews

3 SEATS

#1

RedEye Diner

4.4 ★ · 5,000 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Garage Door Doctor

4.9 ★ · 1,900 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Harris Teeter

4.2 ★ · 1,600 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

AAA City Plumbing

4.9 ★ · 1,400 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Uptown Charlotte Smiles

5.0 ★ · 602 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**6 of the 36 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Charlotte.** 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/), 15 tracked keywords anchored on the Charlotte 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 1,318 businesses we track in Charlotte's map results, **120** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 9% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

120

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **2,091 reviews** and a 4.6 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/), Charlotte 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 Charlotte — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

865K

PEOPLE

Median age 34.5. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$258,000

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$1,260

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 — Charlotte 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.

### Charlotte vs. the nation

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

| | CHARLOTTE | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $68,367 a year | $69,021 | −1% |
| Median home value | $258,000 | $244,900 | +5% |
| Median gross rent | $1,260 a month | $1,163 | +8% |

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 (Charlotte 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.

Broadband 179 Mbps avg 93.2% coverage · 42.1% fiber

Average download of 179 Mbps, 93.2% coverage, 42.1% fiber availability. Fast connections mean impatient visitors: page speed is a ranking and conversion factor here.

This week in town 77 upcoming events Charlotte Knights vs. Buffalo Bisons · Truist Field - Charlotte

77 upcoming tracked events, led by Charlotte Knights vs. Buffalo Bisons at Truist Field - Charlotte.

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 Charlotte 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

3.66M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$302

PRICIEST CLICK

24%

PAGE ONE DIRECTORY SHARE

6 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/charlotte#scan)

STEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP

### Claim your seat

6 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 · 91 MI Greenville, SC 330,440 searches/mo · 957 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/greenville) [NEAREST · 130 MI Raleigh-Durham, NC 3,112,800 searches/mo · 1,333 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham) [NEAREST · 177 MI Charleston, SC 1,420,220 searches/mo · 1,273 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE Portland, OR 4,124,880 searches/mo · 1,354 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/portland)

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 2.3M/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte/food-dining) [HEALTH & WELLNESS 196K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte/health-wellness) [ENTERTAINMENT 112K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte/entertainment) [REAL ESTATE 106K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte/real-estate) [HOME SERVICES 87K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte/home-services) [LEGAL 23K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte/legal)

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