# Who gets found in Cleveland?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 2 page-one leaders changed hands 19 new pages in the top 5

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

Every month, Cleveland types 1,130,590 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $2.06M 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/cleveland#methodology)

1,130,590

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$2.06M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,043

LISTINGS TRACKED

2,564

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Cleveland searches 2,593,140 times a month in total. The other 1,462,550 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/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 Cleveland asks Google for in an average month.

1,130,590

searches in an average month across the 1,186 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **38,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Cleveland.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 44% of everything Cleveland searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 63 percent, Attractions 12 percent, Other 10 percent, Travel & Transit 5 percent, Health & Wellness 3 percent, Shopping 3 percent, Home Services 2 percent, Real Estate 2 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 63% Attractions 12% Other 10% Travel & Transit 5% Health & Wellness 3% Shopping 3% Home Services 2% Real Estate 2%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **63% of the addressable demand** in Cleveland, against 12% 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/), Cleveland city geo-target · 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 | 64 | 59 | 70 | 69 | 89 | 89 | 97 | 100 | 70 | 71 | 69 | 76 |
| Attractions | 46 | 38 | 56 | 63 | 79 | 88 | 89 | 100 | 65 | 55 | 43 | 49 |
| Food & Dining | 70 | 69 | 83 | 79 | 83 | 81 | 92 | 100 | 83 | 83 | 71 | 71 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 60 | 58 | 75 | 68 | 81 | 80 | 87 | 100 | 77 | 78 | 60 | 65 |
| Entertainment | 36 | 43 | 44 | 41 | 75 | 49 | 63 | 100 | 56 | 42 | 37 | 30 |
| Education | 85 | 65 | 77 | 71 | 68 | 59 | 66 | 100 | 77 | 87 | 65 | 72 |
| Real Estate | 84 | 88 | 98 | 96 | 96 | 78 | 81 | 100 | 81 | 84 | 70 | 69 |
| Health & Wellness | 97 | 82 | 91 | 85 | 82 | 80 | 90 | 100 | 89 | 90 | 78 | 87 |
| Home Services | 84 | 91 | 93 | 88 | 70 | 70 | 72 | 80 | 74 | 75 | 62 | 100 |
| Personal Care | 57 | 56 | 70 | 68 | 75 | 73 | 79 | 100 | 70 | 68 | 57 | 61 |
| Legal | 79 | 82 | 79 | 60 | 52 | 49 | 49 | 61 | 100 | 73 | 52 | 52 |
| Professional Services | 94 | 85 | 100 | 63 | 47 | 34 | 45 | 43 | 52 | 55 | 42 | 53 |
| Travel & Transit | 64 | 64 | 100 | 73 | 81 | 80 | 86 | 96 | 70 | 73 | 67 | 74 |
| Jobs & Careers | 31 | 100 | 47 | 38 | 38 | 30 | 30 | 47 | 32 | 32 | 26 | 17 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Cleveland 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.

cleveland 4th of july events ▲ 267% BREAKOUT

4th of july cleveland ▲ 265% BREAKOUT

cleveland irish festival ▲ 262% BREAKOUT

chesterland avenue lakewood oh ▲ 246% BREAKOUT

asian festival cleveland ▲ 239% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 Cleveland — 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.

Downtown NEIGHBORHOOD 33,820/mo

93 keywords · $35.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Edgewater NEIGHBORHOOD 25,980/mo

7 keywords · $19.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Lakewood SUBURB 22,390/mo

45 keywords · $15.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Ohio City NEIGHBORHOOD 13,000/mo

9 keywords · $13.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Tremont NEIGHBORHOOD 11,830/mo

12 keywords · $8.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Euclid SUBURB 10,290/mo

24 keywords · $50.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Parma SUBURB 6,750/mo

6 keywords · $4.0K/mo in ad-equivalent value

University Circle NEIGHBORHOOD 1,680/mo

7 keywords · $1.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Old Brooklyn NEIGHBORHOOD 530/mo

3 keywords · $86/mo in ad-equivalent value

North Collinwood NEIGHBORHOOD 400/mo

2 keywords · $28/mo in ad-equivalent value

Source: Computed from Google Ads search volume × CPC via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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.

**Downtown** alone carries 33,820 searches a month across 93 keywords, worth $35.2K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Cleveland", 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 Cleveland.

"CLEVELAND BIRTH INJURY ATTORNEY" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$446.13

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 2,456 of 2,564 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 2456 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: lakewood zillow ohio at $0.01. Most expensive: cleveland birth injury attorney at $446.13.

### The price board

The 2,456 of 2,564 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 | cleveland birth injury attorney · LEGAL | $446.13 | 20 | $8.9K | — |
| 2 | cleveland accident lawyers · LEGAL | $385.42 | 10 | $3.9K | — |
| 3 | personal injury cleveland · OTHER | $335.93 | 10 | $3.4K | — |
| 4 | shower remodel cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $136.14 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 5 | plumber east cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $130.23 | 10 | $1.3K | — |
| 6 | long distance movers cleveland · OTHER | $125.46 | 10 | $1.3K | — |
| 7 | auto accident lawyer cleveland · LEGAL | $115.57 | 210 | $24.3K | — |
| 8 | ac repair cleveland heights · HOME SERVICES | $109.61 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 9 | vinyl flooring cleveland · OTHER | $100.46 | 10 | $1.0K | — |
| 10 | cleveland window replacement · OTHER | $96.76 | 170 | $16.4K | — |
| 11 | roofing contractor near me · HOME SERVICES | $95.71 | 110 | $10.5K | — |
| 12 | dui lawyer cleveland · LEGAL | $85.45 | 90 | $7.7K | — |
| 13 | injury lawyer cleveland · LEGAL | $83.49 | 480 | $40.1K | — |
| 14 | ovi lawyer cleveland · LEGAL | $82.83 | 20 | $1.7K | — |
| 15 | malpractice lawyers in cleveland ohio · LEGAL | $78.09 | 20 | $1.6K | — |
| 16 | exterior painters cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $74.96 | 10 | $750 | — |
| 17 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $73.15 | 1,000 | $73.2K | — |
| 18 | emergency plumber cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $70.60 | 40 | $2.8K | — |
| 19 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $67.77 | 590 | $40.0K | — |
| 20 | metal roofing cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $62.26 | 30 | $1.9K | — |
| 21 | workers comp lawyer cleveland · LEGAL | $61.94 | 110 | $6.8K | — |
| 22 | ark movers cleveland · OTHER | $61.24 | 10 | $612 | — |
| 23 | cleveland garage door repair · HOME SERVICES | $59.98 | 480 | $28.8K | — |
| 24 | plumbers cleveland heights · HOME SERVICES | $57.25 | 90 | $5.2K | — |
| 25 | commercial landscaping cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $57.24 | 10 | $572 | — |
| 26 | window companies cleveland · OTHER | $57.06 | 90 | $5.1K | — |
| 27 | plumbing source cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $57.05 | 10 | $571 | — |
| 28 | foundation repair cleveland ohio · OTHER | $53.73 | 50 | $2.7K | — |
| 29 | tax lawyer cleveland · LEGAL | $52.39 | 70 | $3.7K | — |
| 30 | commercial roofing cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $52.37 | 30 | $1.6K | — |
| 31 | roofing repair cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $51.52 | 110 | $5.7K | — |
| 32 | cleveland heights hvac · HOME SERVICES | $49.42 | 20 | $988 | — |
| 33 | schools in euclid ohio · EDUCATION | $48.32 | 590 | $28.5K | — |
| 34 | cleveland food delivery services · FOOD & DINING | $45.17 | 10 | $452 | — |
| 35 | emergency electrician cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $44.75 | 10 | $448 | — |
| 36 | siding repair cleveland · OTHER | $43.88 | 70 | $3.1K | — |
| 37 | cleveland heights tree removal · HOME SERVICES | $43.60 | 10 | $436 | — |
| 38 | cleveland roofing · HOME SERVICES | $42.36 | 320 | $13.6K | — |
| 39 | cleveland area movers · OTHER | $42.22 | 10 | $422 | — |
| 40 | roofing companies cleveland · HOME SERVICES | $42.20 | 390 | $16.5K | — |
| 41 | cleveland lawyer · LEGAL | $41.36 | 590 | $24.4K | — |
| 42 | siding company cleveland · OTHER | $41.19 | 30 | $1.2K | — |
| 43 | hvac repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $39.87 | 90 | $3.6K | — |
| 44 | flooring cleveland ohio · OTHER | $39.36 | 30 | $1.2K | — |
| 45 | cleveland commercial plumber · HOME SERVICES | $38.60 | 10 | $386 | — |
| 46 | drain cleaning cleveland · OTHER | $38.42 | 50 | $1.9K | — |
| 47 | cleveland wrongful death lawyer · LEGAL | $37.51 | 70 | $2.6K | — |
| 48 | cleveland pest control · HOME SERVICES | $36.53 | 590 | $21.6K | — |
| 49 | cleveland plumber · HOME SERVICES | $36.44 | 590 | $21.5K | — |
| 50 | cleveland dentist near me · HEALTH & WELLNESS | $36.39 | 20 | $728 | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 $446 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $446 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$44,613

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

3 become signed cases (20% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 3 signed cases +$75,000 · 1.7× 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.

cleveland birth injury attorney

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $446.13/click

56 clicks

shower remodel cleveland

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $136.14/click

69 clicks

cleveland dentist near me

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $36.39/click

87 clicks

delta lga to cleveland

~$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/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 $504,000/mo

Food & Dining $472,000/mo

Legal $260,000/mo

Health & Wellness $232,000/mo

Attractions $181,000/mo

Travel & Transit $133,000/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 Cleveland's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

30%

of Cleveland's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name — www.tripadvisor.com, www.yelp.com, www.opentable.com — their share is large, and it is beatable: Google prefers a good local answer when one exists. The other 70% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.

Waffle chart: 30 of 100 tracked page-one slots held by one of 40 named national directories, 70 by everything else.

out-of-town directories · 30 everything else · 70

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

Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: **www.tripadvisor.com moved ▲ 4 spots**. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.

Bump chart of page-one positions for restaurants near me between Aug 30 and Sep 8: www.tripadvisor.com moved from position 5 → 1.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▲ 12

Souper Market

map rank for "restaurant"

#18 → #6

▲ 12

Wonder Bar Cleveland

map rank for "bar"

#15 → #3

▲ 7

www.tripadvisor.com

4 queries — restaurants near me · cleveland metro parks zoo · cleveland museum of arts +1

3 up · 1 down

▼ 6

www.yelp.com

7 queries — cleveland hopkins airport · urgent care near me · restaurants near me +4

1 up · 6 down

NEW

www.tripadvisor.com

restaurants near me · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

my.clevelandclinic.org

urgent care near me · new to page one

— → #1

▲ 58

Welcome To The Farm

reviews

582 → 640

▼ 49

Juicy Seafood Cleveland - Harvard Park

reviews

2,408 → 2,359

▼ 0.1★

Cafe Ah-Roma

rating

4.4★ → 4.3★

▼ 12

Cleveland Public Square

map rank for "casino"

#4 → #16

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

368,000 searches/mo

www.tripadvisor.com AGGREGATOR

pizza near me

60,500 searches/mo

lapizzerialittleitaly.com LOCAL

cleveland metro parks zoo

18,100 searches/mo

www.clevelandmetroparks.com OPEN RACE

the cleveland museum of art cleveland oh

18,100 searches/mo

www.clevelandart.org OPEN RACE

urgent care near me

14,800 searches/mo

my.clevelandclinic.org LOCAL

cleveland museum of arts

14,800 searches/mo

www.clevelandart.org OPEN RACE

NO MAP PACK

**8 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/cleveland#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 95%

Map pack 62%

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Cleveland 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 **95%** of these searches — answer those questions and you're on page one twice.

ANATOMY OF A #1

1-Tom-Plumber

Top-rated of 100 tracked Plumber

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 4.8)

Reviews 1,166 (median 110)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 10.6× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,043 businesses we track in Cleveland's map results, **136** have no website at all — 13% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

136

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **4,892 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/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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

34 businesses hold the 39 pack seats across the 13 tracked keywords that return a map pack. # is the best position each held; seats counts the keywords they appear on.

#1

Nurenberg Paris Injury Lawyers

4.9 ★ · 723 reviews

3 SEATS

#1

Buckeye Law Group

4.8 ★ · 592 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Dave's Affordable Home Plumbing and Electric

5.0 ★ · 66 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

LAKEFRONT LEAK & DRAIN

4.8 ★ · 17 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Butcher and the Brewer

4.5 ★ · 3,000 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Downtown Dental Services

4.9 ★ · 310 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Patituce & Associates - Ohio Criminal Defense Attorneys

4.7 ★ · 245 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Queen Foundation Repair

4.9 ★ · 79 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**24 of the 34 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Cleveland.** 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/), 13 tracked keywords anchored on the Cleveland 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 1,043 businesses we track in Cleveland's map results, **119** 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.

119

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **10,053 reviews** and a 4 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/), Cleveland city geo-target, 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 Cleveland — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

375K

PEOPLE

Median age 36.2. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$74,700

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$774

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 — Cleveland 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.

### Cleveland vs. the nation

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

| | CLEVELAND | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $33,678 a year | $69,021 | −51% |
| Median home value | $74,700 | $244,900 | −69% |
| Median gross rent | $774 a month | $1,163 | −33% |

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 (Cleveland 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.

Colleges 11,740 students Case Western Reserve University

1 institutions and 11,740 enrolled students, led by Case Western Reserve University. A permanent annual influx of new residents who choose dentists, gyms, and mechanics from a Google search.

This week in town 79 upcoming events Cleveland Guardians vs. Chicago White Sox · Progressive Field

79 upcoming tracked events, led by Cleveland Guardians vs. Chicago White Sox at Progressive Field.

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 Cleveland 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

1.13M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$446

PRICIEST CLICK

30%

PAGE ONE DIRECTORY SHARE

8 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/cleveland#scan)

STEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP

### Claim your seat

8 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 · 90 MI Detroit, MI 3,729,520 searches/mo · 1,367 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/detroit) [NEAREST · 115 MI Pittsburgh, PA 2,411,540 searches/mo · 1,377 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/pittsburgh) [NEAREST · 126 MI Columbus, OH 2,257,720 searches/mo · 1,257 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/columbus) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 1,518,500 searches/mo · 1,109 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/minneapolis-st-paul)

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 722K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/cleveland/food-dining) [ENTERTAINMENT 50K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/cleveland/entertainment) [HOME SERVICES 21K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/cleveland/home-services)

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