# Who gets found in Houston?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 3 page-one leaders changed hands 22 new pages in the top 5

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

Every month, Houston types 8,289,250 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $32.74M 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/houston#methodology)

8,289,250

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$32.74M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,372

LISTINGS TRACKED

11,230

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Houston searches 21,166,450 times a month in total. The other 12,877,200 are branded or navigational — someone already knows where they are going, across 2,777 branded searches we track separately.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Houston 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/), Houston 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 Houston asks Google for in an average month.

8,289,250

searches in an average month across the 4,141 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **276,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Houston.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 39% of everything Houston searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 58 percent, Other 12 percent, Attractions 11 percent, Travel & Transit 7 percent, Health & Wellness 4 percent, Real Estate 3 percent, Personal Care 3 percent, Shopping 2 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Houston 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 58% Other 12% Attractions 11% Travel & Transit 7% Health & Wellness 4% Real Estate 3% Personal Care 3% Shopping 2%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **58% of the addressable demand** in Houston, against 11% 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/), Houston 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 | 62 | 58 | 71 | 65 | 77 | 74 | 78 | 86 | 62 | 67 | 91 | 100 |
| Entertainment | 51 | 58 | 100 | 39 | 38 | 48 | 36 | 45 | 39 | 39 | 37 | 34 |
| Attractions | 71 | 72 | 100 | 79 | 83 | 84 | 93 | 80 | 75 | 93 | 78 | 81 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 77 | 80 | 96 | 81 | 83 | 100 | 99 | 86 | 75 | 79 | 75 | 77 |
| Education | 71 | 57 | 60 | 63 | 58 | 48 | 55 | 100 | 68 | 65 | 55 | 48 |
| Food & Dining | 78 | 78 | 95 | 88 | 91 | 91 | 100 | 93 | 86 | 88 | 88 | 86 |
| Travel & Transit | 83 | 78 | 100 | 81 | 95 | 97 | 95 | 91 | 80 | 96 | 82 | 91 |
| Real Estate | 89 | 85 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 86 | 85 | 100 | 87 | 86 | 73 | 73 |
| Home Services | 76 | 79 | 80 | 77 | 71 | 73 | 70 | 79 | 100 | 76 | 56 | 62 |
| Health & Wellness | 90 | 78 | 91 | 86 | 92 | 91 | 100 | 95 | 89 | 85 | 83 | 91 |
| Jobs & Careers | 100 | 100 | 47 | 41 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 19 | 22 |
| Personal Care | 67 | 73 | 89 | 80 | 95 | 80 | 80 | 100 | 81 | 81 | 73 | 80 |
| Legal | 90 | 86 | 87 | 65 | 50 | 49 | 55 | 85 | 100 | 89 | 42 | 68 |
| Professional Services | 88 | 96 | 100 | 74 | 47 | 49 | 45 | 69 | 72 | 60 | 60 | 59 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Houston 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.

boardwalk inn kemah boardwalk ▲ 298% BREAKOUT

ductwork houston ▲ 296% BREAKOUT

4th of july events houston ▲ 293% BREAKOUT

astros single game tickets ▲ 293% BREAKOUT

astros v cubs ▲ 292% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Houston 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 Houston — 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. 15 more clear the bar below these.

Katy SUBURB 358,880/mo

220 keywords · $1.76M/mo in ad-equivalent value

The Woodlands SUBURB 227,630/mo

168 keywords · $386.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Memorial City NEIGHBORHOOD 224,190/mo

130 keywords · $337.3K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Downtown Houston NEIGHBORHOOD 156,540/mo

117 keywords · $234.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Sugar Land SUBURB 119,510/mo

76 keywords · $344.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Spring SUBURB 56,060/mo

43 keywords · $87.5K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Pasadena SUBURB 51,310/mo

27 keywords · $34.9K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Cypress SUBURB 45,330/mo

60 keywords · $122.3K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Pearland SUBURB 31,430/mo

54 keywords · $76.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

River Oaks NEIGHBORHOOD 24,270/mo

52 keywords · $29.6K/mo in ad-equivalent value

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

**Katy** alone carries 358,880 searches a month across 220 keywords, worth $1.76M a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Houston", 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 Houston.

"BEST HOUSTON TRUCK ACCIDENT LAWYER" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$1517.97

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 10,598 of 11,230 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 10598 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: kemah carnival at $0.01. Most expensive: best houston truck accident lawyer at $1517.97.

### The price board

The 10,598 of 11,230 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 | best houston truck accident lawyer · LEGAL | $1517.97 | 2,400 | $3.64M | — |
| 2 | houston area lawyers · LEGAL | $931.15 | 10 | $9.3K | — |
| 3 | maritime lawyer houston · LEGAL | $866.62 | 70 | $60.7K | — |
| 4 | houston auto injury attorney · LEGAL | $740.84 | 20 | $14.8K | — |
| 5 | 1800 abogado houston tx · OTHER | $717.46 | 10 | $7.2K | — |
| 6 | houston car accident injury attorney · LEGAL | $675.25 | 10 | $6.8K | — |
| 7 | houston collision lawyer · LEGAL | $647.72 | 10 | $6.5K | — |
| 8 | slip and fall attorneys in houston texas · LEGAL | $646.66 | 10 | $6.5K | — |
| 9 | personal injury lawyer near houston tx · LEGAL | $535.43 | 10 | $5.4K | — |
| 10 | houston work injury lawyer · LEGAL | $446.23 | 140 | $62.5K | — |
| 11 | best car accident lawyer houston · LEGAL | $420.03 | 480 | $201.6K | — |
| 12 | dwi attorney pearland · LEGAL | $419.65 | 30 | $12.6K | — |
| 13 | accident lawyers houston · LEGAL | $390.83 | 390 | $152.4K | — |
| 14 | accident lawyer houston texas · LEGAL | $368.14 | 210 | $77.3K | — |
| 15 | best injury lawyer houston · LEGAL | $353.66 | 210 | $74.3K | — |
| 16 | thomas j henry law firm houston · LEGAL | $350.94 | 10 | $3.5K | — |
| 17 | houston motorcycle injury lawyer · LEGAL | $301.84 | 590 | $178.1K | — |
| 18 | car crash lawyer houston · LEGAL | $288.72 | 14,800 | $4.27M | — |
| 19 | foundation contractor houston · HOME SERVICES | $281.41 | 50 | $14.1K | — |
| 20 | rodeo roofing houston · HOME SERVICES | $271.64 | 10 | $2.7K | — |
| 21 | best accident lawyer houston · LEGAL | $270.58 | 320 | $86.6K | — |
| 22 | cdl lawyer houston tx · LEGAL | $250.83 | 10 | $2.5K | — |
| 23 | wayne collins attorney houston · LEGAL | $229.46 | 10 | $2.3K | — |
| 24 | car accident attorney in houston · LEGAL | $212.22 | 110 | $23.3K | — |
| 25 | dental cpa houston · HEALTH & WELLNESS | $205.57 | 10 | $2.1K | — |
| 26 | sell a house in houston · OTHER | $194.24 | 10 | $1.9K | — |
| 27 | freeman law firm houston · LEGAL | $192.63 | 10 | $1.9K | — |
| 28 | plumber 77016 · HOME SERVICES | $189.43 | 10 | $1.9K | — |
| 29 | plumber 77025 · HOME SERVICES | $181.66 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 30 | plumber 77019 · HOME SERVICES | $181.30 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 31 | weber law firm houston · LEGAL | $179.09 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 32 | work injury lawyer houston · LEGAL | $178.58 | 590 | $105.4K | — |
| 33 | movers from chicago to houston · OTHER | $177.75 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 34 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $175.17 | 8,100 | $1.42M | — |
| 35 | black personal injury lawyer houston · LEGAL | $174.86 | 70 | $12.2K | — |
| 36 | injury attorney houston · LEGAL | $173.90 | 12,100 | $2.10M | — |
| 37 | family law center houston texas · OTHER | $173.06 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 38 | irs lawyer houston · LEGAL | $172.03 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 39 | sell my house houston · OTHER | $170.68 | 70 | $11.9K | — |
| 40 | plumber 77064 · HOME SERVICES | $170.39 | 20 | $3.4K | — |
| 41 | mice exterminator houston · HOME SERVICES | $169.36 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 42 | houston premise liability lawyer · LEGAL | $164.14 | 140 | $23.0K | — |
| 43 | house buyers houston · OTHER | $145.61 | 140 | $20.4K | — |
| 44 | independent insurance agents houston · PROFESSIONAL SERVICES | $144.26 | 140 | $20.2K | — |
| 45 | electrical repair in houston · HOME SERVICES | $143.78 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 46 | garage door repair 77084 · HOME SERVICES | $142.17 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 47 | manuel solis law firm houston · LEGAL | $140.63 | 20 | $2.8K | — |
| 48 | church services plumbing houston · HOME SERVICES | $139.05 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 49 | electrician 77057 · HOME SERVICES | $137.76 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 50 | home pest control houston · HOME SERVICES | $136.03 | 10 | $1.4K | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Houston 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 $1,518 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $1,518 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$151,797

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

3 become signed cases (20% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 3 signed cases +$75,000 · 0.5× 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.

best houston truck accident lawyer

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $1517.97/click

16 clicks

foundation contractor houston

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $281.41/click

33 clicks

dental cpa houston

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $205.57/click

15 clicks

louis vuitton houston saks houston tx

~$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/), Houston 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 $15,600,000/mo

Home Services $4,445,000/mo

Food & Dining $3,459,000/mo

Health & Wellness $3,205,000/mo

Travel & Transit $1,489,000/mo

Other $1,346,000/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 Houston's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

21%

of Houston'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 Houston 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 "apartments near me"

Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: **www.redfin.com moved ▼ 8 spots**. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.

Bump chart of page-one positions for apartments near me between Aug 30 and Sep 8: www.redfin.com moved from position 2 → 10.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▼ 14

Perfect Smile Dental Care

map rank for "dentist"

#3 → #17

▲ 13

Wash N Run

map rank for "car wash"

#16 → #3

▼ 8

www.redfin.com

apartments near me

#2 → #10

▼ 8

www.facebook.com

4 queries — houston rodeo tickets · houston museum art · restaurants near me +1

0 up · 4 down

NEW

www.yelp.com

grocery store near me · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

gsinjuryfirm.com

houston truck wreck lawyer · new to page one

— → #2

▲ 71

Hudson House

reviews

1,955 → 2,026

▲ 66

Mister Car Wash

reviews

1,613 → 1,679

▼ 12

The Longhorn Lawyer

map rank for "lawyer"

#8 → #20

▼ 12

CareNow Urgent Care - Heights

map rank for "urgent care"

#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

2,740,000 searches/mo

www.tripadvisor.com AGGREGATOR

houston g bush airport

450,000 searches/mo

www.fly2houston.com OPEN RACE

grocery store near me

201,000 searches/mo

www.yelp.com AGGREGATOR

apartments near me

165,000 searches/mo

www.apartments.com AGGREGATOR

pizza near me

165,000 searches/mo

locations.papajohns.com LOCAL

houston rodeo tickets

135,000 searches/mo

www.rodeohouston.com OPEN RACE

NO MAP PACK

**5 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/houston#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 76%

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Houston 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

WhiteWater Express Car Wash

Top-rated of 98 tracked Car Wash

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 4.2)

Reviews 1,760 (median 133)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Houston 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 13.2× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,372 businesses we track in Houston's map results, **250** have no website at all — 18% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

250

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **1,585 reviews** and a 4.2 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/), Houston 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

39 businesses hold the 48 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

The Callahan Law Firm

5.0 ★ · 154 reviews

5 SEATS

#1

Zehl & Associates - Houston

5.0 ★ · 1,300 reviews

4 SEATS

#1

Abogado de Accidentes en Houston

5.0 ★ · 39 reviews

3 SEATS

#1

H-Town Movers Houston

4.9 ★ · 2,800 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Betelgeuse Betelgeuse

4.6 ★ · 1,100 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

APT Locator - Central

5.0 ★ · 628 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Downtown Houston Dental

4.9 ★ · 483 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Sutliff & Stout

4.9 ★ · 293 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**14 of the 39 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Houston.** 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 Houston 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 1,372 businesses we track in Houston's map results, **204** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 15% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

204

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **3,796 reviews** and a 4.7 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/), Houston 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 Houston — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

2.29M

PEOPLE

Median age 33.7. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$200,700

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$1,136

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 — Houston 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.

### Houston vs. the nation

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

| | HOUSTON | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $56,019 a year | $69,021 | −19% |
| Median home value | $200,700 | $244,900 | −18% |
| Median gross rent | $1,136 a month | $1,163 | −2% |

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 (Houston 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 7,539 students Rice University

1 institutions and 7,539 enrolled students, led by Rice University. A permanent annual influx of new residents who choose dentists, gyms, and mechanics from a Google search.

Farmers markets 2 markets Houston Farmers Market

2 tracked markets, including Houston Farmers Market (Sat 8am-12pm). Weekend-morning spikes for "farmers market near me" are among the most predictable recurring search patterns there are.

Coworking 15 spaces Low density — remote-worker economy

15 coworking spaces tracked — a low-density remote-work market. A remote-work population searches like a resident but spends like a visitor: lunch, gyms, services near the clusters.

Broadband 178 Mbps avg 93.1% coverage · 38.7% fiber

Average download of 178 Mbps, 93.1% coverage, 38.7% fiber availability. Fast connections mean impatient visitors: page speed is a ranking and conversion factor here.

This week in town 31 upcoming events Houston Dynamo vs. Real Salt Lake · Shell Energy Stadium

31 upcoming tracked events, led by Houston Dynamo vs. Real Salt Lake at Shell Energy Stadium.

### The names Houston searches for

The 87 brands, institutions and landmarks this metro looks up by name — 10,752,970 searches a month. No local business can win these. They are what the city *is*.

RANKED BY MONTHLY SEARCH VOLUME

| | | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Houston Astros | Sports team | | 2.87M |
| 2 | Houston Texans | Sports team | | 925K |
| 3 | NFL | League | | 909K |
| 4 | Houston Rockets | Sports team | | 770K |
| 5 | NBA | League | | 645K |
| 6 | InterContinental | Hotel | | 617K |
| 7 | Houston Zoo | Destination | | 283K |
| 8 | Hilton Americas | Hotel | | 244K |
| 9 | Rodeo Houston | Entertainment | | 239K |
| 10 | Memorial City Mall | Store | | 232K |
| 11 | Marriott Marquis | Hotel | | 201K |
| 12 | Space Center | Destination | | 186K |

#### Most searched

-   1 Houston Astros 2.87M
-   2 Houston Texans 925K
-   3 NFL 909K
-   4 Houston Rockets 770K
-   5 NBA 645K

#### Most valuable

-   1 Houston Astros $4.48M
-   2 Baybrook Mall $2.29M
-   3 InterContinental $1.59M
-   4 Houston Texans $1.15M
-   5 NFL $1.14M

#### Most expensive per click

-   1 Baybrook Mall $14.52
-   2 Hugo's $6.22
-   3 The Health Museum $4.42
-   4 Houston Arboretum & Nature Center $4.10
-   5 Extended Stay America $3.68

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 Houston 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

8.29M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$1518

PRICIEST CLICK

21%

PAGE ONE DIRECTORY SHARE

5 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/houston#scan)

STEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP

### Claim your seat

5 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 · 146 MI Austin, TX 4,894,490 searches/mo · 1,330 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/austin) [NEAREST · 189 MI San Antonio, TX 3,015,530 searches/mo · 1,353 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-antonio) [NEAREST · 225 MI Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 2,527,820 searches/mo · 1,190 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/dallas-fort-worth) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE San Diego, CA 5,429,500 searches/mo · 1,360 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego)

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 4.9M/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston/food-dining) [ENTERTAINMENT 823K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston/entertainment) [HEALTH & WELLNESS 392K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston/health-wellness) [REAL ESTATE 251K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston/real-estate) [HOME SERVICES 183K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston/home-services) [LEGAL 115K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston/legal)

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