# Who gets found in Milwaukee?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 3 page-one leaders changed hands 20 new pages in the top 5

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

Every month, Milwaukee types 1,888,610 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $3.54M 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/milwaukee#methodology)

1,888,610

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$3.54M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,207

LISTINGS TRACKED

3,268

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Milwaukee searches 3,583,100 times a month in total. The other 1,694,490 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/), Milwaukee 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/), Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee asks Google for in an average month.

1,888,610

searches in an average month across the 1,559 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **63,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Milwaukee.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 53% of everything Milwaukee searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 69 percent, Other 12 percent, Hotels & Lodging 5 percent, Shopping 4 percent, Health & Wellness 3 percent, Attractions 3 percent, Personal Care 2 percent, Travel & Transit 2 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Milwaukee 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 69% Other 12% Hotels & Lodging 5% Shopping 4% Health & Wellness 3% Attractions 3% Personal Care 2% Travel & Transit 2%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **69% of the addressable demand** in Milwaukee, against 5% for Hotels & Lodging. 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/), Milwaukee 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Attractions | 64 | 56 | 69 | 68 | 83 | 93 | 100 | 96 | 79 | 69 | 57 | 66 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 73 | 73 | 82 | 81 | 84 | 100 | 100 | 96 | 77 | 80 | 73 | 75 |
| Food & Dining | 72 | 72 | 82 | 80 | 86 | 94 | 95 | 100 | 85 | 86 | 73 | 73 |
| Entertainment | 19 | 22 | 24 | 25 | 33 | 84 | 81 | 100 | 32 | 25 | 19 | 18 |
| Shopping | 64 | 56 | 66 | 64 | 87 | 93 | 96 | 100 | 82 | 81 | 76 | 78 |
| Health & Wellness | 93 | 87 | 96 | 89 | 89 | 87 | 96 | 90 | 95 | 100 | 86 | 97 |
| Home Services | 74 | 68 | 71 | 76 | 73 | 75 | 82 | 89 | 100 | 81 | 58 | 60 |
| Real Estate | 83 | 87 | 100 | 89 | 86 | 82 | 80 | 90 | 82 | 77 | 67 | 68 |
| Travel & Transit | 66 | 64 | 99 | 77 | 82 | 96 | 95 | 100 | 83 | 86 | 64 | 67 |
| Legal | 100 | 95 | 78 | 63 | 61 | 58 | 58 | 74 | 95 | 88 | 64 | 79 |
| Education | 100 | 81 | 81 | 71 | 79 | 82 | 85 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 84 | 85 |
| Professional Services | 95 | 100 | 88 | 58 | 49 | 40 | 39 | 58 | 59 | 54 | 51 | 49 |
| Personal Care | 60 | 71 | 72 | 71 | 88 | 88 | 87 | 100 | 85 | 71 | 65 | 71 |
| News & Media | 79 | 49 | 96 | 100 | 81 | 96 | 81 | 68 | 58 | 53 | 72 | 68 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Milwaukee 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.

milwaukee festa italiana ▲ 285% BREAKOUT

mke air show ▲ 281% BREAKOUT

german fest milwaukee tickets ▲ 277% BREAKOUT

4th of july in milwaukee ▲ 274% BREAKOUT

bastille days milwaukee ▲ 272% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee — 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.

Waukesha SUBURB 42,320/mo

28 keywords · $40.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Brookfield SUBURB 41,420/mo

28 keywords · $34.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

State Fair Park NEIGHBORHOOD 18,480/mo

4 keywords · $33.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Racine SUBURB 16,750/mo

57 keywords · $27.0K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Bay View NEIGHBORHOOD 16,560/mo

8 keywords · $27.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Wauwatosa SUBURB 13,160/mo

28 keywords · $28.0K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Story Hill NEIGHBORHOOD 10,160/mo

4 keywords · $2.6K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Riverwest NEIGHBORHOOD 1,910/mo

2 keywords · $1.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Fairfield NEIGHBORHOOD 1,270/mo

11 keywords · $2.3K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Walker'S Point NEIGHBORHOOD 1,140/mo

2 keywords · $330/mo in ad-equivalent value

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

**Waukesha** alone carries 42,320 searches a month across 28 keywords, worth $40.1K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Milwaukee", 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 Milwaukee.

"VINYL FLOORING MILWAUKEE" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$260.20

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 3,103 of 3,268 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 3103 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: bistro 333 milwaukee at $0.01. Most expensive: vinyl flooring milwaukee at $260.20.

### The price board

The 3,103 of 3,268 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 | vinyl flooring milwaukee · OTHER | $260.20 | 10 | $2.6K | — |
| 2 | plumbers near milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $236.39 | 10 | $2.4K | — |
| 3 | empire carpet milwaukee · OTHER | $178.76 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 4 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $178.63 | 1,000 | $178.6K | — |
| 5 | milwaukee car accident lawyer · LEGAL | $160.73 | 320 | $51.4K | — |
| 6 | commercial roofing contractors milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $121.14 | 20 | $2.4K | — |
| 7 | civil suit lawyers in milwaukee · LEGAL | $98.91 | 10 | $989 | — |
| 8 | milwaukee injury lawyer · LEGAL | $98.28 | 590 | $58.0K | — |
| 9 | bee exterminator milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $94.06 | 10 | $941 | — |
| 10 | dui lawyer milwaukee · LEGAL | $93.39 | 170 | $15.9K | — |
| 11 | milwaukee window replacement · OTHER | $89.65 | 320 | $28.7K | — |
| 12 | milwaukee roofing company · HOME SERVICES | $78.45 | 480 | $37.7K | — |
| 13 | flat roofing milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $77.21 | 10 | $772 | — |
| 14 | emergency plumbing service milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $75.23 | 20 | $1.5K | — |
| 15 | hernandez roofing milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $74.34 | 10 | $743 | — |
| 16 | milwaukee dog bite lawyer · LEGAL | $70.31 | 40 | $2.8K | — |
| 17 | plumbing service milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $67.52 | 90 | $6.1K | — |
| 18 | emergency plumber milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $67.25 | 480 | $32.3K | — |
| 19 | movers in milwaukee area · OTHER | $65.06 | 20 | $1.3K | — |
| 20 | tax lawyer milwaukee · LEGAL | $62.69 | 90 | $5.6K | — |
| 21 | milwaukee accountant · PROFESSIONAL SERVICES | $62.18 | 70 | $4.4K | — |
| 22 | best personal injury lawyers in milwaukee · LEGAL | $61.81 | 70 | $4.3K | — |
| 23 | bathroom remodel milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $61.79 | 480 | $29.7K | — |
| 24 | gruber law office milwaukee · OTHER | $61.18 | 3,600 | $220.2K | — |
| 25 | gutters milwaukee · OTHER | $60.35 | 90 | $5.4K | — |
| 26 | roof replacement milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $58.92 | 30 | $1.8K | — |
| 27 | community roofing milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $58.87 | 90 | $5.3K | — |
| 28 | eagle movers milwaukee · OTHER | $58.45 | 30 | $1.8K | — |
| 29 | black lawyers in milwaukee wi · LEGAL | $57.16 | 20 | $1.1K | — |
| 30 | basement contractors milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $56.31 | 40 | $2.3K | — |
| 31 | milwaukee garage repair · OTHER | $56.01 | 20 | $1.1K | — |
| 32 | bed bug heat treatment milwaukee · OTHER | $55.65 | 10 | $557 | — |
| 33 | roof repair milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $55.38 | 320 | $17.7K | — |
| 34 | dental associates milwaukee burleigh · HEALTH & WELLNESS | $53.88 | 10 | $539 | — |
| 35 | dental implant milwaukee · HEALTH & WELLNESS | $51.36 | 210 | $10.8K | — |
| 36 | milwaukee garage door repair · HOME SERVICES | $50.59 | 590 | $29.8K | — |
| 37 | residential locksmith milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $50.52 | 10 | $505 | — |
| 38 | milwaukee lawyer · LEGAL | $50.27 | 720 | $36.2K | — |
| 39 | 24 hour plumber milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $50.04 | 260 | $13.0K | — |
| 40 | milwaukee area plumbers · HOME SERVICES | $50.00 | 40 | $2.0K | — |
| 41 | window installers milwaukee · OTHER | $49.41 | 10 | $494 | — |
| 42 | local movers milwaukee · OTHER | $48.61 | 10 | $486 | — |
| 43 | painters milwaukee wi · HOME SERVICES | $47.42 | 170 | $8.1K | — |
| 44 | bed bugs milwaukee · OTHER | $47.28 | 20 | $946 | — |
| 45 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $46.82 | 480 | $22.5K | — |
| 46 | domer law milwaukee · OTHER | $43.92 | 10 | $439 | — |
| 47 | best roofers in milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $43.47 | 10 | $435 | — |
| 48 | commercial plumbing milwaukee · HOME SERVICES | $42.73 | 50 | $2.1K | — |
| 49 | immigration lawyer in milwaukee wisconsin · LEGAL | $41.77 | 10 | $418 | — |
| 50 | hernia movers milwaukee · OTHER | $41.59 | 1,000 | $41.6K | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Milwaukee 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 $260 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $260 click rational, using home services industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$26,020

25 become phone calls (25% call rate, benchmark)

10 become booked jobs (40% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 10 booked jobs +$95,000 · 3.7× 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.

vinyl flooring milwaukee

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $260.20/click

36 clicks

personal injury lawyer near me

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $178.63/click

139 clicks

dental associates milwaukee burleigh

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $53.88/click

59 clicks

mke beer gardens

~$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/), Milwaukee 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 $903,000/mo

Food & Dining $803,000/mo

Legal $463,000/mo

Health & Wellness $398,000/mo

Other $282,000/mo

Hotels & Lodging $196,000/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 Milwaukee's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

27%

of Milwaukee's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name — www.yelp.com, www.tripadvisor.com, www.reddit.com — their share is large, and it is beatable: Google prefers a good local answer when one exists. The other 73% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.

Waffle chart: 27 of 100 tracked page-one slots held by one of 40 named national directories, 73 by everything else.

out-of-town directories · 27 everything else · 73

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

Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: **www.concentra.com moved ▲ 6 spots**. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.

Bump chart of page-one positions for urgent care near me between Aug 30 and Sep 8: www.concentra.com moved from position 10 → 4.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▼ 15

Children's Urgent Care at Forest Home Clinic

map rank for "urgent care"

#2 → #17

▼ 14

Ascension Columbia St. Mary's - River Woods Parkway - Urgent Care

map rank for "urgent care"

#4 → #18

▲ 6

www.concentra.com

urgent care near me

#10 → #4

▲ 6

www.discovermilwaukee.com

2 queries — mke museum · urgent care near me

2 up · 0 down

NEW

www.yelp.com

restaurants near me · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

www.bayviewdentalcare.com

dentist near me · new to page one

— → #3

▲ 54

Rodizio Grill Brazilian Steakhouse Milwaukee

reviews

12,758 → 12,812

▲ 37

Westown Studio Near Fiserv+Baird+Theater District

reviews

0 → 37

▼ 11

Paper Table Food Co

map rank for "restaurant"

#4 → #15

▲ 10

Pizza Crafters

map rank for "pizza"

#18 → #8

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

673,000 searches/mo

www.yelp.com AGGREGATOR

pizza near me

60,500 searches/mo

onmilwaukee.com LOCAL

grocery store near me

60,500 searches/mo

www.picknsave.com LOCAL

urgent care near me

27,100 searches/mo

www.wiurgentcare.com LOCAL

milwaukee state fair park

18,100 searches/mo

wistatefair.com OPEN RACE

milwaukee summerfest tickets

14,800 searches/mo

www.summerfest.com OPEN RACE

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/milwaukee#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 Milwaukee 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

Team Hoffmann - RE/MAX LAKESIDE

Top-rated of 93 tracked Realtor

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 5.0)

Reviews 800 (median 17)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Milwaukee 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 47.1× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,207 businesses we track in Milwaukee's map results, **181** have no website at all — 15% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

181

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **1,023 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/), Milwaukee 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 45 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

Nicolet Law Accident & Injury Lawyers

5.0 ★ · 426 reviews

5 SEATS

#1

Lindner Law, LLC

4.9 ★ · 466 reviews

4 SEATS

#3

Warshafsky Law Firm

4.6 ★ · 81 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Milwaukee Public Market

4.7 ★ · 12,000 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Milwaukee Public Museum

4.8 ★ · 7,200 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Swingin' Door Exchange

4.7 ★ · 2,700 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Aurora Urgent Care

4.0 ★ · 296 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

River Walk Dentistry

5.0 ★ · 189 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**11 of the 37 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Milwaukee.** 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 Milwaukee 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 1,207 businesses we track in Milwaukee's map results, **215** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 18% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

215

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **1,487 reviews** and a 4.2 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/), Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

578K

PEOPLE

Median age 31.6. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$135,600

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$910

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 — Milwaukee 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.

### Milwaukee vs. the nation

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

| | MILWAUKEE | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $45,318 a year | $69,021 | −34% |
| Median home value | $135,600 | $244,900 | −45% |
| Median gross rent | $910 a month | $1,163 | −22% |

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 (Milwaukee 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 139 upcoming events Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs · American Family Field

139 upcoming tracked events, led by Milwaukee Brewers vs. Chicago Cubs at American Family 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 Milwaukee 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

1.89M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$260

PRICIEST CLICK

27%

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/milwaukee#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 · 81 MI Chicago, IL 13,417,250 searches/mo · 1,232 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/chicago) [NEAREST · 244 MI Indianapolis, IN 2,594,010 searches/mo · 1,311 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/indianapolis) [NEAREST · 252 MI Detroit, MI 3,729,520 searches/mo · 1,367 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/detroit) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE Charleston, SC 1,420,220 searches/mo · 1,273 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston)

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 1.3M/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/milwaukee/food-dining) [ENTERTAINMENT 87K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/milwaukee/entertainment) [HEALTH & WELLNESS 83K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/milwaukee/health-wellness) [HOME SERVICES 41K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/milwaukee/home-services) [LEGAL 9K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/milwaukee/legal)

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