# Who gets found in Raleigh-Durham?

Aug 30 → Sep 8 5 page-one leaders changed hands 15 new pages in the top 5

THE SEARCH LEDGER · RALEIGH-DURHAM EDITION · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

Every month, Raleigh-Durham types 3,112,800 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $6.98M 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/raleigh-durham#methodology)

3,112,800

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$6.98M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,333

LISTINGS TRACKED

3,842

KEYWORDS TRACKED

Raleigh-Durham searches 5,867,150 times a month in total. The other 2,754,350 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/), Raleigh-Durham 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/), Raleigh-Durham 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 Raleigh-Durham asks Google for in an average month.

3,112,800

searches in an average month across the 1,607 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **104,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in Raleigh-Durham.

### 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 Raleigh-Durham searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 68 percent, Other 8 percent, Attractions 6 percent, Shopping 5 percent, Health & Wellness 4 percent, Personal Care 4 percent, Real Estate 3 percent, Home Services 2 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Raleigh-Durham DMA, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026, bucketed by our own vertical classifier — Google supplies no category. Squares are percentages of the addressable set, not of all search, and are largest-remainder rounded to 100.

Food & Dining 68% Other 8% Attractions 6% Shopping 5% Health & Wellness 4% Personal Care 4% Real Estate 3% Home Services 2%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **68% of the addressable demand** in Raleigh-Durham, against 6% 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/), Raleigh-Durham DMA · pulled September 8, 2026. Each row is indexed to its own peak month, so cells compare a vertical against itself and never against another row. Not a search count, and not [Google Trends](https://trends.google.com/).

| VERTICAL | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Entertainment | 18 | 17 | 19 | 26 | 68 | 100 | 33 | 27 | 39 | 77 | 17 | 19 |
| Education | 99 | 100 | 88 | 77 | 62 | 51 | 55 | 77 | 67 | 70 | 56 | 90 |
| Places & Neighborhoods | 79 | 73 | 92 | 88 | 91 | 90 | 100 | 96 | 86 | 90 | 80 | 76 |
| Shopping | 68 | 66 | 82 | 82 | 86 | 82 | 100 | 89 | 79 | 79 | 83 | 88 |
| Attractions | 62 | 62 | 95 | 91 | 86 | 86 | 100 | 94 | 73 | 76 | 86 | 66 |
| Food & Dining | 75 | 77 | 88 | 85 | 98 | 84 | 96 | 100 | 86 | 88 | 88 | 87 |
| Home Services | 98 | 91 | 84 | 73 | 63 | 68 | 66 | 80 | 94 | 100 | 99 | 77 |
| Real Estate | 88 | 88 | 99 | 97 | 99 | 83 | 81 | 100 | 88 | 85 | 81 | 73 |
| Personal Care | 64 | 64 | 82 | 82 | 82 | 82 | 82 | 100 | 77 | 77 | 76 | 70 |
| Health & Wellness | 96 | 84 | 98 | 88 | 86 | 86 | 88 | 100 | 98 | 95 | 88 | 98 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 79 | 83 | 86 | 86 | 93 | 96 | 98 | 86 | 82 | 100 | 80 | 80 |
| Travel & Transit | 80 | 79 | 98 | 82 | 98 | 98 | 100 | 98 | 96 | 99 | 96 | 96 |
| Legal | 86 | 96 | 80 | 52 | 45 | 46 | 45 | 55 | 100 | 79 | 39 | 55 |
| Professional Services | 100 | 87 | 97 | 80 | 69 | 66 | 66 | 88 | 89 | 76 | 63 | 63 |
| Jobs & Careers | 100 | 83 | 93 | 92 | 100 | 99 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 93 | 67 | 73 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in Raleigh-Durham 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 raleigh ▲ 288% BREAKOUT

raleigh 4th of july events ▲ 285% BREAKOUT

galaxycon raleigh tickets ▲ 280% BREAKOUT

raleigh world cup watch party ▲ 279% BREAKOUT

courtyard raleigh north ▲ 267% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Raleigh-Durham 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 Raleigh-Durham — 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. 1 more clear the bar below these.

North Hills NEIGHBORHOOD 99,140/mo

54 keywords · $89.4K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Chapel Hill SUBURB 83,650/mo

56 keywords · $365.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Downtown NEIGHBORHOOD 67,110/mo

118 keywords · $77.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Cary SUBURB 55,190/mo

27 keywords · $99.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Umstead NEIGHBORHOOD 17,940/mo

7 keywords · $21.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Glenwood NEIGHBORHOOD 9,890/mo

26 keywords · $11.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

North Raleigh NEIGHBORHOOD 7,640/mo

60 keywords · $31.0K/mo in ad-equivalent value

East Raleigh NEIGHBORHOOD 6,600/mo

1 keyword · $1.9K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Mordecai NEIGHBORHOOD 2,930/mo

2 keywords · $370/mo in ad-equivalent value

Five Points NEIGHBORHOOD 1,020/mo

4 keywords · $556/mo in ad-equivalent value

Source: Computed from Google Ads search volume × CPC via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Raleigh-Durham DMA, September 8, 2026 — keywords grouped by the place name they contain. Rows are grouped by NAME CONTAINMENT, not by place: a keyword joins every row whose name it contains, so it is counted in both when it names two places AND when one row's name sits inside another's. So a shorter name sitting inside a longer one carries the longer one’s keywords too, and those two rows are not independent places. Rows rank names and do not sum to a metro total. Ad-equivalent value is Σ volume × CPC — a ceiling on what the traffic would cost to buy, not spend and not revenue.

**North Hills** alone carries 99,140 searches a month across 54 keywords, worth $89.4K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Raleigh-Durham", 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 Raleigh-Durham.

"CAR ACCIDENT LAWYER NEAR RALEIGH NC" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$386.69

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 3,743 of 3,842 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 3743 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: bookkeeping raleigh at $0.01. Most expensive: car accident lawyer near raleigh nc at $386.69.

### The price board

The 3,743 of 3,842 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 | car accident lawyer near raleigh nc · LEGAL | $386.69 | 10 | $3.9K | — |
| 2 | window company raleigh · OTHER | $294.63 | 10 | $2.9K | — |
| 3 | raleigh workers comp lawyer · LEGAL | $234.83 | 320 | $75.1K | — |
| 4 | accident lawyer raleigh · LEGAL | $218.45 | 30 | $6.6K | — |
| 5 | commercial hvac repair raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $211.17 | 10 | $2.1K | — |
| 6 | raleigh personal injury · OTHER | $210.56 | 10 | $2.1K | — |
| 7 | heating and air conditioning raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $199.53 | 10 | $2.0K | — |
| 8 | ac company raleigh · OTHER | $190.27 | 10 | $1.9K | — |
| 9 | car wreck lawyer raleigh · LEGAL | $156.40 | 880 | $137.6K | — |
| 10 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $155.10 | 5,400 | $837.5K | — |
| 11 | empire today raleigh nc · OTHER | $148.90 | 40 | $6.0K | — |
| 12 | roofwise raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $144.66 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 13 | hvac maintenance raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $138.18 | 40 | $5.5K | — |
| 14 | g3 roofing raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $136.69 | 10 | $1.4K | — |
| 15 | domestic violence lawyer raleigh · LEGAL | $135.91 | 40 | $5.4K | — |
| 16 | best dui lawyer in raleigh nc · LEGAL | $117.79 | 10 | $1.2K | — |
| 17 | air conditioning raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $112.28 | 10 | $1.1K | — |
| 18 | termite control raleigh · OTHER | $110.18 | 40 | $4.4K | — |
| 19 | best lawyers in raleigh nc · LEGAL | $106.44 | 70 | $7.5K | — |
| 20 | criminal lawyer raleigh · LEGAL | $104.21 | 20 | $2.1K | — |
| 21 | concrete driveway repair raleigh nc · OTHER | $102.86 | 10 | $1.0K | — |
| 22 | service roofing raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $102.39 | 10 | $1.0K | — |
| 23 | woodwise raleigh · OTHER | $102.39 | 90 | $9.2K | — |
| 24 | bug out pest control raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $96.36 | 10 | $964 | — |
| 25 | raleigh dwi lawyer · LEGAL | $91.89 | 170 | $15.6K | — |
| 26 | raleigh family law lawyer · LEGAL | $91.76 | 30 | $2.8K | — |
| 27 | best roofing companies in raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $87.82 | 10 | $878 | — |
| 28 | hvac cleaning raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $84.54 | 10 | $845 | — |
| 29 | mosquito service raleigh · OTHER | $83.51 | 10 | $835 | — |
| 30 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $83.09 | 880 | $73.1K | — |
| 31 | commercial hvac companies in raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $82.12 | 10 | $821 | — |
| 32 | floor installation raleigh nc · OTHER | $80.87 | 10 | $809 | — |
| 33 | family attorney raleigh nc · LEGAL | $79.99 | 30 | $2.4K | — |
| 34 | long distance movers raleigh · OTHER | $74.47 | 50 | $3.7K | — |
| 35 | best deck builders raleigh nc · OTHER | $72.58 | 10 | $726 | — |
| 36 | garage door service raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $68.67 | 20 | $1.4K | — |
| 37 | injury lawyer raleigh · LEGAL | $65.78 | 1,300 | $85.5K | — |
| 38 | athens moving experts raleigh nc · OTHER | $65.63 | 10 | $656 | — |
| 39 | raleigh concrete · OTHER | $65.23 | 390 | $25.4K | — |
| 40 | raleigh law office · OTHER | $65.21 | 40 | $2.6K | — |
| 41 | window companies raleigh nc · OTHER | $64.87 | 30 | $1.9K | — |
| 42 | raleigh durham movers · OTHER | $64.64 | 10 | $646 | — |
| 43 | all american heating and air raleigh · HOME SERVICES | $63.69 | 40 | $2.5K | — |
| 44 | rural plumbing raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $63.36 | 20 | $1.3K | — |
| 45 | pest control near raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $62.89 | 10 | $629 | — |
| 46 | raleigh siding repair · OTHER | $62.83 | 110 | $6.9K | — |
| 47 | carolina flooring raleigh nc · OTHER | $60.39 | 10 | $604 | — |
| 48 | garage door repair near me · HOME SERVICES | $59.16 | 1,900 | $112.4K | — |
| 49 | pest control services raleigh nc · HOME SERVICES | $58.44 | 50 | $2.9K | — |
| 50 | hair loss dermatologist raleigh nc · HEALTH & WELLNESS | $58.04 | 10 | $580 | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Raleigh-Durham 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 $387 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $387 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$38,669

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

3 become signed cases (20% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 3 signed cases +$75,000 · 1.9× 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.

car accident lawyer near raleigh nc

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $386.69/click

64 clicks

commercial hvac repair raleigh nc

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $211.17/click

44 clicks

hair loss dermatologist raleigh nc

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $58.04/click

55 clicks

rainfall total raleigh nc

~$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/), Raleigh-Durham 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 $1,845,000/mo

Food & Dining $1,471,000/mo

Legal $1,394,000/mo

Health & Wellness $844,000/mo

Other $390,000/mo

Real Estate $306,000/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 Raleigh-Durham's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

21%

of Raleigh-Durham'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 Raleigh-Durham 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 "personal injury lawyer near me"

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

Bump chart of page-one positions for personal injury lawyer near me between Aug 30 and Sep 8: www.brentadams.com moved from position 4 → 8.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▲ 11

Viv's Kitchen

map rank for "grocery store"

#19 → #8

▲ 10

WakeMed Raleigh Campus Emergency Room

map rank for "urgent care"

#19 → #9

▲ 4

themillraleigh.com

restaurants near me

#7 → #3

▼ 4

ncworkercomp.com

raleigh workers comp lawyer

#4 → #8

NEW

www.busseslocks.com

locksmith near me · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

www.ubereats.com

restaurants near me · new to page one

— → #2

▲ 43

D’ LUJO GRILL SPORTS BAR - STEAKHOUSE

reviews

503 → 546

▲ 37

Blanton's Air, Plumbing & Electric

reviews

7,249 → 7,286

▲ 10

bp

map rank for "grocery store"

#17 → #7

▼ 9

La Cucina Italiana - Smoky Hollow

map rank for "pizza"

#10 → #19

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.tripadvisor.com OPEN RACE

grocery store near me

135,000 searches/mo

www.yelp.com AGGREGATOR

pizza near me

110,000 searches/mo

manhattanpizza.com LOCAL

carolina hurricanes tickets

74,000 searches/mo

www.nhl.com OPEN RACE

urgent care near me

60,500 searches/mo

www.unchealth.org LOCAL

nc museum of natural sciences

49,500 searches/mo

www.naturalsciences.org 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/raleigh-durham#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 90%

Map pack 71%

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Raleigh-Durham coordinate · pulled September 8, 2026. Feature presence as Google returned it; a featured snippet appeared on none of these SERPs and paid results on 2%, so neither is charted.

[People Also Ask](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#people-also-ask) boxes show on **90%** of these searches — answer those questions and you're on page one twice.

ANATOMY OF A #1

Trolley Pub Raleigh

Top-rated of 39 tracked Casino

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 4.4)

Reviews 5,364 (median 38)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), Raleigh-Durham 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 141.2× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,333 businesses we track in Raleigh-Durham's map results, **134** have no website at all — 10% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

134

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **9,533 reviews** and a 4.7 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/), Raleigh-Durham 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

40 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

Morgan & Morgan

4.8 ★ · 222 reviews

3 SEATS

#1

William Parrish Plumbing

4.9 ★ · 2,000 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Burton Law Firm - Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers

5.0 ★ · 88 reviews

2 SEATS

#2

Tatum & Atkinson - Personal Injury & Accident Attorneys

4.7 ★ · 610 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

Precision Garage Door Service of Raleigh

4.9 ★ · 2,400 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Ruckus Pizza and Bar

4.5 ★ · 1,100 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Loren Dentistry

4.8 ★ · 751 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

City Market

4.4 ★ · 500 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**8 of the 40 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Raleigh-Durham.** 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 Raleigh-Durham 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 1,333 businesses we track in Raleigh-Durham's map results, **129** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 10% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

129

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **9,533 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/), Raleigh-Durham 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 Raleigh-Durham — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

462K

PEOPLE

Median age 34.2. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$285,400

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$1,237

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 — Raleigh-Durham 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.

### Raleigh-Durham vs. the nation

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

| | RALEIGH-DURHAM | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $72,996 a year | $69,021 | +6% |
| Median home value | $285,400 | $244,900 | +17% |
| Median gross rent | $1,237 a month | $1,163 | +6% |

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 (Raleigh-Durham 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.

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 Raleigh-Durham 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

3.11M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$387

PRICIEST CLICK

21%

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/raleigh-durham#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 · 130 MI Charlotte, NC 3,663,260 searches/mo · 1,318 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charlotte) [NEAREST · 139 MI Richmond, VA 562,570 searches/mo · 1,012 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/richmond) [NEAREST · 220 MI Charleston, SC 1,420,220 searches/mo · 1,273 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/charleston) [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 2.2M/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham/food-dining) [ENTERTAINMENT 260K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham/entertainment) [HEALTH & WELLNESS 253K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham/health-wellness) [REAL ESTATE 90K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham/real-estate) [HOME SERVICES 78K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham/home-services) [LEGAL 18K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham/legal)

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Canonical page: https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/raleigh-durham
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