# Who gets found in San Diego?

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

THE SEARCH LEDGER · SAN DIEGO EDITION · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

Every month, San Diego types 5,429,500 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $15.44M 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/san-diego#methodology)

5,429,500

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$15.44M

AD-EQUIV. VALUE / MO

1,360

LISTINGS TRACKED

10,176

KEYWORDS TRACKED

San Diego searches 11,498,870 times a month in total. The other 6,069,370 are branded or navigational — someone already knows where they are going, across 2,094 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/), San Diego 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/), San Diego 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 San Diego asks Google for in an average month.

5,429,500

searches in an average month across the 4,114 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly **181,000 searches a day** for something, or someone, in San Diego.

### Where the demand goes

Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 47% of everything San Diego searches.

Waffle chart of monthly search demand by vertical: Food & Dining 50 percent, Attractions 18 percent, Other 10 percent, Travel & Transit 8 percent, Hotels & Lodging 7 percent, Shopping 3 percent, Health & Wellness 2 percent, Personal Care 2 percent.

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), San Diego 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 50% Attractions 18% Other 10% Travel & Transit 8% Hotels & Lodging 7% Shopping 3% Health & Wellness 2% Personal Care 2%

WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES

Food & Dining is **50% of the addressable demand** in San Diego, against 18% 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/), San Diego 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 | 67 | 63 | 87 | 84 | 90 | 93 | 100 | 94 | 74 | 72 | 67 | 79 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 63 | 64 | 80 | 75 | 79 | 90 | 100 | 84 | 69 | 69 | 66 | 85 |
| Real Estate | 94 | 82 | 93 | 88 | 95 | 90 | 81 | 100 | 94 | 83 | 74 | 72 |
| Food & Dining | 80 | 71 | 84 | 80 | 85 | 92 | 94 | 100 | 82 | 82 | 79 | 81 |
| Travel & Transit | 67 | 67 | 100 | 82 | 95 | 97 | 97 | 94 | 87 | 96 | 82 | 94 |
| Shopping | 74 | 70 | 84 | 81 | 83 | 95 | 100 | 89 | 82 | 81 | 84 | 82 |
| Education | 93 | 84 | 98 | 82 | 86 | 80 | 84 | 100 | 88 | 87 | 71 | 71 |
| Entertainment | 36 | 27 | 33 | 32 | 43 | 100 | 63 | 46 | 42 | 45 | 36 | 37 |
| Health & Wellness | 100 | 88 | 95 | 91 | 86 | 90 | 89 | 89 | 95 | 90 | 78 | 88 |
| Jobs & Careers | 81 | 62 | 99 | 82 | 81 | 99 | 100 | 82 | 83 | 82 | 56 | 47 |
| Personal Care | 75 | 70 | 83 | 82 | 82 | 82 | 90 | 100 | 83 | 83 | 76 | 76 |
| Legal | 83 | 66 | 76 | 54 | 50 | 47 | 54 | 92 | 100 | 77 | 60 | 66 |
| Home Services | 90 | 85 | 86 | 72 | 76 | 87 | 79 | 94 | 100 | 94 | 64 | 72 |
| Professional Services | 100 | 71 | 68 | 55 | 36 | 36 | 35 | 64 | 75 | 56 | 44 | 43 |

### Climbing fastest

The steepest risers in San Diego 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.

uc san diego health primary care rancho bernardo ▲ 300% BREAKOUT

san diego fair hours ▲ 295% BREAKOUT

world cup watch party san diego ▲ 295% BREAKOUT

del mar fair hours ▲ 292% BREAKOUT

san diego world cup watch party ▲ 292% BREAKOUT

Source: Google Ads monthly search volume via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), San Diego 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 San Diego — 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. 35 more clear the bar below these.

La Jolla SUBURB 728,160/mo

668 keywords · $923.4K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Carlsbad SUBURB 311,690/mo

291 keywords · $455.8K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Vista SUBURB 200,760/mo

335 keywords · $606.6K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Oceanside SUBURB 180,800/mo

206 keywords · $356.9K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Old Town NEIGHBORHOOD 157,510/mo

39 keywords · $144.3K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Chula Vista SUBURB 147,290/mo

257 keywords · $454.6K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Mission Valley NEIGHBORHOOD 109,610/mo

125 keywords · $247.6K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Encinitas SUBURB 83,840/mo

101 keywords · $117.7K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Escondido SUBURB 80,490/mo

71 keywords · $270.1K/mo in ad-equivalent value

Mission Bay NEIGHBORHOOD 76,240/mo

23 keywords · $122.2K/mo in ad-equivalent value

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

**La Jolla** alone carries 728,160 searches a month across 668 keywords, worth $923.4K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "San Diego", 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 San Diego.

"MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT LAWYER SAN DIEGO" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK

$1015.22

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

### Every keyword has a price tag

The 9,756 of 10,176 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 9756 tracked keywords by cost per click, log scale. Cheapest: zillow 92111 at $0.01. Most expensive: motorcycle accident lawyer san diego at $1015.22.

### The price board

The 9,756 of 10,176 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 | motorcycle accident lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $1015.22 | 880 | $893.4K | — |
| 2 | slip and fall lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $891.36 | 320 | $285.2K | — |
| 3 | san diego truck accident lawyer · LEGAL | $634.70 | 320 | $203.1K | — |
| 4 | truck accident lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $617.71 | 720 | $444.8K | — |
| 5 | top personal injury attorney san diego · LEGAL | $389.68 | 90 | $35.1K | — |
| 6 | small claims lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $328.52 | 10 | $3.3K | — |
| 7 | best car accident lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $327.13 | 170 | $55.6K | — |
| 8 | accident attorney san diego ca · LEGAL | $313.40 | 170 | $53.3K | — |
| 9 | accident attorney encinitas · LEGAL | $301.61 | 20 | $6.0K | — |
| 10 | movers from la to san diego · OTHER | $237.44 | 10 | $2.4K | — |
| 11 | chula vista personal injury lawyers · LEGAL | $223.34 | 210 | $46.9K | — |
| 12 | dui lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $213.72 | 260 | $55.6K | — |
| 13 | domestic violence lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $213.43 | 260 | $55.5K | — |
| 14 | rooter san diego · OTHER | $211.50 | 10 | $2.1K | — |
| 15 | emergency plumber la jolla · HOME SERVICES | $199.92 | 40 | $8.0K | — |
| 16 | king lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $198.32 | 320 | $63.5K | — |
| 17 | san diego car crash lawyer · LEGAL | $197.69 | 4,400 | $869.8K | — |
| 18 | dui attorney san diego ca · LEGAL | $191.18 | 110 | $21.0K | — |
| 19 | employee rights attorney san diego · LEGAL | $185.39 | 10 | $1.9K | — |
| 20 | injury lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $178.87 | 4,400 | $787.0K | — |
| 21 | garage door repair point loma · HOME SERVICES | $177.37 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 22 | emergency ac repair san diego · HOME SERVICES | $177.06 | 10 | $1.8K | — |
| 23 | we buy houses san diego ca · OTHER | $175.43 | 40 | $7.0K | — |
| 24 | plumber 92126 · HOME SERVICES | $173.53 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 25 | san diego interstate movers · OTHER | $172.95 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 26 | pest control san ysidro · HOME SERVICES | $169.59 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 27 | king aminpour attorney san diego · LEGAL | $169.12 | 880 | $148.8K | — |
| 28 | garage door opener service san diego ca · HOME SERVICES | $167.76 | 10 | $1.7K | — |
| 29 | accident lawyers san diego · LEGAL | $167.08 | 170 | $28.4K | — |
| 30 | plumber 92117 · HOME SERVICES | $161.48 | 10 | $1.6K | — |
| 31 | plumber 92109 · HOME SERVICES | $161.33 | 10 | $1.6K | — |
| 32 | la jolla ac repair · HOME SERVICES | $157.87 | 10 | $1.6K | — |
| 33 | best tax attorney san diego · LEGAL | $157.72 | 20 | $3.2K | — |
| 34 | sell my house in san diego · OTHER | $157.04 | 20 | $3.1K | — |
| 35 | kennedy roofing san diego · HOME SERVICES | $149.00 | 10 | $1.5K | — |
| 36 | rodent pest control san diego · HOME SERVICES | $146.99 | 10 | $1.5K | — |
| 37 | personal injury lawyer near me · LEGAL | $146.23 | 2,900 | $424.1K | — |
| 38 | work injury lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $137.83 | 90 | $12.4K | — |
| 39 | bm windows san diego · OTHER | $137.77 | 40 | $5.5K | — |
| 40 | san diego commercial roofing companies · HOME SERVICES | $134.79 | 10 | $1.3K | — |
| 41 | bed bug heat treatment san diego · OTHER | $130.85 | 10 | $1.3K | — |
| 42 | 24 hour plumber san diego · HOME SERVICES | $129.67 | 70 | $9.1K | — |
| 43 | rat removal san diego · OTHER | $129.60 | 10 | $1.3K | — |
| 44 | best bathroom remodel san diego · HOME SERVICES | $129.49 | 20 | $2.6K | — |
| 45 | wrongful death lawyers san diego · LEGAL | $128.98 | 390 | $50.3K | — |
| 46 | construction services san diego · OTHER | $127.49 | 20 | $2.5K | — |
| 47 | lemon law lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $127.23 | 390 | $49.6K | — |
| 48 | best dui lawyer san diego · LEGAL | $126.94 | 70 | $8.9K | — |
| 49 | san diego criminal defense center · OTHER | $126.34 | 10 | $1.3K | — |
| 50 | emergency plumber near me · HOME SERVICES | $125.65 | 720 | $90.5K | — |

Source: [Google Ads](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) search volume and cost-per-click via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), San Diego 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 $1,015 a click?

The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $1,015 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.

100 clicks bought −$101,522

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

3 become signed cases (20% close, benchmark)

Revenue from those 3 signed cases +$75,000 · 0.7× 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.

motorcycle accident lawyer san diego

~$25,000 case fee (benchmark) · $1015.22/click

24 clicks

emergency plumber la jolla

~$9,500 job value (benchmark) · $199.92/click

47 clicks

best dental implants san diego

~$3,200 patient value (benchmark) · $89.09/click

35 clicks

san diego victorian homes

~$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/), San Diego 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 $5,446,000/mo

Home Services $2,667,000/mo

Food & Dining $1,784,000/mo

Attractions $1,340,000/mo

Other $933,000/mo

Travel & Transit $895,000/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 San Diego's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.

29%

of San Diego's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name — www.yelp.com, attorneys.superlawyers.com, www.opentable.com — their share is large, and it is beatable: Google prefers a good local answer when one exists. The other 71% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.

Waffle chart: 29 of 100 tracked page-one slots held by one of 40 named national directories, 71 by everything else.

out-of-town directories · 29 everything else · 71

Source: Google organic results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), 21 tracked keywords anchored on the San Diego 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 "slip and fall lawyer san diego"

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

Bump chart of page-one positions for slip and fall lawyer san diego between Aug 30 and Sep 8: www.thegomezfirm.com moved from position 3 → 10.

### This week's movers

Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.

▲ 14

Dobson's Bar & Restaurant

map rank for "restaurant"

#17 → #3

▼ 13

Bronze Bird

map rank for "restaurant"

#3 → #16

▼ 9

www.singletonschreiber.com

3 queries — truck accident lawyer san diego · accident lawyers san diego · best car accident lawyer san diego

0 up · 3 down

▼ 7

www.thegomezfirm.com

slip and fall lawyer san diego

#3 → #10

NEW

www.yelp.com

restaurants near me · new to page one

— → #1

NEW

www.mcclellanlaw.com

accident lawyers san diego · new to page one

— → #2

▲ 80

Sonny’s Pizza

reviews

1,372 → 1,452

▲ 60

Jamul Casino Resort

reviews

11,115 → 11,175

▼ 0.1★

Visionary Dental Arts

rating

4.9★ → 4.8★

▼ 0.1★

Ten Fifty B

rating

3.4★ → 3.3★

Movement = week-over-week snapshot diff · arrows and signed numbers, always

### Most contested keywords

Who currently leads the top 6 fights worth having. Leader = top organic result; OPEN RACE = no [map pack](https://seobandwagon.com/seo-glossary#local-pack) on the page.

restaurants near me

1,220,000 searches/mo

www.yelp.com AGGREGATOR

san diego zoo

246,000 searches/mo

zoo.sandiegozoo.org OPEN RACE

petco park

135,000 searches/mo

www.mlb.com OPEN RACE

coronado hotel del

90,500 searches/mo

www.hoteldel.com OPEN RACE

san diego airport

40,500 searches/mo

www.san.org OPEN RACE

san diego space museum

33,100 searches/mo

sandiegoairandspace.org OPEN RACE

NO MAP PACK

**9 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/san-diego#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 57%

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

John's Garage Door Services

Top-rated of 91 tracked Garage Door Repair

Rating 5.0 ★ (cat. median 5.0)

Reviews 1,764 (median 49)

Source: [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps) results via [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com/), San Diego 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 36× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.

### Ranking with no website

Of the 1,360 businesses we track in San Diego's map results, **214** have no website at all — 16% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.

214

BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE

The most-reviewed of them has **681 reviews** and a 3.9 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/), San Diego 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

21 businesses hold the 36 pack seats across the 12 tracked keywords that return a map pack. # is the best position each held; seats counts the keywords they appear on.

#1

Gomez Trial Attorneys, Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyers

4.9 ★ · 1,100 reviews

7 SEATS

#1

Jurewitz Law Group Injury & Accident Lawyers

4.8 ★ · 459 reviews

5 SEATS

#1

King Aminpour Car Accident Lawyer

4.6 ★ · 356 reviews

5 SEATS

#3

HHJ Trial Attorneys: Car Accident & Injury Lawyers

5.0 ★ · 294 reviews

2 SEATS

#1

La Puerta

4.5 ★ · 5,400 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

American Plumbing Co | Plumber in San Diego

5.0 ★ · 383 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Marina District Dentistry

4.9 ★ · 241 reviews

1 SEAT

#1

Garage Door Finest Inc

5.0 ★ · 103 reviews

1 SEAT

A DIFFERENT POOL

**6 of the 21 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for San Diego.** 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/), 12 tracked keywords anchored on the San Diego 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 1,360 businesses we track in San Diego's map results, **187** are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 14% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.

187

UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY

The most-reviewed of them has **3,727 reviews** and a 4.3 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/), San Diego 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 San Diego — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.

1.39M

PEOPLE

Median age 35.4. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.

$664,000

MEDIAN HOME VALUE

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

$1,885

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 — San Diego 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.

### San Diego vs. the nation

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

| | SAN DIEGO | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median household income | $89,457 a year | $69,021 | +30% |
| Median home value | $664,000 | $244,900 | +171% |
| Median gross rent | $1,885 a month | $1,163 | +62% |

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 (San Diego 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 32,757 students University of California, San Diego

1 institutions and 32,757 enrolled students, led by University of California, San Diego. A permanent annual influx of new residents who choose dentists, gyms, and mechanics from a Google search.

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 197 Mbps avg 94.2% coverage · 49.8% fiber

Average download of 197 Mbps, 94.2% coverage, 49.8% fiber availability. Fast connections mean impatient visitors: page speed is a ranking and conversion factor here.

This week in town 63 upcoming events San Diego Padres vs. Washington Nationals · PETCO Park

63 upcoming tracked events, led by San Diego Padres vs. Washington Nationals at PETCO Park.

### The names San Diego searches for

The 96 brands, institutions and landmarks this metro looks up by name — 9,639,830 searches a month. No local business can win these. They are what the city *is*.

RANKED BY MONTHLY SEARCH VOLUME

| | | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | San Diego Padres | Sports team | | 2.39M |
| 2 | MLB | League | | 1.72M |
| 3 | San Diego Zoo | Destination | | 796K |
| 4 | SeaWorld | Destination | | 413K |
| 5 | Mission Valley | Store | | 314K |
| 6 | Balboa Park | Destination | | 303K |
| 7 | Fashion Valley | Store | | 257K |
| 8 | Coronado Island | Destination | | 210K |
| 9 | The San Diego Museum of Art | Destination | | 173K |
| 10 | Petco | Store | | 169K |
| 11 | Petco Park | Destination | | 166K |
| 12 | USS Midway Museum | Destination | | 151K |

#### Most searched

-   1 San Diego Padres 2.39M
-   2 MLB 1.72M
-   3 San Diego Zoo 796K
-   4 SeaWorld 413K
-   5 Mission Valley 314K

#### Most valuable

-   1 San Diego Padres $4.04M
-   2 MLB $3.33M
-   3 San Diego Zoo $684K
-   4 Mission Valley $592K
-   5 The San Diego Museum of Art $439K

#### Most expensive per click

-   1 Timken Museum of Art $7.81
-   2 Mingei International Museum $5.23
-   3 Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum $4.91
-   4 Motel 6 $3.73
-   5 San Diego Civic Theatre $3.70

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 San Diego 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

5.43M

SEARCHES IN PLAY / MO

$1015

PRICIEST CLICK

29%

PAGE ONE DIRECTORY SHARE

9 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/san-diego#scan)

STEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP

### Claim your seat

9 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 · 111 MI Los Angeles, CA 16,620,810 searches/mo · 1,249 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/los-angeles) [NEAREST · 265 MI Las Vegas, NV 4,334,020 searches/mo · 1,326 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/las-vegas) [NEAREST · 299 MI Phoenix, AZ 5,504,470 searches/mo · 1,354 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/phoenix) [CLOSEST LOOKALIKE Houston, TX 8,289,250 searches/mo · 1,372 listings](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/houston)

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 2.8M/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego/food-dining) [HOTELS & LODGING 652K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego/hotels-lodging) [ENTERTAINMENT 188K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego/entertainment) [HEALTH & WELLNESS 159K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego/health-wellness) [HOME SERVICES 95K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego/home-services) [LEGAL 43K/mo](https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego/legal)

---

Canonical page: https://seobandwagon.com/local-seo/san-diego
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