Local SEO
RankGuarantee™ creates a page for every service in every city you serve, so a search for your service in a Lackawanna County town meets a page built for it. How it works.
Lackawanna County, PA · SEO Services
SEO Services for Every City in Lackawanna County
Lackawanna County has 13 places of 2,500 or more residents, which shapes how SEO should be built here. GetPhound is an SEO agency for small businesses: pages for each city you serve, Google Maps and AI search work, and flat monthly plans with no contracts. Below is the data behind the Lackawanna County market.
Market at a glance
Lackawanna County at a Glance: Competition, Growth and Search Demand
Local Search Competition Index
65.3/ 100
Sitting at rank 370 of 1,822 counties with 20,000+ residents and 164 of the 400 markets we cover. Higher means more local businesses competing for the same searches. See the method
We grade every U.S. county-equivalent with 20,000 or more residents on how many local-search businesses (including the lawyers, dentists, contractors, restaurants, salons and agents that customers find on Google and the map) compete for its residents. Lackawanna County scores 65.3, which is more contested than most.
Two things stand out about Lackawanna County: it is a county with many sizeable cities and towns, and it is a county whose business base is flat or shrinking. The eight measures that follow place it among every other county.
- How much the population has changed since 2020 +0.1% Behind on growth than 61% of counties
- Median household income (2023 est.) $57,570 Smaller than 75% of counties
- Local-search business locations per 10,000 people 56.7 More crowded than 79% of counties
- Growth in those businesses, 2017 to 2022 -1.1% Less growth than 71% of counties
- Portion with under 5 employees 58.9% Greater share than 54% of counties
- Change in employer locations, all industries, 2017 to 2022 -1.6% Slower growth than 80% of counties
- Cities and towns of 2,500+ residents 13 More places than 95% of counties
- New-home permits per 10,000 residents (2025) 12.7 Lighter building than 75% of counties
The bars place Lackawanna County against all 1,822 U.S. counties with 20,000 or more residents. Sources: Census Bureau population estimates, County Business Patterns (2017 and 2022), Census income estimates and the Building Permits Survey.
Communities
Lackawanna County by Place: A Search Market for Each
Here is each place's population, taken from the Census Bureau's newest estimates. People search by town name, so each of these is a separate set of searches and a possible landing page for each service you offer.
| Place | Residents (2023 estimate) | Portion of county population |
|---|---|---|
| Scranton | 75,805 | 35% |
| Dunmore | 14,186 | 7% |
| Carbondale | 8,796 | 4% |
| Old Forge | 8,612 | 4% |
| Archbald | 7,457 | 3% |
| Blakely | 6,653 | 3% |
Data: the Census Bureau's Population Estimates. Places are cities, towns and census-designated places; where a city crosses into a neighboring county, we count only the part that lies in Lackawanna County.
The search picture
Lackawanna County Is Many Search Markets, Not One
Lackawanna County has 13 places with 2,500 or more residents, 2 of them above 10,000, more than 95% of counties. Each is its own search market: people look for a plumber in Scranton or in the next town over, not in the county. Local SEO means giving each of those cities its own page for each service you offer, which is what RankGuarantee™ is built to produce.
Lackawanna County has 216,123 residents, which ranks 323rd of 3,143 U.S. counties, with population change of +0.1% since the 2020 Census. Across all industries it has 5,189 employer locations, 24.0 per 1,000 residents.
22% of residents (47,921 people) live outside any incorporated place, so county-level and "near me" searches matter as much as city names.
The field you would rank in
Which Lackawanna County Categories Are Most Contested in Local Search
The table below measures Lackawanna County against the typical U.S. county for fifteen categories that live on Google and the map: how many locations there are, how that has changed, and how many are very small.
CategoryLocationsCompared with a typical countyShift, 2017 to 2022Locations under 5 staff
Law officesMost contested 151 -6.8% 104
Beauty salons 82 +1.2% 56
Physicians offices 164 +10.8% 73
Dentists 89 -17.6% 36
Full-service restaurants 205 -15.3% 69
Accounting and CPA firms 35 -10.3% 18
General automotive repairTiniest shops 72 -1.4% 64
Residential remodelersFastest growing 81 +24.6% 66
Roofing contractors 14 +7.7% 8
Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors 73 +0% 44
Electrical contractors 49 +8.9% 24
Insurance agencies and brokerages 77 -7.2% 56
Landscaping servicesLeast contested 67 +21.8% 57
Janitorial services 30 -6.2% 15
Real estate agents and brokers 36 +89.5% 32
Crowding is employer locations per 10,000 residents relative to the median U.S. county of 20,000+ residents (1.0x is typical; the dark tick marks it). Figures are establishments from the Census County Business Patterns (2017, 2022), not a measure of search volume. See the method
The law offices category is the most contested in Lackawanna County: 151 locations, 2.4x the density of a typical county, and down 6.8% since 2017. Beauty salons (82 locations, 2.4x) and physicians offices (164 locations, 1.9x) also run above a normal county. The landscaping services category is the least contested here at 0.9x typical (67 locations), so there are fewer rival pages for those searches.
Residential remodelers grew fastest, up 24.6% since 2017 to 81 locations, so new rivals keep arriving there. Dentists went the other way, down 17.6% to 89 locations. The tiniest competitors are in general automotive repair: 64 of 72 locations (89%) have fewer than five employees.
One caution: the table counts businesses, not searches. We have no search volumes or traffic for any keyword, and we do not claim any; crowding shows that more sites compete, not what results will be.
Housing demand
Lackawanna County Construction: Steady, Not Spiking
New homes authorized by building permits. Source: the Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey (annual county files, with the year-to-date bars covering the same months in each year). Permits are authorizations, not completed homes.
Permits in Lackawanna County have stayed within a narrow range: 275 units in 2025 against 254 in 2021, or 12.7 per 10,000 residents, less than in 75% of counties. For January through August, permits are running at 151 against 192 a year earlier (−21.4%).
The construction-linked categories already most contested in Lackawanna County are residential remodelers (1.2x typical) and plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (1.1x typical). Because search rankings take time to build, a rise in permits is a reason to start now, and falling permits are a reason to emphasize repair, replacement and service-specific pages.
Comparable counties
Six Counties That Resemble Lackawanna County
These six counties are the nearest matches to Lackawanna County in our 400-market set when we compare size, income, local-search competition, small-business mix and growth together.
| County | Score | People | Growth since 2020 | Local-business change since 2017 | Tiny locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lackawanna County, PA (you are here) | 65.3 | 216,123 | +0.1% | -1.1% | 58.9% |
| Luzerne County, PA | 59.4 | 327,388 | +0.5% | +0.7% | 59.3% |
| Shawnee County, KS | 55.4 | 177,746 | -0.6% | -2.3% | 57.2% |
| Pulaski County, AR | 70.2 | 400,009 | +0.2% | -2.1% | 60.5% |
| Winnebago County, IL | 61.9 | 280,922 | -1.5% | +0.4% | 58.6% |
| Westmoreland County, PA | 68.4 | 351,163 | -1% | +0.3% | 59.4% |
| St. Louis County, MN | 59.4 | 200,514 | +0.1% | +2.6% | 53.9% |
The six look-alikes are the counties in our 400-market set that sit closest to this one on size, income, local-search competition, small-business mix and growth. Sources as above.
Luzerne County, PA is the closest match, scoring 59.4 against Lackawanna County's 65.3. Shawnee County, KS is the furthest from it, scoring 55.4. St. Louis County, MN has 53.9% of its local-search locations under five employees against 58.9% in Lackawanna County. If you already invest in SEO in one of these markets, the comparison shows how similar the competition is, not what your results will be.
What happens, in order
How SEO Services Work in Lackawanna County
Start with research
We dig into your services, your service area and your competitors, review your website from top to bottom, and write a six-month strategy. It all comes with your monthly rate.
Build the pages
RankGuarantee™ produces a landing page for each service in each city you serve, and your website gets on-page work and technical fixes.
Google Maps, content, AI search
We polish your Google Business Profile, citations and reviews, write and publish Strategic Content Assets, and format your pages so AI search can pull accurate facts from them.
Measure, then grow
Each month your account manager shares reporting from Search Console and Analytics, and we put new pages and content where the data points.
What SEO includes
What Our SEO Services Cover in Lackawanna County
Map SEO
Profile optimization, citations, weekly posts, rank tracking and review management, so you appear in the map results when Lackawanna County customers search nearby. Read about Map SEO.
AI search (GEO)
Pages and business information structured so AI tools have clear, consistent facts to draw on. No one can guarantee a mention in an AI answer; this improves the odds.
On-page and content
Technical fixes, on-page optimization and written content that answers real customer questions, published every month on every Organic Growth plan.
Call it SEO services, an SEO company, an SEO agency, local SEO or search engine optimization: the work is getting Lackawanna County businesses found on Google, Maps and AI search. Every plan comes with one account manager and a monthly report from Search Console and Analytics. Gold and Platinum add a fully managed website.
What it costs
SEO Services Pricing: Flat Monthly Plans
No plan has a setup fee or a contract. Onboarding comes with the monthly rate: keyword research, a website audit and a six-month plan. Talk to our CEO about it.
Try your own numbers
An SEO Payback Calculator for Lackawanna County Businesses
Whether SEO pays off in Lackawanna County depends on your numbers, not an average. Fill in your own figures to see how many new customers per month cover a plan, and how many over the period you choose.
Common questions
Lackawanna County SEO Services: Your Questions Answered
How much do SEO services cost in Lackawanna County?
We bill one flat monthly fee with no setup fee and no contract: $495 for RankGuarantee™ landing pages, or $1,495, $2,495 or $3,495 for the Silver, Gold and Platinum Organic Growth plans. Gold and Platinum include a fully managed, custom-built website.
How long does SEO take to work in Lackawanna County?
SEO builds gradually, and nobody can promise a date. How quickly pages climb depends on how contested your category is, how strong your website and Google Business Profile are, and how much we can build. In Lackawanna County, law offices is especially contested (2.4x a typical county), so expect that category to take longer. We work in six-month planning cycles, with no contract, and report each month.
Is Lackawanna County a competitive market for SEO?
Density is highest in
More than most. Lackawanna County scores 65.3 on our Local Search Competition Index, ranking 370th of 1,822 counties with 20,000+ residents and 164th of the 400 markets we cover. Law offices, at 2.4 times the typical county. 58.9% of local-search locations are tiny, with fewer than five employees, and tiny shops frequently have thin websites to outrank. That makes city-and-service pages and strong reviews more important, not less.
Which local businesses compete for search in Lackawanna County?
Across the fifteen categories we track, the largest by employer locations in Lackawanna County are full-service restaurants (205), physicians offices (164) and law offices (151). Measured against a typical county, the most contested are law offices (2.4x) and beauty salons (2.4x). Size and crowding in a category do not decide whether SEO works for you; it shows how many other sites you would be sharing the results with.
Which cities in Lackawanna County would you build pages for?
Whichever you serve. Lackawanna County has 13 places of 2,500 or more residents, led by Scranton, Dunmore, Carbondale, Old Forge and Archbald. RankGuarantee™ builds local landing pages for each service in each city you serve (25 new pages a month on the $495 plan, 25 to 100 on Organic Growth), so the plan follows your service area, not the county line.
Can you help me rank in the Google Maps results?
We do. Each Organic Growth plan covers Google Business Profile optimization, citations and review management, together with on-page and technical SEO, strategic content and AI search (GEO) work. Maps rankings matter most for searches like "near me", and most local categories in Lackawanna County depend on them.
Will SEO help my business appear in AI answers like ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews?
It can. We include AI search (GEO) optimization in our plans: clean, structured pages and consistent business information give AI tools more to draw on. No one can guarantee a mention in an AI answer, and we do not promise one, but the work that earns rankings also builds the content those tools use.
SEO or Google Ads: which is right for a Lackawanna County business?
Frequently both. Ads can send calls within days and charge per click; SEO takes longer but keeps working with no per-click charge. When you need leads right away, begin with ads (we manage Google Ads, Bing and Meta too) and use SEO to build the asset that lowers your dependence on them.
Do I have to sign a contract, and what does the monthly fee include?
There is no setup fee, and you can cancel anytime. Your plan covers the keyword research, website audit and six-month strategy up front, then the pages and content in your tier, rank tracking, and one account manager who knows your Lackawanna County business.
Around Lackawanna County
Counties Near Lackawanna County
Customers beyond Lackawanna County? These are the nearest counties, measured from county center to county center:
- Wyoming County, PA: roughly 22 miles away, 25,902 residents, index score 54.6
- Wayne County, PA: about 22 miles out, 51,262 residents, Local Search Competition Index 65.9
- Luzerne County, PA: roughly 26 miles away, 327,388 people, index score 59.4
- Susquehanna County, PA: roughly 28 miles from here, 38,109 residents, Local Search Competition Index 35.7
- Monroe County, PA: about 30 miles out, 166,053 residents, competition index 61.6
- Pike County, PA: roughly 31 miles from here, 61,247 people, competition index 42.4
Sources and method
How This Lackawanna County Page Was Built
Every figure on this page comes from public U.S. Census Bureau data, computed the same way for each county, so you can compare Lackawanna County with any other market. We do not use client account data, and we do not publish search volumes, traffic or ranking results for GetPhound clients, because results differ by business.
- Last updatedOctober 16, 2026
- SourcesPopulation Estimates (2023), County Business Patterns (2017, 2022), Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (2023), the Building Permits Survey (2021 to 2026 year to date), Census Gazetteer files.
- MethodologyThe Local Search Competition Index and every other figure here are defined on the methodology page. Compare all markets in the index.
- Report a mistakeThink we got something wrong? Email hello@getphound.com and we will compare it with the original Census data.
Get in Touch
Ready to Grow Your Lackawanna County Business With SEO?
Tell us what you sell and which parts of Lackawanna County you serve. We will show you what an SEO plan looks like for your business. Call 610-825-4363 or write to hello@getphound.com and we will set up a strategy session with our CEO.