How We Build the Local Search Competition Index and Every County Figure
Every number on our county pages comes from public U.S. Census Bureau data and is computed the same way for every county. This page explains the definitions, the formulas and what the numbers cannot tell you.
The index
What the Local Search Competition Index Measures
The index answers one question: for the kinds of local businesses that customers find on Google and the map, how contested is this county compared with other counties? It measures the number of local businesses competing for residents, not the number of searches and not how hard any one keyword is.
Step 1, categories. We use fifteen local-search categories, identified by NAICS code: law offices (541110), plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (238220), roofing contractors (238160), electrical contractors (238210), residential remodelers (236118), landscaping services (561730), dentists (621210), physicians offices (621111), real estate agents and brokers (531210), insurance agencies and brokerages (524210), general automotive repair (811111), accounting and CPA firms (541211), beauty salons (812112), full-service restaurants (722511) and janitorial services (561720).
Step 2, density. For each category we take employer establishments from the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns (2022) and divide by the county’s 2023 population estimate, giving locations per 10,000 residents. A category with no row in the Census table for a county is treated as zero.
Step 3, percentile. Within each category we rank every U.S. county with 20,000 or more residents (1,822 counties) and record the share of those counties with a strictly lower density.
Step 4, the score. The index is the simple average of the fifteen category percentiles, from 0 to 100. A score near 50 is a typical county. Counties under 20,000 residents are not scored because per-resident densities are too unstable at that size.
Other figures
How the Other Numbers Are Calculated
- Crowding versus a typical county: a category’s locations per 10,000 residents divided by the median of that category across the 1,822 counties. 1.0x is typical.
- Change since 2017: percentage change in employer establishments (in a category, in all fifteen combined, or in all industries) between the 2017 and 2022 County Business Patterns.
- Locations under 5 staff: establishments in the Census size class of fewer than 5 employees; the share is that count divided by all establishments in the fifteen categories.
- Places with 2,500 or more residents: named cities, towns and census-designated places in the county (the part inside the county where a city spans two) at or above 2,500 residents in the Census Bureau’s latest estimates.
- New-home permits: housing units authorized by building permits from the Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey, per 10,000 residents for 2025, and a same-months comparison for the current year.
- Look-alike markets: for the 400 markets we cover, the six nearest on a standardized combination of population (log), income, the index, share of locations under 5 staff, growth in employer locations and population growth.
- Percentile bars on each page: the share of the 1,822 counties with a lower value (or, where we say “slower” or “lower”, the share with a higher one).
Sources
Where the Data Comes From
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, Vintage 2023 (county and place totals)
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, 2022 and 2017
- U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, 2023 (median household income)
- U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (county annual and year-to-date files)
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Gazetteer (county centers, used for distances)
State advertising rules, where shown, link to the statute, regulation or regulator that publishes them, and each block states when we last checked it.
Limits
What These Numbers Cannot Tell You
- They are not search volumes. The index counts businesses. How many people search for a service, and how fast a page can rank, depend on factors public data does not show. We do not publish keyword volumes, traffic or ranking promises.
- They are not our results. We do not use client account data or publish GetPhound client results on these pages, because every business and market differs.
- Establishments are not websites. Some counted businesses have no website; others rank from outside the county. Sole proprietors without employees are not in County Business Patterns.
- Connecticut is different. The Census Bureau replaced Connecticut’s eight counties with nine planning regions in its newest files, but most people still search by county (“Fairfield County”, “Hartford County”). For Connecticut we use the historic counties with 2021 population and income estimates and 2021 business counts (compared with 2017), and we leave out permits. Pages say so.
- Data has a lag. Business counts are from 2022 and population from 2023. We note the year beside each figure and rebuild the data when the Census Bureau releases new files.
Found a mistake? Email hello@getphound.com and we will check it against the source.
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Want These Numbers Applied to Your Business?
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