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| Trade | Employer locations, 2022 | Per 10,000 residents | Compared with the median county | Under 10 staff, of 100 | 20+ staff | Locations versus 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential remodelers | 41 | 1.7 | 0.5 times | 93 of 100 | 0 | +36.7 percent |
| Roofing contractors | 16 | 0.7 | 0.8 times | 75 of 100 | 0 | +14.3 percent |
| Electrical contractors | 39 | 1.6 | 0.7 times | 69 of 100 | 3 | +30 percent |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 63 | 2.7 | 0.8 times | 68 of 100 | 11 | +5 percent |
| Insurance agencies and brokerages | 57 | 2.4 | 0.7 times | 89 of 100 | 0 | -1.7 percent |
| Real estate agents and brokers | 68 | 2.9 | 1 times | 96 of 100 | 0 | +19.3 percent |
| Law offices | 97 | 4.1 | 1.4 times | 91 of 100 | 0 | -4 percent |
| Accounting and CPA firms | 34 | 1.4 | 1 times | 88 of 100 | 0 | 0 percent |
| Janitorial services | 30 | 1.3 | 0.7 times | 57 of 100 | 8 | +7.1 percent |
| Landscaping services | 68 | 2.9 | 0.9 times | 87 of 100 | 3 | +13.3 percent |
| Physicians offices | 114 | 4.8 | 1.2 times | 52 of 100 | 26 | -4.2 percent |
| Dentists | 52 | 2.2 | 0.8 times | 54 of 100 | 6 | -5.5 percent |
| Full-service restaurants | 125 | 5.3 | 0.8 times | 30 of 100 | 62 | +4.2 percent |
| General automotive repair | 34 | 1.4 | 0.5 times | 100 of 100 | 0 | +17.2 percent |
| Beauty salons | 45 | 1.9 | 1 times | 82 of 100 | 0 | -6.2 percent |
County Business Patterns, 2022 and 2017. Employer locations only, so sole proprietors and gig workers are not counted. Survey years, not a live count.
Reading it
County Business Patterns counts locations that have paid employees. It leaves out the sole proprietor with a truck and a phone, who is a large part of many trades here. It divides locations by residents, so a county with a large student population or a lot of rural land will show different ratios than a suburb. It also reports 2022, so anything that has opened or closed since is invisible. Read it as a way to compare trades with each other, not as a census of competitors.
Even so, the pattern is useful. Marketing a trade in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama works best when you know whether you are one of many or one of a few, whether the shops around you are large or small, and whether your trade is expanding or contracting. The rest of this page picks out the pieces that matter most and explains what each means for SEO, Maps, ads and the website.
Across Tuscaloosa County, 4,197 employer locations carry 81,201 jobs in the 2022 counts. The fifteen trades below are a subset, chosen because owners in them typically need local marketing.
The headline findings
Law offices lead at 1.4 times the median county's density, with 97 locations. Physician offices are next at 1.2 times. When a trade is crowded, the search results are competitive and the buyer compares several offices, so clear specialties, strong reviews and a page for each practice area matter more than a broad claim.
Residential remodelers rose from 30 locations to 41, electrical contractors from 30 to 39, real estate agents from 57 to 68 and general auto repair from 29 to 34. Growth means new competitors, so the first months of marketing are about earning a place in the results before others fill them.
Beauty salons fell 6.2 percent, dentists 5.5 percent, physician offices 4.2 percent and law offices 4 percent. Fewer locations can mean consolidation rather than less demand. The practices that remain can capture the searches of those that closed, if their pages and listings are ready.
62 of the 125 restaurant locations have 20 or more employees, and 26 physician offices do. Large operators have marketing budgets and several staff on the phone. A smaller business competes on specificity, speed and a reputation in one market.
Building
| Year | New residential units authorized by permit |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,361 |
| 2022 | 923 |
| 2023 | 656 |
| 2024 | 631 |
| 2025 | 603 |
Census Building Permits Survey, new privately owned housing units authorized by permit.
Five questions to ask of your own trade
Above means more locations per resident than the median county and a more crowded search. Below means room to claim more of the results, as long as the demand is real.
If so, the typical competitor has a small marketing effort, and a business that invests steadily in its pages and listings can pull ahead. If larger shops dominate, expect them to be active in ads and listings.
Growth brings new competitors and new searches. A shrinking trade leaves customers searching for fewer offices, which can reward a business that is easy to find and to book.
If so, the permit table is a warning to lean on repair, replacement and maintenance searches in addition to new construction.
Use the coverage map to decide which places to build for first, since a trade can be crowded in one market and thin in another.
The customers behind the counts
| Measure | Tuscaloosa County | Typical Alabama county | Typical U.S. county |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $61,645 | $49,879 | $60,522 |
| Median home value | $218,800 | $129,000 | $159,500 |
| Median rent | $974 | $726 | $818 |
| Renter households | 37.7 percent | 25.8 percent | 26.1 percent |
| Adults with a bachelor's degree | 30.9 percent | 16.4 percent | 21.1 percent |
Census ACS 5-year estimates for 2018 to 2022; typical means the median county.
What to do with it
For crowded trades such as law, medicine and accounting, the plan starts with search engine optimization for Tuscaloosa County businesses built around specialties and markets, because broad searches are contested. A practice area page, a provider page and a Maps listing each give a reader a different reason to choose you. Paid search belongs where the trade is crowded and the booking value is high, and Google Ads management can be paced to the weeks you care about.
For growing trades such as remodeling, electrical work and real estate, speed matters more. Build the service and market pages now, set up call tracking and lead tracking before the next wave of competitors, and use content to show the kind of work you do. For shrinking trades, the opportunity is to be the practice or shop that remains easy to find.
The trade table also guides marketing in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, in a quieter way. If your trade sits well below 1 times, such as general auto repair or residential remodeling, a modest investment can claim most of the available search results. If it sits well above, a plan that tries to win every search will spread too thin. Pick the two or three searches that match the work you most want, and win them first.
Whichever row is yours, we do not promise rankings or a number of calls. We build pages, listings and ads that deserve to be found, we measure what they produce and we adjust month to month.
Questions from owners
Only employer locations. County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid staff, so sole proprietors, side businesses and many one-person trades are not in the table. The real number of competitors in a trade such as landscaping or auto repair is higher than the table shows.
The analysis is part of the planning that comes with every plan. RankGuarantee™ landing pages are $495 a month, and Organic Growth runs $1,495 for Silver, $2,495 for Gold with a managed website and $3,495 for Platinum. Paid ads management is $895, $1,595 or $2,295 for one, two or three platforms. No setup fee, no contract.
It shows demand, but also more competitors. Residential remodelers, electrical contractors, real estate agents and auto repair all grew. A business that enters or expands in one of them does best with a specific specialty, a clear service area and pages that tell a reader why to call you rather than the next office.
The figure divides employer locations by residents, and the county includes many rural residents and a student population that may be counted elsewhere. It measures competition per resident, not per visitor or per game-day crowd. Treat it as one input, not as a verdict on demand.
Fewer locations can mean consolidation, retirements or practices merging. It does not necessarily mean fewer customers. If your trade is shrinking in the table, the question is whether the remaining practices are easy to find online, and whether yours is the one a patient or client finds first.
Permits fell from 1,361 in 2021 to 603 in 2025, while residential remodelers grew in number. That suggests leaning on repair, replacement and renovation searches instead of new construction. Pages for specific projects in named markets give a remodeler more to rank for than a general claim.
Yes. The method carries over: judge how many competitors are likely, how large they are and how the trade has changed. We can look at your trade with other sources and tell you how the same reasoning applies. Tell us the trade and the markets you serve.
The trade counts are for 2022 against 2017, the survey data are for 2018 to 2022 and the permit data run through 2025. They are snapshots, not live figures. We use them for planning and then rely on your own calls, visits and sales to judge what is working.
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Get in Touch
Tell us your trade and the markets you serve, and we will go through where your trade is crowded, growing or shrinking, and what that means for the first months. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.