1. Start with the geography your firm actually serves
The U.S. Census Bureau records Merced as a municipality in Merced County. Its 2020–2024 ACS five-year population estimate is 91,953, with a margin of error of 65. That number describes the city’s population; it does not establish legal demand, search volume, competition, lead volume or revenue. It also does not establish that every inquiry comes from inside the city. A Merced firm may serve clients across Merced County or define its service area more narrowly. Attribution should therefore preserve the distinction between a person’s location, the page they visited and the geographic area your firm intends to serve.
Recommended approach
Before reviewing channel performance, define the geographic questions that matter to your practice. Decide whether you want to compare Merced city inquiries with other Merced County inquiries, review service-area pages separately, or simply record location as one qualification detail. Do not use the population estimate as a proxy for expected cases. Use actual inquiry and outcome records to evaluate whether geographic coverage is producing qualified opportunities.
