1. Establish the geography before reading the numbers
The Census record identifies University of California-Davis CDP as a census-designated place in Yolo County, California. A law firm may serve a broader area than the CDP, but the dashboard should not silently combine the CDP, Yolo County, nearby cities, a metropolitan area and the state. Those are different geographic scopes. The population estimate of 8,696 describes the CDP during the 2020–2024 ACS five-year period; it does not establish how many people search for legal help or how many could become clients. Ask which location labels appear in rankings, calls, forms and attribution views. Ask whether a city or county result represents the person’s stated location, the page they visited or another classification.
Recommended approach
Bring a written service-area definition to the consultation. Separate University of California-Davis CDP from Yolo County and any wider California coverage, then require every geographic view to display its scope.
