Schema markup
Schema markup goes onto your most important pages: FAQ, LocalBusiness and Review, so an engine can read your business details as structured facts.
Multnomah County, OR · GEO Services
Multnomah County GEO Services for a Crowded Recommendation Market
When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or a Google AI Overview for a name, the answer comes from information the engine can find and trust. Multnomah County has more established advice-led businesses per resident than 88% of counties, which sets the terms for AI search optimization in Multnomah County. Below is the market data, then what GEO covers and what it costs.
Snapshot
How Contested Are the Recommendation Categories in Multnomah County?
AI Answer Competition Index
75.0/ 100
Ranked 120 among the 1,822 counties of at least 20,000 people, and 86 within our own 400-market set. Higher scores mean more established competitors per resident. The method behind the score
We built this index around eleven categories where someone is likely to ask an assistant who to call (law, dental, medical, real estate, insurance, accounting, remodeling, plumbing and HVAC, roofing, electrical, auto repair). Each county of 20,000 or more residents gets a 0 to 100 score for how many established locations, with five or more employees, share its population. Multnomah County scores 75.0, which is more crowded than most.
The score is only part of the picture. Multnomah County is a county with many established recommendation-category businesses for its size, and it is also a county where the headcount is flat or falling. Below, every measure is set against the full list of counties.
- Growth in headcount from the 2020 Census -3.2% Trails most: 5th percentile
- Household income, half above and half below (2023 est.) $83,290 Above average: 83rd percentile
- Established advice-led businesses per 10,000 residents 16.1 Crowded: 88th percentile
- Share of advice-led locations with 5+ employees 35.4% Near the middle: 45th percentile
- Advice-led locations run by large employers (20+ staff) 7.5% High proportion: 92nd percentile
- Net change in advice-led locations, 2017 to 2022 -6.7% Slow-growing: 17th percentile
- Places that top 2,500 residents 6 Rich in places: 85th percentile
- Homes approved for construction in 2025, per 10,000 residents 20.2 Quiet permitting: 38th percentile
Percentiles compare Multnomah County with all 1,822 counties of 20,000 or more residents: a percentile is the share of those counties with a lower value. Drawn from: Census Bureau population estimates, County Business Patterns for 2017 and 2022, income estimates from the Census Bureau and the Building Permits Survey.
Local profile
What a Crowded Field Means for AI Search in Multnomah County
Multnomah County has 1,273 established businesses, meaning five or more employees, across the eleven categories where people ask an assistant to recommend someone. That is 16.1 for every 10,000 residents, more than in 88% of counties. With that many comparable names, an AI answer has plenty to choose from, which makes clear, consistent business details worth the effort.
Two more details round out the picture. 7.5% of the advice-led locations in Multnomah County have 20 or more employees, more than in 92% of counties.
What this means for GEO in Multnomah County: the crowd is the main fact: with this many established names an answer has plenty to choose from, and clear, consistent details do more work than volume.
Size matters for context: 789,698 residents put Multnomah County 84th among 3,143 U.S. counties, and the population has changed -3.2% since the 2020 Census. All industries together have 27,434 employer locations, or 34.7 per 1,000 people.
Portland (628,047), Gresham (110,685), Troutdale (15,717), Fairview (10,782) and Wood Village (4,717) lead the list of places in Multnomah County. Each is a separate local context, which is why GEO for a multi-town business is built place by place, with pages and data for every area it serves.
Who shares the answer
Who an AI Answer Would Be Choosing Between in Multnomah County
Read each row across: Multnomah County's established locations in a category, the crowding bar against the median county (the dark tick is 1.0x), the change in all locations since 2017, and the count of large employers.
Business typeEstablished locations (5+ staff)Crowding vs. a typical countyAll-location change, 2017 to 2022Large employers (20+ staff)
Law officesMost crowded 243 -13.1% 69
Roofing contractorsFastest growth 42 +44.1% 8
Real estate agents and brokers 54 +12.6% 10
Residential remodelers 102 +8.8% 16
Dentists 264 -6.7% 14
Auto repair shops 101 -11.4% 7
Accountants and CPA firms 58 -22.7% 13
Physicians and medical practicesMost large firms 181 -26.3% 71
Insurance agencies 82 -11.6% 18
Plumbing and HVAC contractors 88 -5% 30
Electrical contractorsMost open 58 -1.8% 15
Each bar shows a category's established locations (five or more employees) per 10,000 residents as a multiple of the middle county we rank; the dark tick is 1.0x. Change is measured on all locations in the category, not just established ones. Counts come from County Business Patterns (2017, 2022) and are no measure of AI mentions or search volume. How we calculate this
Law offices are the most contested category in Multnomah County: 243 established locations, 4.2 times the density of a typical county, with the category as a whole down 13.1% since 2017. A person asking an assistant which law firm to call has the most names to sort through here. Denser than usual as well: roofing contractors (42 established locations, 3.4x) and real estate agents and brokers (54 established locations, 3.3x). Room exists in electrical contractors, where 58 established locations come to just 0.8x a typical county.
Roofing contractors added the most new competition, 44.1% more locations of all sizes than in 2017 (85 now). Physicians offices contracted by 26.3% since 2017, to 364 locations. The biggest employers sit in physicians offices, where 71 locations have 20 or more employees.
A word of caution: this table counts businesses. It does not measure how often an assistant is asked about any category, which businesses it names, or how many people use one. A crowded category calls for careful preparation and a quiet one for early action, but neither is a forecast.
Similar markets
Where Else Does the Field Look Like Multnomah County's?
Of the 400 markets we cover, these six sit nearest Multnomah County on size, income, index score, firm size, growth and established share. Use them as context when you weigh AI search optimization for Multnomah County businesses.
| Similar market | Score (0 to 100) | Residents | Growth since the 2020 Census | Advice-led location change since 2017 | Locations with 20+ employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multnomah County, OR (you are here) | 75.0 | 789,698 | -3.2% | -6.7% | 7.5% |
| Monroe County, NY | 70.1 | 748,482 | -1.4% | -3.2% | 8.2% |
| St. Louis County, MO | 82.7 | 987,059 | -1.7% | -2.2% | 7.5% |
| Fairfield County, CT | 73.6 | 959,768 | +0.2% | 0% | 6.8% |
| New Haven County, CT | 69.8 | 863,700 | -0.1% | -1.7% | 6.5% |
| Washington County, OR | 72.7 | 598,865 | -0.3% | +0.3% | 6.2% |
| Delaware County, PA | 70.0 | 576,720 | 0% | +2% | 5.9% |
Nearest neighbors come from our 400 markets, compared on size, income, score, firm size, growth and established share. Data sources are the same as above.
Closest of the six is Monroe County, NY, at 70.1 on the index against 75.0 for Multnomah County. At the other extreme sits St. Louis County, MO, scoring 82.7. The mix of firm sizes differs too: 5.9% of Delaware County, PA's advice-led locations have 20 or more employees, against 7.5% here. These are neighbors in competition only; they say nothing about what to expect from AI engines.
New construction
Multnomah County Permits Have Fallen From Their 2023 Peak but Rising Again This Year
Each bar counts housing units approved for construction. From the Building Permits Survey (Census Bureau): annual county data plus matching January-to-August totals. Permits mark intent to build, not finished construction.
Permits peaked at 3,607 units in 2023 and came in at 1,594 in 2025, roughly 56% lower. Even so, 2025 equals 20.2 units for every 10,000 residents, which is below 62% of counties. Through the first eight months of 2026, 1,385 units were approved against 1,028 in the same months of 2025 (+34.7%).
The construction-linked categories with the most established competitors in Multnomah County are roofing contractors (3.4x typical) and real estate agents and brokers (3.3x typical). Rising permits bring people who need a roofer or an electrician and have no one to ask, and falling permits shift questions toward repair and replacement. Either way, accurate local information is what GEO works on.
Communities
Multnomah County Place by Place: A Local Question for Each
The largest places in Multnomah County by resident count. For answer engine optimization (AEO) in Multnomah County, the work is place by place: each service you offer can have content for each town you serve.
| City or town | Slice of the county's population | Residents in 2023 (estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Portland (part) | 80% | 628,047 |
| Gresham | 14% | 110,685 |
| Troutdale | 2% | 15,717 |
| Fairview | 1% | 10,782 |
| Wood Village | 1% | 4,717 |
| Lake Oswego (part) | 0% | 2,506 |
Figures are Census Bureau population estimates. Places here are cities, towns and census-designated places, and a city shared with a neighboring county appears with just the Multnomah County portion.
The process
The Four Stages of Multnomah County GEO
Audit the details engines read
We check your NAP details and your site information across Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and the other listings AI engines look, so everything matches.
Add schema markup
We implement schema markup on your most important pages: LocalBusiness schema, FAQ schema and Review schema, so AI engines can read your details as structured facts.
Write for the questions
We produce local content in a conversational tone that answers the questions people ask about your services in your service area.
Measure and adjust
Every month we check your visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, then adapt the work to what we find. The report covers knowledge panels, citations, AI visibility, platform traffic and local rankings.
What is in the work
What GEO Services Cover for Multnomah County Businesses
Listings that agree
Your name, address and phone number are made to match across Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and the other places AI engines look.
AI-ready local content
We publish conversational, hyper-local content that answers the questions people put to assistants about your services, focused on Multnomah County and the towns around it.
Reviews that engines read
Review volume and sentiment both get read by AI engines, so reputation work is part of the plan.
Site health
A clean technical base lets search engines and AI engines read your pages without trouble.
Monitoring and reporting
Monthly tests across ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Perplexity feed a report covering local rankings, AI visibility, citations, knowledge panels and platform traffic.
GEO sits next to our other work: local SEO, Google Maps optimization and, on the Gold and Platinum plans, a fully managed website. Paid campaigns on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google and Bing are available separately for faster leads.
Try your own numbers
A Payback Calculator for Generative Engine Optimization in Multnomah County
Whether GEO pays off for you depends on your own figures, not a market average. Enter what a customer is worth and the plan you are weighing to see how many new customers a month cover it.
Monthly plans
GEO Services Pricing: Included in Organic Growth
There is no separate price for GEO, since each of the three Organic Growth plans below includes it. Plans are billed month to month, and there is no setup fee to pay. Walk through the plans with our CEO.
Questions we hear
AI Search and GEO in Multnomah County: Frequently Asked Questions
How much do Multnomah County GEO services cost?
You cannot buy GEO by itself: it is included in every Organic Growth plan. The plans are $1,495 (Silver), $2,495 (Gold) and $3,495 (Platinum) a month, and the two higher plans include a fully managed, custom-built website. You pay no setup fee and sign no contract.
What do you mean by consistent business details?
It means your name, phone number and address, and other details such as hours and services, read the same on Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and everywhere else an AI engine might look. Our process starts with an audit of precisely that, as mismatched details make it harder for an engine to describe you correctly.
Is GEO a replacement for SEO?
The two work together: GEO does not replace SEO, and Organic Growth delivers both. Technical SEO is part of the GEO work itself, and the same accurate data, solid pages and reviews that help you in search give AI engines more to draw on. You can read about the Organic Growth plans that include both.
Which kinds of Multnomah County businesses does the index cover?
Eleven categories feed the index, all of them businesses people ask assistants to recommend. The most numerous in Multnomah County are dentists (264), law offices (243) and physicians offices (181), and relative to a typical county the busiest are law offices (4.2x) and roofing contractors (3.4x).
What does generative engine optimization mean?
SEO helps pages rank in a list of results, while GEO prepares your information for engines that answer in a sentence or two. The engines include Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews; the practice is also called AEO. The two share groundwork, so Organic Growth includes both.
Are ChatGPT ads part of GEO?
No, they are separate. Some ChatGPT users on the Free and lower-priced plans now see labeled, sponsored ads that advertisers buy in a self-serve Ads Manager, with targeting by country and context. The ads do not affect the answers, and measuring them is still maturing. GEO is the unpaid work of keeping your information accurate and easy to use.
What do I actually get with GEO?
The work covers structured data on your key pages (LocalBusiness, FAQ and Review schema), consistent business details across Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and more, conversational hyper-local content, review and reputation work, technical SEO, and ongoing monitoring across Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT. Each report includes citations, AI visibility, knowledge panels, platform traffic and local rankings.
How crowded are the recommendation categories in Multnomah County?
By our count, Multnomah County is more crowded than most counties: it scores 75.0, which is 120th out of 1,822 counties of 20,000 or more people and 86th of our 400 markets. The busiest category is law offices, at 4.2x a typical county. A score is a headcount of established competitors, not a forecast of what any engine will do.
Can anyone guarantee that ChatGPT will mention my business in Multnomah County?
Nobody can, including us. Our part is the groundwork that gives an engine more to go on: matching details on Google, Apple Maps, Yelp and the other listings, schema markup and local content. Because engines build trust in information gradually, any promised date would be a guess. Each month we check Perplexity, ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews and send you the results.
Nearby
Beyond Multnomah County: The Closest Markets
Looking beyond Multnomah County? The nearest counties follow, and each distance runs from one county center to the other:
- Clark County, WA, 16 miles from Multnomah County, 521,150 residents, index score 69.3
- Clackamas County, OR: 423,173 residents, 29 miles out, scoring 79.9
- Washington County, OR (33 miles away; 598,865 people; AACI 72.7)
- Hood River County, OR: 23,745 residents, 37 miles out, scoring 59.8
How it was made
The Multnomah County Data and Where It Comes From
Every figure on this page comes from public U.S. Census Bureau data; one formula covers each county, so Multnomah County is judged by the same yardstick as anywhere else. The index counts businesses; it does not measure AI behavior, mentions or search volume, and we use no client account data or GetPhound results.
- Data builtOctober 19, 2026
- Data sourcesCounty Business Patterns (2017, 2022) supplies the business counts, Census estimates (2023) the population and SAIPE (2023) the income. Permits: Building Permits Survey, 2021 to 2026 year to date.
- MethodThe AI Answer Competition Index is defined, along with every other measure here, on the method page. Every market is listed in the index.
- Report a mistakeSpotted a mistake? Email hello@getphound.com and we will recheck it against the published data.
Start a Conversation
Let's Talk About AI Search for Your Multnomah County Business
Share what you do and where in Multnomah County your customers are. We will walk through what the audit would look at and which plan fits. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com to set up a strategy session with our CEO.