Auburn
The largest city, 76,143 residents in 2020, with the university campus a few blocks from downtown. First priority for pages and profiles. I-85, US 29 and US 280 bring customers in, and the airport on the east side has no airline service.
Area by area 
5.0 Rating on Google
Lee County AL Coverage Map: Auburn, Opelika, Smiths Station and the Spaces Between
A Lee County AL coverage map is a planning sheet that shows where your customers are, how far each place is from your base and which roads connect them, so marketing can reach each zone with the right page, profile and ad. The county is small in area, about 608 square miles, but it has two city cores, a commuter edge toward Columbus, Georgia, and a string of unincorporated places that people search for by name with no county in mind. GetPhound is an online marketing company, and we start here before we write a page.
5.0 Rating on Google- 175,126Residents, 2018 to 2022 survey
- 608 square milesLand area
- 288 per square milePopulation density
- +5.1 percentPopulation change, 2020 to 2023
- 75,473Housing units
The places
Ten Places and What Each One Asks of a Business
The facts come from the county research. The advice beside them is ours. Where we could not verify a description of a place, we use the name and nothing more.
Opelika
The county seat, 30,995 residents in 2020, up 17.1 percent since 2010, and the home of East Alabama Medical Center. US 29, 280 and 431, State Routes 14 and 51 and I-85 meet here, which makes it the county's crossroads.
Beauregard
An unincorporated crossroads about 8 miles south of Opelika on State Route 51, counted with Marvyn as one division of 12,605 people in 2020. There is no city name to search, so pair the name with the road. The March 2019 tornado calls for careful wording.
Smiths Station
Incorporated in 2001, 5,384 residents in 2020, about 19 miles southeast of Opelika on US 280 and 431 and 8 miles from Phenix City. A bedroom community of Columbus, Georgia, so customers may measure distance from Columbus, not from Auburn.
Phenix City (Lee County part)
Phenix City is the seat of Russell County. Only its northern and western edge, nearly 4,200 people in 2010, falls in Lee County. A Phenix City address is not automatically in Lee County, so check before you list it as served.
Salem
An unincorporated community between Opelika and Phenix City on US 280 and 431, in the Auburn metro. Settled in 1835, it lost the county seat vote in 1865. Treat it as a place on the way and name it in service-area lists.
Loachapoka
A town on State Route 14 just west of Auburn with 160 residents in 2020. Pioneer Park hosts the Pioneer Day festival, so weekend visitor traffic dwarfs the resident count for a day or two.
Notasulga
A town of 914 residents in 2020, mostly in Macon County, whose Lee County part belongs to the Auburn metro. Customers on both sides of the county line may search under the same name.
Waverly
A town of 159 residents in 2020, mainly in Chambers County, with limits that reach south into Lee County, about 14 miles northwest of Opelika. It hosts the Old 280 Boogie each April.
Marvyn and the southern panhandle
An unincorporated reach at US 80 and State Route 51, about 15 miles south of Opelika, 22 miles from Phenix City and 22 from Tuskegee. It belongs to the Columbus metro, so its residents may think in Columbus terms.
The shape of the county
Two Cores and One Edge Toward Georgia
Auburn is the largest city and Opelika is the county seat, chosen over Auburn and Salem in the first county election after 1866. Both are served by I-85, US 29 and State Route 14, and for most Lee County businesses they are one market with two centers. A business based in either can reach the other by the same corridor, and most customers who live between them will not care which one the business calls home.
The southeast is different. Smiths Station and the Lee County edge of Phenix City lean toward Columbus, Georgia, and the southern panhandle at Marvyn belongs to the Columbus metro in the same combined area as the Auburn-Opelika metro. A business that wants those customers should treat the southeast as a separate zone with its own pages, its own service-area wording and its own tracking line.
Institutions
The Places That Pull Customers Through the County
These institutions explain more of the map than the roads do. They are listed as geography, not as clients or endorsements.
| Institution | Kind | Why it matters for geography |
|---|---|---|
| Auburn University | University | A 1,841 acre campus chartered in 1856, with just over 35,000 students in fall 2025 and 13,545 employees in 2024. Customers move through Auburn on the term calendar. |
| East Alabama Medical Center | Hospital | In Opelika, with 316 general acute care beds, serving an 11 county area. Patients and visitors travel from well beyond the county line. |
| East Alabama Medical Center North | Hospital | A freestanding psychiatric hospital in Opelika with 40 private inpatient beds. |
| Auburn Medical Pavilion | Hospital | East Alabama Health's Auburn site, with an emergency department, imaging, surgery and a breast health center, so health care has a foot in both cities. |
| Jordan-Hare Stadium | Venue | Opened in 1939 and listed at 87,451, it turns a handful of fall weekends into the busiest days of the year. |
| Neville Arena | Venue | Seats 9,121, which brings winter crowds to the same campus. |
| Auburn University Regional Airport | Airport | The county's only public airport, with 110,422 operations in 2021, 96 percent general aviation and no airline service. |
| Southern Union State Community College | College | Has campuses in Opelika and Valley, a second source of students on the Opelika side. |
| Opelika SportsPlex and Aquatics Center | Venue | A city-built 32 million dollar complex that opened in 2009 and draws visitors to Opelika. |
County research brief and published institutional figures.
Corridors
The Roads That Tie the Zones Together
Interstate 85 crosses the county from southwest to northeast and serves both Auburn and Opelika. US 280 and US 431 run southeast to northwest and split at Opelika, leading about 19 miles to Smiths Station and about 8 more to Phenix City. State Route 51 runs north and south through Opelika, Beauregard and Marvyn, roughly 8 miles to Beauregard and 15 to Marvyn. US 80 crosses the panhandle at Marvyn, about 22 miles from Phenix City and 22 from Tuskegee. State Route 14 passes through Loachapoka just west of Auburn.
Opelika's growth in the 1850s followed the railroad, and Amtrak service has been proposed since passenger trains ended in 1971 but has not been restored. Columbus, Georgia has the closest commercial airport, about 40 miles from Auburn by US 280. Write those facts on any page where travel time matters to the customer.
Coverage shapes
Hub, Pair, Sweep or Edge: Choosing How Far to Reach
Hub: one base, one home city
A business that works mostly in Auburn or in Opelika can put everything into that city and mention the other in one line. Few pages, good ones, with the reviews and the Maps profile sitting in the city where the address is.
Pair: Auburn and Opelika
Most service businesses belong here. Build a page for each city and a shared services section, then add a short area page that names the surrounding places.
Sweep: the whole county
For crews that drive and for practices that draw patients from many places. Plan the base, then ring outward along I-85, US 280 and 431 and State Route 51, and group the smallest places in one area page.
Edge: Smiths Station and the panhandle
A separate plan for businesses that want customers who think of Columbus, Georgia. Give the edge its own pages, hours stated in the right clock and a tracking line, and be honest about the drive.
Where the line misleads
Borders That Do Not Match the Address
Phenix City is mostly in Russell County, and Waverly and Notasulga each straddle a county line, with only parts of them in Lee County. Beauregard and Marvyn were counted together as one unincorporated division, so no city boundary defines them. Three school districts divide the county as well: Auburn City Schools with about 9,492 students in 2025 to 26, Lee County Schools with about 9,312 and Opelika City Schools with about 5,048, and the county district leaves out areas inside the city limits. Families often describe where they live by school district, and a business that serves them should know which one it is talking about.
Other states also have a Lee County, which is why the full phrase on our pages is Lee County AL. A customer typing the short name may land on the wrong state, and your pages should make clear in the first lines that you mean Alabama.
From map to marketing
Turning the Map Into a Plan in Four Moves
Mark the base and the ring
Place your address, then circle the towns you will actually go to, with a rough drive time from the base.
Assign a page to each zone that earns one
Zones where you do steady work get a page. Zones where you do an occasional job get a mention in the area list.
Set the profile and the ad geography to match
The Google Maps service area and any ad targeting should follow the same ring, not a bigger one.
Track by zone
Calls and forms should be grouped by the same zones, so each new page can be judged on its own.
Questions
Questions About Covering Lee County
How much does it cost to plan marketing from a Lee County AL coverage map?
The map is a planning step inside our plans, not a separate product. RankGuarantee™ landing pages are $495 a month for 25 pages, and Organic Growth is $1,495 a month for Silver, $2,495 for Gold and $3,495 for Platinum. Paid ads management starts at $895 a month. No setup fee, no contract.
Should I build a page for each of the ten places?
No. Build pages for the zones where you do steady work and group the rest. Auburn and Opelika almost always earn their own pages. The small places can share one.
Is Smiths Station part of the same market as Auburn?
Not in the way most customers think. It is in Lee County but leans toward Columbus, Georgia, and some households there use Eastern Time in daily life. Plan it as its own zone.
How do I handle Phenix City if I serve the whole city?
List only the part that is in Lee County as Lee County, and name Phenix City separately for the rest, which is in Russell County. A customer in Russell County will not search for Lee County.
Why do the stadium and the hospital belong on a coverage map?
Because they move people. Home weekends bring visitors who have no loyalty to any local business, and the hospital draws patients from an 11 county area. A map without them misses the biggest flows.
Do I need to treat Auburn and Opelika as separate markets?
For search, often yes, because customers type each city name. For operations, usually no: the cities are linked by the same roads. Write separate pages and run one service area.
What if my service area crosses a county line?
Say so on the page and in the Maps profile. A business in Waverly or Notasulga may serve customers in Chambers or Macon County too, and the pages should name those places as they are.
Can I add more towns to my plan after we start?
Yes. Start with the zones you serve best, and add the next ring when calls from there show that the first ring is working.
Explore more
Services That Use the Map
Start Here
- Search Engine OptimizationWhich search names a Lee County business should answer to, and the page, title and links for each.
- SEO CompanyHow to compare providers for a Lee County business, what a sound proposal contains, and the red flags.
- Digital MarketingA first-90-days order of work for a Lee County business, set by the Auburn University term, East Alabama Health and the twin cores of Auburn and Opelika.
- Online MarketingA surface-by-surface review of how a Lee County business appears online, with the household and employment data that shows where to look first.
- HomeSEO first, then digital marketing, PPC and the website, read through the Auburn and Opelika calendars.
Get Found in Search
Paid Advertising
- Google Ads ManagementGoogle Ads for a county with a Georgia border, a university calendar and storm season: zone targeting, call-driven trades and spending that follows the weather and the term.
- PPC ManagementHow to decide between paid and organic in a county where no trade is far above typical crowding, and how to add Google, Bing, Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) and a ChatGPT test.
- Meta Ads ManagementMeta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) for a young, student-heavy county: audiences by age and household, event weeks, offers and honest limits.
Website and Content
- Lead GenerationInquiries you own, counted by town and by term, built from your own pages, Maps profile and ads. We do not sell leads.
- Website DesignOne managed website with a page for every service and every town you serve, built for phones first.
- Content MarketingA publishing plan for the weeks customers are about to need you: terms, game weekends, storms and the local names people use.
Around the County
- Marketing by Area (you are here)Ten places, the roads that join them and the institutions that pull customers through, as a planning map for a Lee County business.
- Business LandscapeFourteen trades counted as employer locations, with crowding, size, change since 2017 and new homes, read for a Lee County owner.
Get in Touch
Start From the Places You Serve
Tell us where your customers are and where your crews or patients travel from, and we will mark the map. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.