Serving Chicago remotely
SEO and digital marketing in Chicago, at Chicago prices
SEO and digital marketing in Chicago, a top-tier business market where ad budgets go further than in New York or Los Angeles.
How people search
Suburb names, lower click costs and harsh winters
How do people in Chicago look for a business like yours? The answer changes what we fix first.
- Most business searches name a suburb or neighborhood. Someone in Naperville searches for Naperville, not Chicago, so targeting only the city name fights for the hardest term and misses the one that converts.
- Clicks cost noticeably less than in the coastal cities for the same categories, so paid search works for businesses that would be priced out of New York or the Bay Area.
- Winter shuts down whole categories and squeezes demand into shorter windows. Budgets that follow the curve beat flat monthly spend.
- Polish, Spanish and several other language communities are big enough to create sizeable, unserved search demand in certain categories and parts of the metro.
Top-tier market, lower prices
The largest market a mid-sized business can lead
Competition here is high by any national standard, yet well below New York or the California cities. That is the difference between owning a position and renting a weak one.
- Depth of the market
- Freight, futures trading, hospital systems and professional services all sit in one metro.
- Cost against the coasts
- Noticeably lower than New York or the Bay Area for the same categories, so paid search still works here.
- A budget shaped to winter
- Winter shuts down whole categories, so following the seasons beats flat spending by a wide margin.
The market
A big market with lower ad prices than the coasts
Chicago is the freight capital of North America. Six Class I railroads meet here, the airports handle huge cargo volumes, and the interstates converge on the metro, feeding a whole economy of logistics, warehousing, customs and industrial services.
It is also a center for futures and commodities trading, a headquarters city for professional services and home to one of the largest groups of hospital systems in the country: a deep and varied B2B market.
What sets it apart is price. Competition is high by national standards but well below New York or the California cities, so a mid-sized business can lead here instead of hanging on to a weak position.
The metro stretches into Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane and McHenry counties. People there think of themselves as living in their suburb, not in Chicago.
Local businesses
Professional firms, hospitals and demanding diners
Law, accounting, consulting, staffing and commercial insurance firms are the deepest group. They compete on specialty and credentials, and buyers usually shortlist before contacting anyone.
Hospital systems, specialist practices and dental groups compete across the city and suburbs at once, which strains their location pages and profile consistency.
Logistics, distribution and light manufacturing firms sell on capacity, compliance and turnaround. A clear, fast, accurate website does more for them than any brand campaign.
Restaurants, hospitality and consumer services work in a famously demanding market where reviews, delivery app placement and neighborhood reputation decide volume more than advertising.
Where to start
What to fix first
Local SEO
Our local SEO services get you onto Google Maps and into "near me" searches. We fix your Business Profile, area pages and reviews, for one location or forty.
SEO services
Phone not ringing while competitors show up above you? Our SEO services fix your site, write the pages buyers search for and show you every call and form it brings in.
Digital PR
A digital PR agency that earns coverage in the publications your buyers read, with new data and timely expert comment. We never pay for placements.
Conversion tracking
We check and rebuild conversion tracking so each conversion fires once, respects consent and survives a checkout on another domain. Get it wrong and every report built on it is wrong.
Good fit
Industries that fit best here
Industries we help
- Personal Injury Law marketingLower your cost per signed case. We screen claims earlier and help you get from enquiry to retainer faster.
- Dental Practices marketingMore new patients who show up, from the streets they live on. Then keep them. Keeping a patient costs far less than finding a new one.
- Restaurants marketingWin the quick local choice every time. Then move more bookings and orders onto your own channels, where you keep the margin.
- Medical Clinics marketingMake your clinic accurate and easy to use everywhere patients look. Move routine questions off the phone. Market to whoever is scarce, which is often a clinician.
Working with us
How it works from a distance
For businesses covering the city and the collar counties, we build the location setup around your actual premises and accurate service areas, with paid ads covering places organic reach can't.
We plan budgets around the seasons. In this climate an even split across twelve months funds the quiet months at the expense of the busy ones.
Meetings run on Central time. If something needs someone on the ground, we book it locally and quote it separately.
The rules
Rules that shape your marketing
- Illinois biometric privacy law applies here in full, enforced through private lawsuits. Have your lawyer review any website or marketing tool that could process face, voice or fingerprint data before you use it.
- The city and Cook County add their own consumer protection and business licensing rules, which sometimes affect how services may be described or priced in ads. Your licensing adviser decides what applies to your category.
- Regulated professions here advertise under state board and bar rules on testimonials, comparisons and specialist titles. We write to the stricter reading, and your compliance reviewer decides what can be relaxed.
Sources
Check the source
These are the laws and regulators behind the rules above. Check the source before you act. This page isn’t legal advice.
- Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act
- 815 ILCS 505
- Source: Illinois General Assembly
- FTC Endorsement Guides: testimonials, reviews and disclosure of material connections
- 16 CFR Part 255
- Source: Federal Trade Commission
Questions
Common questions from Chicago businesses
Should we target Chicago or the suburbs?
Usually the suburbs, if that is where your customers are. Suburban searchers use their own town names, and those searches cost less and convert better than the city term.
The city term still matters for credibility and downtown demand, but it shouldn't take the whole budget when your revenue comes from DuPage or Lake County.
Is Chicago cheaper to compete in than New York or Los Angeles?
For most categories, yes, by enough to change your strategy. Buyer quality and market size are similar, but ad costs are not.
A mid-sized business can aim for a leading position here, which is rarely realistic in the coastal cities.
How should winter affect our budget?
Move money out of the dead months and into the ones that pay. Several categories here lose most of their demand from January to March and bounce back sharply in spring.
An even split across twelve months pays for ads nobody acts on, then runs short just when people are buying.
Does the biometric privacy law apply to our website?
It may, depending on what your tools do. Anything that processes face geometry, voiceprints or fingerprints falls under consent and retention rules, and people can sue directly.
We document what every third-party tool on your site collects, so your lawyer can answer quickly. The answer itself is theirs to give.
Are you a Chicago agency?
No. BOOSTD is based in Ontario, Canada, and works with Chicago businesses over video calls.
Meetings run on Central time. If something needs someone on the ground, we book it locally and quote it separately.
Get your free checkup
Start with the free checkup. It shows what to fix first on your website, with no sign-up. Want to know who wins the searches that matter in Chicago? Book a call with our specialists.
Prefer to talk it over? Book a free call
Your BOOSTD score improves within 90 days, or your next month is free. After 6 months, more traffic or leads, or we keep working free (up to 6 free months in any 12 months). Read our guarantee
References
Sources for chicago SEO
The official documents and research this page is based on. Platform rules change, so check the source before you act on a detail.
Related
More on marketing in Chicago
Other cities in United States
Last updated · Published by Zubair Afzal, responsible editor