THE SEARCH LEDGER · CHICAGO EDITION · TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026
Every month, Chicago types 13,417,250 searches looking for a local business, and advertisers pay $20.98M chasing them. Somebody gets found. Somebody doesn't. This is the weekly ledger of who, at what price, and what's still up for grabs — refreshed weekly.
Chicago searches 38,883,180 times a month in total. The other 25,465,930 are branded or navigational — someone already knows where they are going, across 3,452 branded searches we track separately.
SRC: Google Ads search volume and cost-per-click via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. "Searches in play" counts commercial and transactional intent only, classified by our own heuristics rather than by Google. Ad-equivalent value is Σ volume × CPC — one click priced for every tracked search, a ceiling on what the traffic would cost to buy, not spend and not revenue. Listings: Google Maps results via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, deduped by place_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro.
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Before anyone wins a customer, the customer has to ask. Here is what Chicago asks Google for in an average month.
searches in an average month across the 4,586 keywords where a local business can actually be chosen — roughly 447,000 searches a day for something, or someone, in Chicago.
Each square is 1% of the addressable searches — the commercial and transactional ones a local business can win, 35% of everything Chicago searches.
SRC: Google Ads search volume and cost-per-click via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026, bucketed by our own vertical classifier — Google supplies no category. Squares are percentages of the addressable set, not of all search, and are largest-remainder rounded to 100.
WHERE THE DEMAND CONCENTRATES
Food & Dining is 62% of the addressable demand in Chicago, against 11% for Attractions. The board in Chapter 2 prices every one of those searches.
Search interest by month, 0–100 per vertical. The pink outline marks each vertical's peak — the month the phones ring.
| VERTICAL | JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 85 | 70 | 84 | 84 | 71 | 60 | 63 | 84 | 100 | 99 | 83 | 58 |
| Attractions | 45 | 42 | 64 | 63 | 83 | 95 | 100 | 98 | 71 | 70 | 62 | 65 |
| Food & Dining | 67 | 69 | 76 | 74 | 89 | 89 | 100 | 97 | 88 | 91 | 76 | 76 |
| Entertainment | 49 | 29 | 37 | 44 | 94 | 100 | 91 | 77 | 70 | 56 | 61 | 63 |
| Hotels & Lodging | 51 | 48 | 61 | 61 | 77 | 95 | 100 | 89 | 70 | 73 | 63 | 66 |
| Home Services | 73 | 71 | 75 | 69 | 70 | 76 | 73 | 100 | 94 | 84 | 67 | 63 |
| Shopping | 59 | 53 | 61 | 63 | 78 | 74 | 78 | 79 | 62 | 61 | 81 | 100 |
| Jobs & Careers | 97 | 89 | 99 | 100 | 88 | 91 | 91 | 96 | 75 | 77 | 63 | 65 |
| Travel & Transit | 66 | 63 | 77 | 72 | 84 | 100 | 85 | 98 | 83 | 84 | 84 | 72 |
| Personal Care | 60 | 57 | 70 | 64 | 82 | 77 | 82 | 100 | 75 | 65 | 60 | 62 |
| News & Media | 78 | 63 | 84 | 63 | 51 | 57 | 39 | 91 | 100 | 94 | 91 | 85 |
| Real Estate | 90 | 86 | 95 | 92 | 90 | 90 | 81 | 100 | 84 | 81 | 71 | 67 |
| Health & Wellness | 95 | 82 | 88 | 82 | 81 | 82 | 81 | 100 | 99 | 91 | 81 | 88 |
| Professional Services | 93 | 90 | 100 | 70 | 41 | 37 | 41 | 52 | 66 | 52 | 45 | 49 |
| Legal | 66 | 87 | 84 | 40 | 32 | 42 | 37 | 46 | 100 | 76 | 29 | 50 |
The steepest risers in Chicago over the last twelve months of Google Ads volume (Aug 2025 – Jul 2026). Growth compares each keyword's last three months against its own twelve-month average, so it tops out at 300% by construction.
SRC: Google Ads monthly search volume via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026. Not Google Trends, and not a weekly series — the window closes one to two months before the pull.
Priced keywords that name one of the places we mine for Chicago — its seed suburbs plus the boroughs Maps returned at least twice — grouped by that name. A metro is not one market. This ranks the places we look for, not every place that exists — a landmark or district we do not mine is absent however much demand names it, and a metro can miss a place that would have ranked near the top. 26 more clear the bar below these.
SRC: Computed from Google Ads search volume × CPC via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, September 8, 2026 — keywords grouped by the place name they contain. Rows are grouped by NAME CONTAINMENT, not by place: a keyword joins every row whose name it contains, so it is counted in both when it names two places AND when one row's name sits inside another's. So a shorter name sitting inside a longer one carries the longer one’s keywords too, and those two rows are not independent places. Rows rank names and do not sum to a metro total. Ad-equivalent value is Σ volume × CPC — a ceiling on what the traffic would cost to buy, not spend and not revenue.
Lincoln Park alone carries 360,910 searches a month across 159 keywords, worth $154.0K a month at Google's posted prices. If your pages only ever say "Chicago", that is demand you are not addressing.
Attention in this city has a spot price, and Google publishes it: the cost per ad click. Here's what a customer's attention trades for in Chicago.
"ACCIDENT ATTORNEY CHICAGO" · COST OF ONE AD CLICK
One click. Not a customer — a click. That's what a single visit from this search trades for in Chicago right now.
The 12,263 of 13,173 tracked keywords Google Ads returns a cost-per-click for, on a log scale. Amber gets deeper as the click gets pricier.
SRC: Google Ads search volume and cost-per-click via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. Log scale from $0.10; keywords Google Ads returns no cost-per-click for are not plotted.
The 12,263 of 13,173 tracked keywords Google Ads returns a cost-per-click for. Volume and CPC are twelve-month averages, so neither moves week to week.
SRC: Google Ads search volume and cost-per-click via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. Bar length is CPC on a linear scale. "Cost to buy all" is searches × CPC — what the traffic would cost at Google's posted price if every search became a click, which is a ceiling, not a forecast. Δ compares each keyword's CPC against the Aug 30 pull; Google refreshes these figures roughly monthly, so most rows do not move between weekly pulls.
The businesses bidding here keep bidding. Here's the math that makes a $434 click rational, using legal industry benchmarks.
Call and close rates are vertical benchmarks, not promises. But the principle sets every price on the board: a click costs what the customer behind it is worth. Bounce rate is priced in.
ONE CUSTOMER FUNDS
How many clicks a single customer's revenue buys back, at that keyword's CPC. Customer values are industry benchmarks.
SRC: CPC: Google Ads search volume and cost-per-click via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, twelve-month averages · pulled September 8, 2026. Call rate, close rate and customer value are industry benchmarks hardcoded in this page — not measured for this metro, and not for your business. Spend, revenue and the multiple are all products of that one CPC and those assumptions.
Same market, different economies. This is why "is $X a click expensive?" has no answer without knowing what a customer is worth to you.
Monthly ad-equivalent value of all clicks in each vertical — what you'd pay Google to buy the demand you could rank for.
Ranking organically doesn't pay that bill — it makes it someone else's.
A market this valuable doesn't sit unclaimed. Here's who holds Chicago's front page, who's climbing, who's slipping — and where the seats are still empty.
of Chicago's tracked page-one slots are held by one of the 40 national directories we name. The other 82% is everything else — local businesses, and national brands we do not classify.
SRC: Google organic results via DataForSEO, 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Chicago coordinate · pulled September 8, 2026. "Directory" means the domain's registrable label matches one of 40 named national directory brands; everything else is counted as the remainder, which includes national brands we do not classify.
Page-one position, last pull vs. this one: maps.apple.com moved ▲ 4 spots. The chart grows a column with every pull as the archive builds.
Biggest changes between the Aug 30 and Sep 8 pulls.
Movement = week-over-week snapshot diff · arrows and signed numbers, always
Who currently leads the top 6 fights worth having. Leader = top organic result; OPEN RACE = no map pack on the page.
NO MAP PACK
8 of the 21 keywords we track show no map pack at all. Google is answering those with links, not a map — so the way in is a page, not a profile. See what that takes.
Share of 21 tracked keywords showing each SERP feature.
SRC: Google organic results via DataForSEO, 21 tracked keywords anchored on the Chicago coordinate · pulled September 8, 2026. Feature presence as Google returned it; a featured snippet appeared on none of these SERPs and paid results on 2%, so neither is charted.
People Also Ask boxes show on 100% of these searches — answer those questions and you're on page one twice.
ANATOMY OF A #1
Air Flows Chicago - Belmont
Top-rated of 96 tracked Hvac
SRC: Google Maps results via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, deduped by place_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro.
None of this is magic. It's 12.5× the category's median review count. The playbook is public.
Of the 1,232 businesses we track in Chicago's map results, 140 have no website at all — 11% of the field, showing up on reputation alone.
BUSINESSES RANKING WITHOUT A SITE
The most-reviewed of them has 1,403 reviews and a 4.7 rating. If they are beating you, it is not because of their website.
SRC: Google Maps results via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, deduped by place_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro. "No website" is the absence of a site link on the Google listing.
20 businesses hold the 39 pack seats across the 13 tracked keywords that return a map pack. # is the best position each held; seats counts the keywords they appear on.
A DIFFERENT POOL
15 of the 20 businesses holding these seats never appear in the category rosters we pull for Chicago. That gap is a property of OUR roster, not of Google: every metro pulls the same 14 categories, and where they do not overlap the tracked keywords the share runs to 100% before Google is consulted. It says these packs were not measured by our category pull — not that categories do not matter.
SRC: Google local pack via DataForSEO, 13 tracked keywords anchored on the Chicago metro coordinate, September 8, 2026. Rank is position within the pack as returned, not a ranking claim. Businesses are keyed on the cid Google returns; ratings and review counts are the listing's own, read once and not averaged.
Of the 1,232 businesses we track in Chicago's map results, 126 are ranking on a listing no owner has claimed — 10% of the field, with nobody able to edit the hours, the category or the photos.
UNCLAIMED LISTINGS RANKING TODAY
The most-reviewed of them has 5,783 reviews and a 4.4 rating and still nobody controls the profile. Claiming one is free and takes about five minutes.
SRC: Google Maps results via DataForSEO, Chicago DMA, deduped by place_id · pulled September 8, 2026. Each category search returns at most 100 results, so this is a ceiling on what we see, not a census of the metro. "Unclaimed" is Google's own flag on the listing.
Search demand doesn't come from nowhere. What follows is the rest of what we track about Chicago — each line from a named source, and absent where we have none.
Median age 35.1. Every one of them picks businesses from a search box — Chapter 1's demand is this population talking.
What the typical owner in the city proper says the home is worth — the city, not the metro.
Median gross rent in the city proper — rent plus the utilities the tenant pays.
SRC: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2021 release), place level — Chicago city proper, not the metro; fetched 2026-09-08. Population, median age, home value and rent all come from this one block; nothing on these cards is typed in.
Three household figures — the city proper against the whole country, from the same survey on both sides.
| CHICAGO | UNITED STATES | DIFFERENCE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $65,781 a year | $69,021 | −5% |
| Median home value | $277,600 | $244,900 | +13% |
| Median gross rent | $1,209 a month | $1,163 | +4% |
SRC: both sides US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2021 release (2017–2021) — the city at place level (Chicago city proper, not the metro; fetched 2026-09-08) and the nation as one geography (fetched 2026-09-09). Difference is the city over the national figure, computed. Unemployment, taxes, power and broadband are not here: no fetched source on both sides.
Everything else we track about living and working here — one line each, open what you need.
1 institutions and 17,384 enrolled students, led by University of Chicago. A permanent annual influx of new residents who choose dentists, gyms, and mechanics from a Google search.
3 tracked markets, including Chicago Cultural Center Green Market (Sat 8am-1pm). Weekend-morning spikes for "farmers market near me" are among the most predictable recurring search patterns there are.
15 coworking spaces tracked — a low-density remote-work market. A remote-work population searches like a resident but spends like a visitor: lunch, gyms, services near the clusters.
Average download of 212 Mbps, 95.4% coverage, 61.2% fiber availability. Fast connections mean impatient visitors: page speed is a ranking and conversion factor here.
21 upcoming tracked events, led by Chicago White Sox vs. Pittsburgh Pirates at Rate Field.
The 145 brands, institutions and landmarks this metro looks up by name — 25,844,700 searches a month. No local business can win these. They are what the city is.
| 1 | Chicago Cubs | Sports team | 5.15M | |
| 2 | Chicago Bears | Sports team | 3.32M | |
| 3 | MLB | League | 1.97M | |
| 4 | Chicago White Sox | Sports team | 1.93M | |
| 5 | Chicago Blackhawks | Sports team | 740K | |
| 6 | Flight Club | Restaurant | 738K | |
| 7 | Lou Malnati's Pizzeria | Restaurant | 698K | |
| 8 | Chicago Bulls | Sports team | 668K | |
| 9 | NBA | League | 585K | |
| 10 | Hilton | Hotel | 491K | |
| 11 | Navy Pier | Destination | 407K | |
| 12 | Oakbrook Center | Store | 402K |
METHODOLOGY
Search volume, cost-per-click and SERP data from DataForSEO, collected September 8, 2026. Business listings, ratings and map positions from a live read of Google Maps in the same pull. Rank movement is a diff against the previous pull of our snapshot archive. Ad-equivalent value is searches × CPC — it prices the traffic, not your revenue. Call rates, close rates, and customer values in the unit-economics section are industry benchmarks, not measurements. Every other module on this page renders only where the underlying figure exists; where it does not, the module is absent rather than estimated.
4 numbers, one conclusion: the demand is real, the price of ignoring it compounds, and the leaderboard is not settled. The only question the ledger can't answer is whether you're on it.
STEP 1 · TWO MINUTES
Run the free scan against your site — rankings, backlinks and page speed, free with a Google sign-in.
Scan your site freeSTEP 2 · IF YOU'RE ON THE MAP
8 of the 21 contested keywords show no map pack at all — Google answers those with links, not a map.
Claim your businessSTEP 3 · EVERY PULL
The ledger reprints every week — movers, price changes, and open seats, in your inbox before your competitors read it.
The three nearest tracked metros on the map, and the one our data says behaves most like this one.
Linked within the 54 metros we track, and nowhere else. Distance is straight-line between each metro's single anchor point — a downtown coordinate, not a centroid. Lookalike is the closest match on four measured features — search volume, ad prices, listing density and review depth — excluding the neighbours above and everything inside 500 km, so it surfaces a market you would not otherwise think to compare. Recomputed on every build, so it moves as the markets do. SRC: the 54-metro collection, pulled across September 8, 2026 and the day either side · all metros →
GO DEEPER · THE LEDGER BY VERTICAL