Web design / Chicago, IL
Nobody here lives in “Chicago”
Ask someone what part of town they call home and you’ll hear Logan Square, Bridgeport, Rogers Park or Beverly long before you hear the name of the city. Chicago is officially carved into 77 community areas, and most of them mean more to the people inside them than the word “Chicago” does. A florist in Andersonville and a florist in Hyde Park aren’t fighting over the same customers, even though Google files them under one city.
So a site that says “Chicago” and nothing more is aiming at the wrong thing. If you have a storefront, the neighborhood belongs in the page title, the first screen and the directions, along with the nearest ‘L’ stop if that’s how people reach you. That small change does more for local search than a lot of what gets sold under the SEO label, and it’s where our own SEO work starts. Deciding when a neighborhood deserves its own page, and when it’s padding, is something we settle with you before anyone writes copy.
The suburbs pull in their own direction
Past the city limits the logic flips. Someone in Naperville types “Naperville” and expects answers from DuPage County, not the Loop. Evanston, Oak Park, Schaumburg and Joliet each behave like small cities with their own downtowns, and a plumber who covers the North Shore and the western suburbs needs pages that make sense to both sets of homeowners.
Then there’s northwest Indiana. Lake and Porter counties belong to the metro too, Gary, Hammond and Valparaiso included, and licensing rules change at the state line. If you work on that side, say so in plain words. (That corner of Indiana keeps Central Time, which at least makes scheduling easy.)
Firms that sell to other firms
A big share of the Chicago economy is companies selling to other companies: the law and accounting practices around the Loop, the consultancies, the food manufacturers and logistics outfits strung along the industrial corridors and out toward O’Hare.
Their buyers aren’t browsing. They’re checking. A general counsel comparing three firms wants to see who would handle the matter and how. A procurement manager wants proof you can meet a spec. Neither has patience for a homepage built around the skyline at dusk. We’d rather build a website that answers the question the visitor arrived with, and if the firm’s name, logo and tone have drifted apart over the years, sort out the brand identity first. Our guide for law firms goes further into what partners and clients look for.
Restaurants are a separate problem
Chicago diners have endless choice and decide fast. A restaurant site has four jobs, roughly in this order: the menu, the hours, the neighborhood, and a way to book or order, all readable on a phone by someone standing on the sidewalk outside. Anything clever that slows those down costs you tables. The restaurants guide covers what we put on those pages and what we cut.
How it works without an office
There’s no Chicago location; we work remotely, with Central Time calls and design rounds you can flip through on the Blue Line ride home. Everything is built in Framer, so after launch your staff can change hours, swap photos or add a page without calling anyone.
Chicago questions
We have two locations, Wicker Park and Evanston. One site or two?
One site, with a proper page for each location: its own address, hours, photos and directions, written for the people who live nearby. Two separate sites split your effort, and they usually both rank worse than one good one would.
Should a firm downtown bother naming a neighborhood?
Less than a shop should, but a little. A consultant who meets clients in the Loop can say so once and move on. A contractor working across the North Side should name the neighborhoods where the jobs actually happen, because that’s what homeowners type into the search bar.