Top Chicago SEO Companies

Our list of top Chicago SEO companies was selected from 160+ agency providers based on their range of services, portfolio, industry reputation, pricing, and client reviews. Read this list to find the right agency to improve your local SEO positioning in Chicago.

The Number 1 Chicago SEO Company as Selected by DesignRush Is...

1. Comrade Digital Marketing

• Best for: Overall
• Average hourly rate: $100
• Minimum budget: $10,000 - $25,000
• Founded: 2008
• Notable clients: Hitachi, Europa Eyewear, American Optical, Kitchen Cabinet Guys

Specializing in web development, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO) for over 20 years, Comrade Digital Marketing has helped 300+ businesses rank on Google’s first page.

The agency provides services in PPC management, SEO auditing and consulting, local SEO, social media and email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), and conversion rate optimization (CRO). It also develops websites on platforms like WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.

On average, Comrade Digital has helped its clients increase:

• SEO traffic by 2.5x
• Qualified sales leads by 70%
• PPC revenue by 120% 
• Conversion rate by 35%

Moreover, it has helped businesses generate a 900% return on ad spend (ROAS) and over $50 million in revenue.

The Kitchen Cabinet Guys sought Comrade Digital Marketing’s expertise to strengthen its online presence and boost website leads by 50%. The Chicago SEO company revamped the Kitchen Cabinet Guys’s website, improved keyword relevance, and performed A/B tests.

Due to its efforts, it secured the Kitchen Cabinet Guys in the top 3 SERP positions in Chicago. Plus, it increased:

• Organic traffic by 142%
• Qualified leads by 55%
• PPC leads by 60%

Check Comrade Digital Marketing Agency Profile

2. 3Q/DEPT

• Best for: Multi-channel digital marketing
• Average hourly rate: Inquire
• Minimum budget: $50,000 & Up
• Founded: 1996
• Notable clients: Netflix, Patagonia, Reddit, Rituals, Uniqlo

3Q/DEPT maintains its boutique agency experience by providing full-funnel marketing. It does this by using its patented Qontrol™ and Growth Labs approaches:

• Qontrol™: An automated intelligence platform that stores all client online accounts. This allows the Chicago SEO agency to efficiently manage platforms, automate tasks, identify optimization opportunities, and forecast performance.
• Growth Labs: A dedicated market research team that uses the latest industry tools and partnerships to innovate new marketing methodologies. Some of the technologies it uses are Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bing, and The Trade Desk.

A testament to the success of these approaches, 3Q/DEPT reports a $3 billion managed spend. Moreover, it has won hundreds of awards, including being named a 2022 Finalist for Lead Generation at the Google Premier Partner Awards.

Before partnering with 3Q/DEPT, Rituals had individual websites for every location. This made it difficult for Google to crawl and index its pages, leading to low searchability and poor online presence. Additionally, it confused customers who spoke the same language but lived in different areas, making Rituals lose conversions.

As a solution, 3Q/DEPT created one website for all locations with an indexable page per language, country, and currency. This improved domain authority, maximized crawl budget, and enhanced user experience. Most of all, it increased Rituals’ revenue by 186% before peak season.

Check 3Q/DEPT Agency Profile

3. Digital Third Coast

• Best for: Bing and Google SEO
• Average hourly rate: $150
• Minimum budget: Inquire
• Founded: 2007
• Notable clients: Intelligentsia, Bedside Manor Ltd., IPX 1031, Dealnews

Digital Third Coast is a Chicago SEO agency with a 15-year track record of dominating search engines. It has helped clients achieve 270+ campaign placements, increase organic traffic by 351%, and boost revenue by 653%. It also boasts a 95% client retention rate.

Digital Third Coast's services include paid media, paid socials, SEO, and digital PR. Its list of tech and tools includes Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and BrightLocal. It is also certified by Google Analytics, SEMrush Academy, and BrightEdge Certified Professionals.

Leading investment and property exchange brand IPX1031 partnered with Digital Third Coast to enhance its online presence. The Chicago SEO company eliminated duplicate content on IPX1031’s website, improved site tagging, built better site navigation, and claimed 45 previously unclaimed Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) listings. Additionally, it created a PPC campaign to geo-target audiences.

Through these combined efforts, IPX1031 experienced:

• 94% more meaningful conversions
• 300% increase in leads via calls
• 476% year-over-year increase in Google Business Profile actions
• 4x higher online visibility
• 18.1% spike in exchange orders

Check Digital Thirst Coast Agency Profile

4. OneIMS

• Best for: Inbound marketing
• Average hourly rate: Inquire
• Minimum budget: $1,000 - $10,000
• Founded: 2006
• Notable clients: Hello Fresh, G2, Samsung, Salesforce, Florock

OneIMS provides expertise in SEO, paid digital media, PR, content marketing, social media marketing, white-label agency services, and video and audio production. The Chicago SEO agency helps businesses attain a consistent sales pipeline and continuous revenue growth through Integrated Marketing Solutions (IMS).

The unique IMS methodology focuses on creating awareness, capturing demand, and converting leads into customers in a continuous cycle. Using this, OneIMS grew its client base to 500+ with a 97% client retention rate.

Florock marketing approached OneIMS to improve its inbound marketing from its website. After partnering with the Chicago SEO agency, the client saw a continuous spike in inbound marketing and quality leads.

Check OneIMS Agency Profile

5. Linchpin SEO

• Best for: Local and enterprise SEO
• Average hourly rate: $120
• Minimum budget: $1,000 - $10,000
• Founded: 2013
• Notable clients: Tumbleweed Travel Co., Budweiser, Nissan, HairClub

To rank its clients first on search engines, Linchpin SEO provides branding, web design, and content strategy services alongside its main SEO capabilities. In doing so, it ensures long-term returns on investment (ROI) for all its clients.

Its SEO services include website and technical SEO audits, keyword strategy, and competitive analysis. It also offers local SEO strategies, such as Google Business Profile management, local listings and competition audit, and local content creation.

With 120+ franchises across the US, HairClub needed Linchpin SEO’s help to grow its national online presence and simultaneously improve its local SEO. Linchpin SEO built a multifaceted approach, where it conducted national and local audits to develop its local SEO and regional landing page strategies. It also optimized HairClub’s Google Business Profiles to improve local rankings.

After Linchpin created the needed pages, HairClub increased its Google Maps listings by more than 32% and traffic to location pages by 110%.

Check Linchpin SEO Agency Profile

6. Straight North

• Best for: Full-service digital marketing
• Average hourly rate: Inquire
• Minimum budget: $1,000 - $10,000
• Founded: 1997
• Notable clients: Bluepay, Boston Analytical, Chrysler, EZ Links, Virginia Spine Institute

Operating for over 25 years, Straight North is an established full-service digital marketing agency for B2C and B2B brands. It acquired an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and has a client retention rate of 95%. Its services include SEO, web design and development, paid advertising, and brand development. It also offers traditional marketing services, such as brochures and brand collaterals.

Boston Analytical collaborated with Straight North to amplify its online presence and generate more leads. To do so, Straight North conducted keyword research, optimized backlinks, and mapped target pages on the client’s site. Since then, Boston Analytical has increased SEO leads by 664% and organic traffic by 37%.

Check Straight North Agency Profile

7. Marcel Digital

• Best for: Google Analytics
• Average hourly rate: $199
• Minimum budget: $1,000 - $10,000
• Founded: 2003
• Notable clients: Herbalife Nutrition, John Hopkins Medicine, Kellog’s, RJO Futures

With over 23 years as a Chicago SEO company, Marcel Digital is an expert in web development, paid media, SEO, conversion rate optimization, and Google Analytics. Marcel Digital’s SEO-specific services include off-page improvements, penalty recovery, website migration, and local listings.

It has accomplished 150+ successful SEO migrations and optimized 10,000+ pieces of content, among other projects. Moreover, it has been a Google Analytics Certified Partner for over 20 years and is one of the few Umbraco Certified Gold Partners.

RJO Futures has been partnering with Marcel Digital for more than 10 years for its different marketing needs. This included building its website, which generated 1,500 new leads and increased organic traffic by 317%.

Recently, RJO Futures needed to update its website to maintain its SERP ranking. As such, Marcel Digital developed new content, optimized current content, updated the sitemap XML, and implemented the latest Google best practices.

This attracted 45,000 more users and increased organic traffic by 181.64%. Additionally, the Learning Center section of its website experienced a surge of 31,000 new users, resulting in a new user rate of 861%.

Check Marcel Digital Agency Profile

8. Dabaran

• Best for: Local SEO
• Average hourly rate: $149
• Minimum budget: $1,000 - $10,000
• Founded: 2009
• Notable clients: Seltzer Nation, Cooking Steels, Avery Coonley School, IPaintMyMind

Dabaran delivers long-term results through its seven-stage SEO marketing strategy: discover, evaluate, ideate, implement, assess, report, and recalibrate.

Its expertise covers website audit, link-building, content marketing, and on-page optimization. That said, its specialty lies in local SEO. To date, the Chicago SEO company has served 1,300+ satisfied clients, completed 2,000+ projects, and targeted 350+ cities.

IPaintMyMind, a non-profit art organization based out of Chicago that helps artists find work, approached Dabaran to build its online reputation and improve visibility. Dabaran helped IPaintMyMind rank first for the target keyword “rent art online”. Plus, the client ranked in the top 10 for other keywords like “art leasing companies”, “nonprofit organizations in Chicago”, and “work murals”.

Check Dabaran Agency Profile

9. WebFX

• Best for: Digital marketing
• Average hourly rate: $150
• Minimum budget: $10,000 - $25,000
• Founded: 1995
• Notable clients: Verizon, Fujifilm, Subway, YMCA, Area Flooring & Tile, Inc.

Known for its data-driven revenue marketing, WebFX is an expert in SEO, lead generation, CRO, and UI/UX. It has generated over 7 million leads and over $6 billion in revenue for its clients. But what really differentiates it from other Chicago SEO agencies is its custom-built MarketingCloudFX software.

MarketingCloudFX is an all-in-one marketing platform that uses IBM Watson and Google Cloud Platform to centralize and harness data. With it, businesses can create personalized content per location and industry, optimize sales team efficiency, and leverage AI to maximize their ROI. On average, MarketingCloudFX increases a business’s ROI by 20%.

Wanting to propel its online traffic and local presence, Area Flooring & Tile, Inc. hired WebFX’s expertise. In doing so, it gained a more robust internal linking structure, targeted more relevant keywords, and attracted higher-quality leads. By the end of the project, its website sessions rose by 50% year-over-year (YoY), and new users increased by 51% YoY.

Check WebFX Agency Profile

10. Brafton

• Best for: Content marketing
• Average hourly rate: $150
• Minimum budget: $1,000 - $10,000
• Founded: 2008
• Notable clients: Stanford University, Rubbermaid Commercial, Canva, Crews Control

Brafton’s content marketing strategy combines creativity and data to ensure a maximum ROI for its clients. It does this through the Brafton Content Marketing Platform (CMP), a one-stop hub for all content marketing activities. This includes content planning, project management, and internal team communication. Brafton's CMP also integrates with tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush, so businesses have a centralized location for all of their data.

Brafton provides services in content marketing and sales enablement including eBooks, white papers, and newsletters. It also offers graphic design, web design, video production, and animation.

Crews Control approached Brafton to target local audiences while still maintaining its global positioning. Brafton wrote content for city-specific conversion landing pages, created PPC ads for priority pages, leveraged email drips, and used SEO targeted at informational queries. Within one year, Crews Control:

• Climbed to the #1 position on 16 target SERPs
• Gained 7,000 new organic and paid sessions
• Generated 101 additional qualified leads

Check Brafton Agency Profile

How We Picked the Best Chicago SEO Companies

To select the top Chicago SEO companies in 2024, we reviewed their testimonials, case studies, industry reputation, team expertise, client roster, and executive management. Our team of agency experts developed a scoring system to measure their overall performance based on several important factors:

• Reviews: Quality of work, client satisfaction, and level of trustworthiness
• Portfolio: Tangible examples of an agency's track record
• Awards and press: Industry reputation and innovation
• Team bios: The agency’s qualifications and team dynamics
• Top services: Core competencies and areas of expertise

Visit the DesignRush Agency Ranking Methodology for more information on how we research agencies.

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