A settled market
Chicago's population changed -0.6% from April 2020 to July 2025. Fewer people are new in town, so most customers already have a contractor. You win them with reviews, fast replies and showing up when their usual company doesn't.
Local SEO · Chicago, IL
Local SEO for contractors in Chicago, IL.
Chicago changed -0.6% since 2020, to 2,731,585 people. Every month, Google sees about 11,330 searches for a home-service trade plus "Chicago", led by plumbing. Here is what that means for contractors who want those calls.
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What the numbers mean for your phone.
What Chicago searches for
Every month, people search Google for "plumber chicago" about 5,400 times and "hvac chicago" about 1,900 times. Across our seven trades it adds up to roughly 11,330 searches a month that name the city. The quietest of the seven here is solar (320/mo). A search that names a trade and a city usually comes from someone looking to hire.
One city, 2 counties
Chicago sits in Cook and DuPage counties. Customers search by city name, but some directories and government sites list places by county. Your service area and listings should cover the parts of each county you actually serve, so you match either way.
Search demand · Chicago
What people type into Google here.
Average monthly US Google searches for each trade plus "Chicago".
Total
11,330
searches a month for these seven trades plus "Chicago". Typical month of the last 12, from Google Ads data via DataForSEO. Searches like "plumber near me" aren't counted here.
Trades this market points to
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