Chicago, IL  /  E-commerce, B2B and AI search, nationwide Case studies Free audit (708) 289-1530
Chicago SEO AgencyE-commerce · B2B · AI
Get a proposal
Search
SEO ServicesLocal SEONational SEOE-commerce SEO
Commerce
Shopify SEOAnswer Engine OptimizationGenerative Engine OptimizationGoogle Business Profile Management
AI and conversion
Google Shopping ManagementE-commerce Web DesignConversion Rate Optimization

Not sure where to start?

Get a free e-commerce and AI visibility audit. We show where you rank, where you are missing, and what to fix first.

Get the free audit
Consumer brands
DTC BrandsApparel and FashionBeauty and SkincareFood and BeverageSupplements and Wellness
Wholesale and supply
WholesalersDistributorsManufacturersSuppliersIndustrial and MRO
Industrial and specialty
Building MaterialsAuto Parts and AftermarketPackaging and ShippingMedical and Dental SupplyPet Products

Built for catalogs

Wholesale, distribution, and manufacturing search work differently than retail. See how we approach it.

All industries
Chicago area
The LoopWest LoopFulton MarketNapervilleSchaumburgOrland ParkElk Grove VillageAuroraJolietBolingbrookBedford ParkOak BrookDowners GroveRosemontDes PlainesSkokieElmhurst
States A to M
ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesota
States M to W
MissouriNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioPennsylvaniaTennesseeTexasWashingtonWisconsin

Local here, national everywhere

Map pack rankings across Chicago and the suburbs, plus state level coverage in twenty states.

All service areas
The state of search

Zero-click search, explained with the actual numbers.

Zero-click search now accounts for most US Google searches. Impressions keep rising while clicks fall, and it is happening to everyone at once. Here is the sourced data, what it means, and what still works.

Talk it through Check your visibility
E-commerceShopifyNationalAEO / GEO
Zero-click search, explained with the actual numbers.

Platforms and tools we work across every day

GoogleSemrushAhrefsShopifyMetaWordpressClutchClaudeBingGeminiAmazonTiktokGoogleSemrushAhrefsShopifyMetaWordpressClutchClaudeBingGeminiAmazonTiktok

If your impressions look healthy while your clicks quietly slide, nothing is broken on your end. The mechanics of search changed underneath you.

Search itself is growing. Traditional search, AI search, and commerce search have all expanded. What changed is how many of those searches end on the results page rather than on your site. The pie is getting bigger while the slice that reaches your website gets smaller.

That is a structural shift, not a penalty. It changes what winning looks like, and it rewards businesses that make themselves easy to quote, cite, and shortlist.

The response

What to do about it.

None of this is a reason to stop doing SEO. It is a reason to change what the work is aimed at.

Be the answer, not just a result

Structure pages so the answer is stated plainly and early, in a form a search engine or an assistant can lift cleanly.

Publish facts machines can verify

Consistent specifications, pricing signals, and brand facts across your site and profiles, marked up so they can be parsed.

Cover the platforms your buyers use

Product data for commerce platforms, structured content for AI tools, and classic organic for the 80 percent that still runs through search engines.

Measure what survives the shift

Impressions, citations, branded search, and inquiries, not just sessions. A falling session count with rising qualified leads is a win, not a loss.

Tell us what you sell. We will tell you what is possible.

Two minutes now, a straight answer back within one business day. No obligation and no sales sequence.

Rather talk?
(708) 289-1530
Please add your name.
Please add a valid email address.
A sentence or two is plenty.

Goes straight to contact@chicagoseoagency.co. We reply within one business day.

Prefer to just talk it through?No forms, no gatekeeping. Call and you get someone who does the work.
(708) 289-1530 Get a proposal Email us
Keep exploring

Related work.

Other parts of the program that tend to matter for the same businesses.

Answer Engine Optimization

Win the answer box

View

Generative Engine Optimization

Get cited by AI

View

E-commerce SEO

Rank the catalog

View
In one line

Zero-click search means most US Google searches now end without a click, with about 276 clicks per 1,000 searches reaching the open web, so visibility work has to aim at being cited and shortlisted, not only at ranking.

Questions

Answers to common questions.

Still deciding? A visibility audit shows where you rank, where you are missing from AI answers, and the fastest path to gains.

Talk to a strategist
Is SEO dead?
No. Search volume is growing across every surface, and traditional search engines still handle about 80 percent of searches. What has changed is that fewer searches end in a click to an independent website, so the work has to aim at being cited and shortlisted, not only at ranking.
What is a zero-click search?
A search that ends without the person clicking through to a website. The answer is satisfied on the results page itself by an AI Overview, a featured snippet, a knowledge panel, a map pack, or the person simply refining their search instead.
What percentage of Google searches end without a click?
About 68 percent of US Google searches ended without a click between January and April 2026, according to SparkToro and Similarweb. In the 2024 SparkToro and Datos study the figure was about 60 percent.
How many clicks still reach the open web?
About 276 clicks per 1,000 US Google searches reach the open web as of early 2026, down from about 360 per 1,000 in 2024. Of the searches that do produce a click, roughly two thirds land on open web pages, about a quarter stay inside Google properties, and the rest go to paid ads.
Where do searches happen if not on Google?
Traditional search engines still carry roughly 80 percent of searches. Commerce platforms such as Amazon, Walmart and eBay account for about 10 percent, social networks about 5.5 percent, and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini about 3.2 percent. That means roughly one search in five happens somewhere other than a search engine.
Should we stop investing in SEO and move budget to AI?
No. AI has been additive so far rather than substitutive, and traditional search still carries the overwhelming majority of volume. The sensible response is to keep the classic work healthy and add the structure that gets you quoted in AI answers and found on commerce platforms.
How do we measure success when clicks fall?
Track impressions, citations in AI answers, branded search volume, and actual inquiries alongside sessions. A page can lose sessions and still produce more qualified leads, because the people who do click arrive better informed.
Get started

Want to know where you stand in this?

We will show you where you rank, where you are missing from AI answers, and which of your pages still earn clicks. No obligation.

Get a proposal Free audit

No obligation. Clear next steps.

Call Get a proposal