Chicago Search & AI Visibility Study

ChatGPT answers change from one neighborhood to the next. Across the 49 locations it named between 100 and 200 different businesses per industry (median 132). The most-named business in each industry appeared in at most 18 of 49 answers, and in a typical industry the leader showed up in only 9.

What it means: there is no single “AI ranking” to win. Visibility is earned neighborhood by neighborhood, which favors businesses with strong local signals in the places AI tools read.

Between them, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode recommended 3,269 different Chicago businesses across 18 industries. Only 545 of them (17%) were recommended by both.

What it means: showing up in one AI tool does not carry over to another. Each one needs its own inputs.

ChatGPT cited Yelp in 779 of 931 answers (84%), and it leaned hard on each industry’s own directories: Psychology Today in all 49 therapist answers, Avvo in 46 of 49 immigration lawyer answers, Zillow in 45 of 49 real estate answers, CarGurus in 47 of 49 car dealership answers. Google AI Mode went the other way. It cited Google’s own business listings in 779 of 931 answers (84%).

What it means: your Google Business Profile now feeds both the map pack and Google’s AI answers, and your directory profiles are part of what ChatGPT reads before it recommends anyone. Complete, accurate, well-reviewed listings are part of your AI visibility.

For “best ___ near me” searches, Google showed an AI Overview that named specific businesses at 407 of 931 locations (44%). It depended heavily on the industry: roofers and real estate agents were named at 48 of 49 locations, while dentists, chiropractors and personal injury lawyers were named at only 2.

What it means: for home services and real estate, the AI Overview is now part of the local results you compete in. For healthcare and injury law, the AI Overview rarely named anyone, so the map pack and organic results carry more of the load.

These counts only include searches that name the city. Searches like “dentist near me” or a plain “dentist” made in Chicago are not in them, so treat each number as a floor. Seasonality is the more useful signal: landscaping, HVAC and plumbing swing hardest, with the busiest month running about 3 times the slowest, which tells you when to have your pages and profiles ready.

Ecommerce is not a map pack business, so we measured it differently: the first 10 Google results for 20 common product searches (US, Ahrefs). Google showed an AI Overview on 17 of 20 and free product listings on all 20. Only 117 of the first 200 result positions were classic organic links, and 6 of the 20 searches had no organic link in the top 3 at all.

When an organic link did make the top 3, it usually belonged to a store selling its own products: 15 of 17 top-3 organic positions, 12 of them small or independent brands rather than Amazon or big-box retailers.

What it means: product pages and free product listings are where independent stores can still compete. See our ecommerce SEO page.