2026 Chicago business website report
Chicago's buttons hold up. Nobody labeled the boxes.
Tap targets failed on only 5 of the 42 Chicago homepages we tested, 12% against 22% in our 31-city sample. Yet 68% skip heading levels, against 47%. A city with a logistics industry ought to know what an unlabeled crate is worth.
The machinery looks sound. Tap targets too small or too close failed on 5 of 42 sites, 12% against 22% in our 31-city sample. Median blocking time, the stretch when a page is too busy to answer a finger, is 133 ms here and 277 ms in the sample. That gap is wide, but this is a modest sample, 42 speed tests with one run each on a shared test machine, and blocking time moves with how busy that machine was, so we won't lean on it. The overall speed score is 65 against 61, which is about the same.
The labels are another matter. 27 of 40 homepages skip heading levels, 68% against 47% in our 31-city sample. 24 of 42 have links with no discernible name, 57% against 46%. 19 of the 53 form fields we found had no label, ARIA name or title that we could find. We don't think these are glamorous faults. We do think they matter here, since manufacturing, life sciences and transportation, distribution and logistics are all on the city's industry list, and our read is that a buyer in those lines reads the page like a spec sheet, scanning for the part they need.
The good news, as we see it, is that relabeling usually costs less than rebuilding. You don't order a new warehouse because the crates have no tags. A site whose buttons already work can usually keep its machinery and get a tidy-up of the structure, and search work has something to stand on after that. Check your own site first and see which kind of problem you have.
Measured November 7, 2026
We tested 44 Chicago business websites on a phone.
Independent businesses with a Chicago street address on their own site. Totals only: we do not name anyone. How we tested.
65 of 100
Median mobile speed score
31-city sample: 61
8.2 seconds
Until the main content shows
On a simulated mid-range phone. 31 cities: 7.4s
88% of sites
Took over 4 seconds
37 of 42 tested
16% of sites
Let a visitor book online
31 cities: 10%
Scores for Chicago are from our own test, described under How we tested.
What it means
Sound freight, bad paperwork.
The engine is in decent shape.
Tap targets are the clear win here, and blocking time leans the same way on our one-run test. The median page makes 86 requests against 93 and weighs 3.03 MB against 3.08 MB, both about the same. So we can't say these pages carry less. If yours stalls anyway, a stalled page has its own repair.
The labels are where it falls down.
Headings are the outline of a page, and on 68% of the sites we tested that outline skips levels. A failed check means at least one skip, and it may be only one. 24 of 44 have exactly one main heading, 55% against 61%, which is close. There's a credit to set against this. Vague link text like "click here" runs 21% here and 32% in the 31-city sample, so the links that have words use them better here. Color contrast is about the same, 67% and 62%. A redesign is the expensive way to fix an outline, and it isn't the only one.
The buttons work. The truck leaves late.
The main content shows at a median of 8.2 seconds, against 7.4. The slowest quarter of sites here starts at 16.2 seconds, against 12.1. 37 of 42 took over 4 seconds. So a customer's first impression is where these pages fall behind. Weight doesn't separate these sites from the rest, so we wouldn't assume it's the images until you've looked. Here's how to read those timings. Platform counts are thin: 20 on WordPress with a median of 65, 7 on Squarespace at 48, and 6 we couldn't identify at 70.
The phone is on the dock. The order form isn't.
Tap-to-call shows on 37 of 44 homepages, 84% against 72%. A lead form shows on 10, 23% against 31%, and that form can be a newsletter sign-up. On 24, the phone link stands alone among the ways in we counted. Only 3 offer none. Our opinion is that a buyer who needs a quote for the file wants to ask in writing, and a quoting form or portal gives that buyer somewhere to go.
How Chicago sites ask for the business
37 Chicago sites · 31-city sample: 72%
10 Chicago sites · 31-city sample: 31%
7 Chicago sites · 31-city sample: 10%
18 Chicago sites · 31-city sample: 45%
Most common failures
- Headings that skip levels68%
- Text with too little color contrast67%
- Links with no discernible name57%
- Uses third-party cookies52%
- Browser errors logged in the console43%
- Missing meta description26%
Free tool
How does your site compare with the rest of Chicago?
Give it your address and you get a graded report in about twenty seconds. It runs its own checks, so its grade isn't comparable with our speed scores. These three you can check yourself, against what we counted in Chicago:
- 84% have a tap-to-call link
- 75% have a search description
- 41% tell search engines what kind of business they are
Who does business in Chicago
Who gets hurt by a missing label, trade by trade.
Manufacturers and food producers
Manufacturing and food manufacturing and agriculture are both on the industry list. We have no measurement for this group. Our read is that this buyer is checking whether you can make the thing, in what quantity, and to what standard.
The site has to: use headings a buyer can scan, give each capability its own named section, and take a request for quote with a file attached.
Manufacturing websitesFreight, distribution and logistics firms
Transportation, distribution and logistics is on the list, and Amazon and United Airlines are among the Chicago area's major employers. We name them as employers and nothing more. The smaller firms in this line are the ones we'd expect to win or lose on a clear page.
The site has to: say what you move, where, and how to get a rate, and send repeat customers to a login and not a phone tree.
Logistics websitesClinics and private practices
Advocate Health and Northwestern Memorial HealthCare are among the Chicago area's major employers. Tap-to-call shows on 12 of the 12 health sites we tested. 2 show booking and 3 a homepage lead form. Their median speed score is 61, level with 61 in the 31-city sample. It's a small group.
The site has to: name the services in plain headings, take an appointment request after hours, and leave the privacy questions to your compliance adviser.
Healthcare website designFinance and professional offices
Finance and business and professional services are on the list. The 12 professional-services sites we tested post a median speed score of 69, against 64 in the 31-city sample, which a group this size can swing. 4 have a homepage lead form.
The site has to: name the people and the practice areas in real headings, and say how to start and when you'll answer.
Financial services websitesTrades working on older homes
The median home here was built in 1953. Our guess is that the trades who work on those houses have specific things to say, and a page headed "Our Services" doesn't say them. This group wasn't measured on its own.
The site has to: give each job its own named page, say what age of house you work on, and keep the number big.
Home service websitesRestaurants and visitor businesses
The city counted 55.3 million visitors in 2024. We had too few of these sites to report them as a group, so this one is opinion: a person from out of town wants hours, a menu and a way to book, in that order.
The site has to: put the hours and menu in plain text, take a reservation online, and keep a page current around Lollapalooza and the Marathon.
Restaurant website designChicago by the numbers
2.71 million
Population
Census Reporter — Chicago, IL (ACS figures are 2020–2024 five-year; page opens on one-year)$77,902
Median household income
Census Reporter — Chicago, IL (ACS figures are 2020–2024 five-year; page opens on one-year)35.4%
Speak a language other than English at home
Census Reporter — Chicago, IL (ACS figures are 2020–2024 five-year; page opens on one-year)1953
Median year homes were built
Census Reporter — Chicago, IL (ACS figures are 2020–2024 five-year; page opens on one-year)Businesses online
Statewide, 67% of Illinois small businesses use an AI platform (state scope; survey fielded June 2025).
U.S. Chamber of Commerce — Empowering Small Business 2025 (state scorecards)Before you spend a dollar
Five things to fix before you order a new building.
- 1
Write the outline before the layout.
27 of 40 sites we tested skip heading levels. Write your page as an outline a stranger could scan, one main heading and then the parts in order. If you can't, no designer will save it. A redesign should start here. So should a repair.
- 2
Name every link.
57% of the sites we tested have links with no discernible name, often an icon with nothing behind it, we'd guess. Each one gets a few words a screen reader can say. It's dull, and it's quick, and a person using one can tell you which door it opens.
- 3
Tag the fields.
36% of the fields we found had no name we could find, on only 53 fields, so one long form can move that. Name them anyway, then submit one and see if it arrives. Contact forms do break.
- 4
Get the first screen out the door.
With a median of 8.2 seconds to show the main content, find out what's holding yours. It may be an oversized image or a font. Look before you pay.
- 5
Don't break the engine.
You have 133 ms of blocking as the median to beat. Anything you add should come with a number attached, including a quote tool. A clean integration can do its work away from the first page load.
Local marketing
Ship the pages, then buy the ads.
Search opportunities
Four searches with a return address.
Our read of what buyers here need answered, not search-volume figures.
“Contract food manufacturer near Chicago”
Food manufacturing is on the industry list. A page headed with exactly that, with capacities and certifications you actually hold, is plain to write and plain to read.
Manufacturing websites“LTL freight quote from Chicago”
A searcher asking for a quote is halfway to a purchase, we'd guess. On a phone-only homepage, they have nothing to fill in.
Logistics marketing“Electrician for a 1950s house in Oak Park”
With a median home built in 1953, this search describes real work. A page on it needs one honest paragraph about the wiring you run into.
Electrical contractor websites“Where to eat near Grant Park during Lollapalooza”
The festival runs four days in Grant Park, late July to early August. Our view: a page kept current each year beats one rushed out the week before.
Restaurant marketing
What it costs
The price list, clearly labeled.
Websites cost $1,500 to $5,750 at a fixed price for up to 70 pages, depending on how many you need. Online stores start at $2,500, repairs at $149, and portals or quoting tools at $575, depending on complexity. It's one list for every city, and every line on it says what it's for.
Website, up to 10 pages
$1,500
fixed price
Website, 11 to 20 pages
$2,250
fixed price
Website, 21 to 50 pages
$3,750
fixed price
Website, 51 to 70 pages
$5,750
fixed price
- Online storeFrom $2,500
- Web app, portal or integrationFrom $575***
- Mobile appFrom $3,750
- SEO, local marketing or PPCFrom $575 a month***
***Pricing depends on complexity. ***Pricing depends on complexity, setup and budget. Ad spend is paid to the ad platform directly.
See every priceThe Chicago playbook
Five jobs, starting at the loading dock.
- 1
Read your own outline.
Run Google's PageSpeed Insights on mobile and read the accessibility section for heading order, link names and labels. Then try the health check, a separate graded report. Only the PageSpeed score can be held against the median of 65 for the sites we tested here.
- 2
Relabel the boxes.
Fix the headings, the nameless links and the form fields, top of the homepage first. This is repair work, with repairs starting at $149, and a small job may not need more than that.
- 3
Get the first screen moving.
Find what's holding up the main content on your page. Then fix the image or the font, or on WordPress work through the speed page.
- 4
Add a written door.
10 of the 44 homepages we tested have a lead form. A request-for-quote form with a file upload is a feature job. If repeat customers place the same orders, look at a portal next.
- 5
Count it, then promote it.
Track calls and forms apart with conversion tracking, then write the pages buyers look for and clean up your Google Business Profile. If you live on visitors, the Blues Festival comes in June and the Marathon in October.
Recent work
Modern builds we've shipped.
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Pick what you want and the price appears on the spot. The developer follows up, not a salesperson.
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Chicago website questions, answered.
What did the speed test find in Chicago?
On 42 completed tests, the median mobile speed score was 65 out of 100. The main content took a median of 8.2 seconds on a simulated mid-range phone, and blocking time was 133 ms. It's one lab run per site, in a modest sample, so it describes these sites and grades none of them.
Which of these figures do you trust most?
The wide gaps we can count: skipped heading levels and failed tap targets, against our 31-city sample of 1274 independent business sites tested the same way. These Chicago sites are included in that sample, and it isn't a national average. Blocking time also shows a wide gap, but it's one run per site on a shared test machine, so we trust it less. Differences of a few points, like the overall speed score, we'd treat as about the same.
Why do skipped headings matter to my business?
In our opinion, because headings are how people scan and how screen readers move through a page. We didn't measure what it costs you, and we won't guess at a figure. It's among the cheapest repairs on this list, so it's worth a look whichever way you read it.
Should a distributor or manufacturer have a portal?
If customers place repeat orders or keep asking for the same documents, it's worth scoping one. Web apps start at $575, depending on complexity, and integrations can tie it to the systems you keep. If they order rarely, a clear capabilities page may do.
What does a Chicago business pay for a website?
Published prices run $1,500 to $5,750 for a site up to 70 pages, online stores from $2,500, and repairs from $149. See them all on one page. We don't keep a separate list for Chicago.
Could my company be one of the sites in this report?
It could, but you couldn't tell. We report totals and identify nobody. To see where you stand, the free Website Health Check gives you a graded report, and Google's PageSpeed Insights uses the same Lighthouse engine as our test. Run it a few times, since scores vary.
Method
How we tested.
We started from OpenStreetMap business listings, independents only, screened 65 candidate sites in a shuffled, evenly mixed order, and kept 44 independent businesses that publish a Chicago street address on their own site. We left out national chains, referral sites, parked or broken domains, and sites that block automated tests, along with anything we built ourselves.
Each homepage got one run of Google Lighthouse 12.6.0: mobile form factor (412 x 823 screen emulation), Lighthouse default simulated throttling (150 ms round trip, 1.6 Mbps throughput, 4x CPU slowdown), headless Chrome, one run per site. 42 runs completed. A second pass in headless Chrome looked for tap-to-call links, forms, booking tools and search markup, on the homepage only, so a form on a contact page or an email link doesn't count. A form with an email, phone or message field counts as a lead form, which means a newsletter sign-up can count too. Business markup means JSON-LD naming one of the common local-business types, so another format or a more general type isn't counted. Testing ran on November 7, 2026, several sites at a time on one machine.
A lab test is one controlled load, which makes sites comparable with each other. It does not measure any real visitor's experience, and one run per site carries noise. Tests ran several at a time on one machine, and a busy machine lowers speed scores and lengthens blocking time, so we reran the tests taken when it was busiest. Read those two figures as rough, and small gaps as noise. Listings skew toward businesses someone has bothered to map, so read this as a careful sample, not a census. The comparison figures are 1274 sites across 31 US cities, tested the same way, and they include these Chicago sites. Our Mesa report found its sample through web searches and ran one site at a time, so its figures aren't directly comparable.
- Candidate sites screened
- 65
- Chicago businesses kept
- 44
- Speed runs completed
- 42
- Tested
- November 7, 2026
- Speed test
- Lighthouse 12.6.0
Sources for the facts on this page
Beat the Chicago median.
Fifteen minutes, plain English, and a number in writing. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.