Yes. Homade is headquartered in Chicago, IL, and runs SEO and AEO engagements from our Chicago studio. When you work with us, you are working with the same local strategist from the audit through the monthly report, not a relay chain.
What is AEO, and why does a Chicago business need it?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring a site so AI search engines like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews can cite it directly in their answers. A growing share of Chicago buyers now resolve their searches inside an AI answer panel, so if your site is not structured to be cited, you are invisible to a widening slice of your market.
How is SEO different from AEO?
Traditional SEO earns a blue link in the ten results; AEO earns the paragraph that appears before any links at all. The good news is the signals overlap almost entirely, so investing in one strengthens the other and the lift compounds across both channels over time.
How long does SEO take to show results?
Technical fixes can move rankings within weeks. Content-driven gains compound over months. We log a baseline on day one and send a monthly report so you can see the trend, not guess at it. SEO is a graph that keeps climbing, not a one-time switch.
Do you work with Chicago businesses specifically, or is it remote-only?
Both. We run SEO and AEO for Chicago operators and for teams across the US. Local clients can meet in person; remote clients get the same audit cadence, monthly reporting, and a real human responsible from day one.
Do I need a Webflow site to work with you on SEO?
No. We optimize sites on Webflow, WordPress, Framer, and custom-coded stacks. If you are on Webflow we can ship schema and on-page changes directly in your CMS, but the audit, technical remediation, and content briefs apply to any platform.
What does an SEO engagement cost?
Most engagements are a monthly retainer scoped to where your site is today: audit, remediation, optimization, or all three. We give you an honest read on scope and timeline within one business day. No long-term lock-in required to get a quote.
What makes Homade different from other Chicago SEO agencies?
We treat AEO as a first-class deliverable, not a footnote, and we tie every change to a measurable baseline. No rank-checking theater, no keyword-stuffing, no offshore content mills. A senior strategist owns your account and the monthly report shows the work, not just the numbers.