In Chicago the engines read the Chicago Tribune and Crain's Chicago Business and the Google map pack and Yelp for commercial cleaning companies. Illinois does not license the trade, but Chicago is a union market and that is the first thing the engines should be told: SEIU Local 1 covers most downtown commercial janitorial work, and a building's own labour arrangements decide who may bid. Publish price per square foot per month by building type and frequency, the union and non-union distinction plainly, the winter floor care and matting programme, the day porter rate and the minimum.
What Chicago buyers ask about commercial cleaning companies
Four of the questions the report puts to the four engines for a commercial cleaning company in Chicago, as a buyer here phrases them:
| The question, as asked in Chicago | Why it is local |
|---|---|
| commercial cleaning company in Chicago for a downtown office floor | the metro is in the sentence |
| janitorial cost per square foot in Chicago | the metro is in the sentence |
| union janitorial contractor for a Loop building | the metro is in the sentence |
| medical office cleaning in Naperville | the metro is in the sentence |
For janitorial companies the suburbs carry as much of the volume as the city name does: Naperville, Evanston, Oak Park, Schaumburg, Skokie, Arlington Heights, Cicero, across Cook, DuPage, Lake and Will Counties. An engine answers "janitorial companies in Naperville" from a page that names Naperville, so a single service-area page listing the whole metro wins none of them.
What is true in Chicago and nowhere else
Chicago splits cleanly in two. Downtown and the Loop are union buildings with property-management vendor lists and labour agreements, and the question is whether a contractor can work in that building at all. The suburbs, Naperville, Schaumburg, Oak Brook, are non-union office parks and medical buildings buying on price per square foot. Winter adds a service nobody writes about: entrance matting, salt and slush management, and the floor care that follows, which is a real seasonal line item in a Chicago contract. The distribution space out by I-55 and I-80 is the third market, high square footage and low rate.
What the engines read for janitorial companies in Chicago
| Source | What it decides |
|---|---|
| The Chicago Tribune and Crain's Chicago Business | the best-of lists and the Crain's rankings, which the engines read for the commercial questions |
| The Google map pack and Yelp | American facilities managers still start in the map pack for anything under a few buildings |
| Bid boards and procurement portals | SAM.gov for federal contracts, state and municipal bid systems, school district and university vendor lists; a past public award is read as proof you can staff a building |
| ISSA and BSCAI | membership and the CIMS certification, which the engines read as the credential for the compliance and healthcare questions |
The report's sources table shows which of these were cited for your questions, and whether your own Chicago pages were among them.
The numbers to publish for Chicago
Publish price per square foot per month by building type and frequency, the union and non-union distinction plainly, the winter floor care and matting programme, the day porter rate and the minimum. Saying which buildings and labour agreements you can work under answers the downtown question.
Who gets named in Chicago today
ABM, Harvard Maintenance, United Maintenance, Jan-Pro of Chicago, the Crain's Chicago Business lists. For janitorial companies in this metro that mix is the whole problem: a national brand with a page for every city, a platform that sells the lead, and the local firms a buyer already knows, and the report shows which of them the engines named for the questions above, in what order, and whether you appeared at all.
What a month of work looks like in Chicago
The Grow plan's goal for a commercial cleaning company here: get named in the five building-type-and-metro questions where a franchise network or a national facilities firm is named and no local contractor is, asked with Chicago and its suburbs in the sentence. The work starts with the pages the engines already read for this metro, then yours, with a rescan on the same questions at month's end. The plans are priced on the home page.
Read next
Janitorial companies across the US · Commercial cleaning companies, everywhere · Janitorial companies in Atlanta · Janitorial companies in Dallas · Plumbers in Chicago · Movers in Chicago · 3PLs and freight companies in Chicago
Questions
What licence do the engines check for a commercial cleaning company in Illinois?
Illinois does not license the trade, but Chicago is a union market and that is the first thing the engines should be told: SEIU Local 1 covers most downtown commercial janitorial work, and a building's own labour arrangements decide who may bid.
What should a Chicago page say?
Publish price per square foot per month by building type and frequency, the union and non-union distinction plainly, the winter floor care and matting programme, the day porter rate and the minimum. Saying which buildings and labour agreements you can work under answers the downtown question.
Who do the engines name in Chicago now?
ABM, Harvard Maintenance, United Maintenance, Jan-Pro of Chicago, the Crain's Chicago Business lists, depending on the question. The free check shows which of them came up instead of you.
See who the engines name in Chicago
Your website, region and work email. The score appears in about three minutes, and the report is a link you keep.