The short version: Craters & Freighters Chicago wanted manufacturers and engineers to find them for commercial and industrial crating. From late 2025 to September 2026, Google went from showing the site 426 times a quarter for 11 key commercial and industrial searches to 3,166 times, and moved it from page three or deeper to Google’s second page for searches like engineered crating and production crating. Over the same stretch, Google and ChatGPT started answering more of their buyers’ questions directly, so search clicks got harder to win. Even so, quote requests from organic search rose 26% and leads from search and AI tools together rose 9%, because the site now shows up both where people click and where they ask.
The ask
Glenn’s team in Bolingbrook, Illinois crates and ships machinery, automation systems, IT equipment and production runs for manufacturers across Chicagoland. They wanted plant managers and engineers to find them, not just people who already knew the name. Their own priority list put automation systems crating, on-site crating, and IT crating and shipping at the top.
What we did
We started on May 1, 2025 with a one-month audit, then worked the plan every month after.
- Audit and a ranked content plan. The audit found the site appearing in search for its services but rarely getting the click. We ranked 15 pages to fix first and put the owner’s priority terms at the top.
- Rebuilt the commercial and industrial pages. We rewrote the crating hub, launched an industrial production crating page in July 2025, and added an automation systems shipping page in October 2025 for the owner’s #1 term.
- Internal links with intent. The homepage, crating hub and quote page became the hubs, and every commercial and industrial service page links back into them with the words buyers actually search.
- Navigation built for buyers. A new mega-menu puts every commercial and industrial service one click from any page. Chicago’s version became the template for other Craters & Freighters locations.
- Schema markup for Google and AI. Business markup with the name, phone, hours and address on every page, and Chicago listed as part of Craters & Freighters in the markup on the national locations page. Search engines and AI tools read the same facts the same way, so when an AI tool recommends a Chicago crating company, it has the right details.
What the numbers said
Sources: Google Search Console (Oct–Dec 2025 vs Jul–Sep 2026), Google Analytics 4 (May–Sep 2026 vs 2025) and Semrush position tracking for the Chicago area.
Results: found for the commercial and industrial work
The new commercial and industrial pages went live from July 2025. Here’s how often Google showed the site for each commercial and industrial search, and where it ranked, at the end of 2025 versus the third quarter of 2026.
| Search term | Times shown, Oct–Dec 2025 | Times shown, Jul–Sep 2026 | Avg. position, Oct–Dec 2025 | Avg. position, Jul–Sep 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| engineered crating | 13 | 610 | 41 | 13 |
| production crating | 14 | 385 | 32 | 11 |
| crating and packaging | 48 | 359 | 53 | 15 |
| heavy equipment crating | 9 | 341 | 79 | 19 |
| commercial crating | 9 | 287 | 37 | 19 |
| engineered packaging and crating | 1 | 272 | 25 | 11 |
| packaging and crating | 117 | 238 | 75 | 12 |
| equipment crating | 4 | 183 | 47 | 21 |
| IT equipment shipping | 201 | 176 | 58 | 15 |
| industrial crating services | 0 | 161 | Not shown | 24 |
| industrial equipment crating | 10 | 154 | 88 | 26 |
In Chicagoland itself, the site ranks #1 for on-site crating, custom crating and crating solutions, and #3 for crating services and crating companies (Semrush local tracking for the Chicago area, October 2026).
Why rankings rose and clicks didn’t: AI is answering the question
Today, more than half of the Chicago-area searches we track show a Google AI Overview at the top of the results (81 of 139). When Google answers on the page, fewer people click, even when the business ranks near the top.
The buyers didn’t disappear. More of them now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Claude, and those tools send visitors who are ready to talk.
| Visitors sent by AI tools | Visits | Lead actions |
|---|---|---|
| 12 months before we started | 26 | 5 |
| Last 5 months (May–Sep 2026) | 98 | 34 |
Visitors from AI tools take a lead action 35% of the time, more than twice the 16% rate of visitors from Google’s regular results.
Some of that rise is simply more people using AI tools. The part a business can influence is whether AI names it. When we started, Google’s AI Overviews cited the Chicago site as a source on one search. By September 2026 it was four, including engineered packaging and crating (Semrush).
We also tested eight questions a Chicago buyer might ask AI, such as “heavy equipment crating company in Chicago” and “who can crate and ship automation equipment in Chicago” (BrightLocal, October 2026). ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode each named Craters & Freighters Chicago in all eight, nearly always first. The source those AI answers cited most was the Chicago website itself: 35 of 44 citations.
Where it stands
Visits from Google’s regular results fell 10% year over year (May–September), in line with what AI Overviews are doing across the web. Lead actions from search and AI together rose 9%, from 167 to 182. The site is now built to win both ways: on page one where people still click, and quotable where people ask AI.
Most of these commercial and industrial searches now land on Google’s second page. Page one is the goal, and the trend is moving in the right direction. SEO and AI search take time: rankings build month over month as Google and AI tools learn to trust a site. Next, we’re adding more answer-first content so AI tools name Chicago for commercial and industrial crating, from machinery and automation systems to IT equipment.
Questions franchise owners ask us
Is SEO still worth it when AI answers the search?
Yes, but the scoreboard changes. For Craters & Freighters Chicago, Google visits fell 10% while leads from search and AI together rose 9%. AI tools pull their answers from pages that already rank and state facts plainly, so the same work that wins page one is what gets a business named in ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews.
How long did it take to see results?
The first month was an audit. The new commercial and industrial pages went live from July 2025, and by the third quarter of 2026 Google was showing the site for its key commercial and industrial searches more than seven times as often, mostly on page two and climbing. Expect early movement in three to six months and real momentum after a year.
Want results like this for your business?
We do this for all kinds of businesses, from single-location companies to national brands and franchise networks. See our SEO and AI search services, how we approach AI search optimization, and franchise SEO for multi-location brands. Read the Craters & Freighters national site, Pensacola, Tampa and Boston case studies. Then ask us to look at your numbers.
