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AI SEO Agency Philadelphia: The Search Results Run Out at Position Nine

Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

We measured the Philadelphia SERP in September 2026. Nine results are genuinely about Philadelphia. Below that, Google serves Guardian and New York Times articles about artificial intelligence in general.

On this page · 9 sections
  1. The Philadelphia results page runs out of relevant results at position nine
  2. And an AI Overview sits above all of it
  3. The incumbents here are the weakest of any city we measured except Houston
  4. Facebook is ranking at position six with a page nobody at Facebook wrote
  5. What we would do for a Philadelphia business, in order
  6. What we will not claim about Philadelphia
  7. One national agency holds the top of nearly every city SERP
  8. The measured data, in full
  9. Everything else we have written on search, AI and getting found

The short answerPhiladelphia is the clearest under-supplied market in our twelve-city study. The last genuinely local result is position nine — phillyseo.ai, at domain authority 5. Below it Google serves a Guardian piece on AI and parenting, a Bill Gates essay, a New York Times opinion column and a DARPA page, none of which is about Philadelphia or agencies. That is the search engine reporting that it has run out of things to show. An AI Overview sits above all of it, so answer-first editing comes second and the page third. ‘seo agency philadelphia’ measures 1,300 searches at $20.23 and difficulty 41; the AI-modified term measures zero.

Every figure on this page was pulled from the Ubersuggest API, US location, on 17 September 2026 and carries that date. AI Overview presence is not stable; re-measure before relying on it.

The Philadelphia results page runs out of relevant results at position nine

Below that, Google serves Guardian articles, Gates Notes essays and New York Times opinion pieces about artificial intelligence.

Position nine is the last genuinely local result

phillyseo.ai, at domain authority 5, with its homepage. Position ten is a Guardian piece about what parents need to know about AI. Eleven is a Bill Gates essay. Twelve is a YouTube video. Thirteen is a New York Times opinion column about writing with AI. Fourteen is a DARPA research programme.

None of those is about Philadelphia, agencies or SEO

They are there because the query contains the word ‘AI’ and Google had nothing else local left to show. This is not a competitive ranking to beat — it is the search engine reporting, quite plainly, that supply has been exhausted.

Which makes it the clearest opening we measured

Chicago stays relevant to position twenty-four. Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle and Houston all stay relevant past eighteen. Philadelphia and Atlanta stop at nine. A page that is genuinely about Philadelphia and AI search has less to displace here than anywhere else in the study.

And an AI Overview sits above all of it

Philadelphia is one of six cities in our twelve where the first thing returned is a generated answer.

Which changes what you are competing for

Position one here is not a website. It is an answer assembled from sources, and those sources are chosen for being specific and extractable rather than for holding a high rank. In a market where the relevant result set is only nine deep, the pool of candidate sources is small — which cuts both ways, and mostly in your favour.

So answer-first editing is the first content work

Take the pages you already have, make the first two sentences under each heading answer that heading, and rewrite the headings as the questions people actually type. It costs an afternoon and in an Overview market with thin supply it is the highest-return work available. The rules are in our content writing guide.

Overview presence is not stable, though

Austin, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta served one when we measured; Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Seattle did not. A market that serves one today may not in six months, which is why every figure on this page carries its date and why we re-measure quarterly.

Austin, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta served one when we measured; Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Seattle did not.

The incumbents here are the weakest of any city we measured except Houston

A domain authority 13 page at position five and a domain authority 5 site at position nine.

localplus.co at position five, domain authority 13

With /ai-seo/philadelphia — a page scoped to the city and the category, from a site with almost no authority, sitting above Facebook, a national agency roundup and every other local firm on the page bar three. That is what the URL matching the query is worth when nobody stronger has bothered.

phillyseo.ai at position nine, domain authority 5

An exact-match .ai domain. It is worth understanding what is and is not happening here: the domain name is not a ranking factor in itself, but an exact-match name tends to travel with an exactly-matching page, and that page is the last local thing Google has to show.

We would not recommend buying a domain for this

Registering cityservice.ai is a cheap-looking shortcut that mostly buys you a site with no history competing against your own established domain. The lesson from phillyseo.ai is that the bar is low, not that the tactic is good.

Facebook is ranking at position six with a page nobody at Facebook wrote

An auto-generated answers page at /fb-answers/ai-seo-services-philadelphia/, on a domain authority 96 site.

The same pattern appears in Phoenix

facebook.com holds position six there too, with /fb-answers/ai-seo-company-phoenix/. Two of the twelve cities we measured have a generated Facebook answers page inside the top ten for this query. It is a programmatic template applied across local service queries.

It is worth understanding and not worth fighting

A domain authority 96 site publishing a page per city-and-service combination will outrank almost anything you write on authority alone. What it will not do is say anything specific or current about your market, which is exactly the gap a measured page fills.

It is also a second supply signal

Programmatic templates get pointed at queries with demand and thin supply. Facebook’s systems judged this term worth a generated page, and Google is serving it at position six above three real local agencies. Both of those are the same finding as the SERP running out at nine.

Facebook’s systems judged this term worth a generated page, and Google is serving it at position six above three real local agencies.

What we would do for a Philadelphia business, in order

Access, answer-first editing, the page, the profile, the roundup.

Access and rendering, because nothing works without them

Confirm AI crawlers can reach the site and that content exists without JavaScript. Our robots.txt checker and JavaScript SEO checker both run in your browser and cost nothing. Assistants and crawlers read text; a page that renders only in a browser is invisible to both.

Answer-first rewriting on pages that already get impressions

Second, not fourth, because an AI Overview sits above every result on this query. The pages with existing visibility are the cheapest to improve, and making each heading answered in its first two sentences is editing rather than writing.

One Philadelphia page, against a very low bar

The last genuinely local result is a domain authority 5 site. What we would publish is what this page is: the measured numbers, who ranks and at what authority, and what the composition implies. If we could not say something specific about Philadelphia we would not publish a Philadelphia page — which is why three of the cities we checked have none.

Then the profile, then the one roundup

The local pack is interleaved at positions five to seven — 1digitalagency.com, seolocale.com and 1rankseo.com — so a complete Business Profile is worth real visibility, just not as much as in Phoenix where the pack holds the top three. directiveconsulting’s ’15 Best Philadelphia SEO Agencies For B2B’ at position seven is the one reachable roundup on the page.

What we will not claim about Philadelphia

Three statements that would help us and would not be true.

That these positions are ours

They are not. Every position in the tables below belongs to another company. We publish the measurement because it is useful to anyone deciding where to spend, not as a claim about our own ranking.

That ranking tenth would be an achievement

It would mean sitting above a Guardian article that is not about Philadelphia. Google ran out of relevant results at position nine, so positions ten and below are not a competitive field. We would rather say that than let a chart imply otherwise.

That we can place you in the AI Overview

Nobody can promise that. What can be done is the work that makes a page a plausible source, and a monthly record of what the assistants actually said, recorded verbatim with dates.

What can be done is the work that makes a page a plausible source, and a monthly record of what the assistants actually said, recorded verbatim with dates.

One national agency holds the top of nearly every city SERP

The clearest finding in the twelve-city measurement, and it is not about Philadelphia.

thriveagency.com appears in nine of the twelve cities

Organic position one here, and also in Chicago, Phoenix and Atlanta. Position three in Dallas, four in Austin and Houston, seven in Los Angeles. Absent in Seattle, Boston and Denver. One national agency at domain authority 49 has systematically taken the city terms across the country.

agencies.semrush.com sits at two to six in ten of twelve

A directory at domain authority 86, consistently just below or just above the national agency. Between them, those two domains occupy a top-five position in every city we measured except Seattle.

Which tells you what a Philadelphia page is competing with

Not a local rival — the strongest genuinely Philadelphia result is seolocale.com at domain authority 47, and below that the field thins to 13 and 5. It is competing with a national agency page and a directory listing, neither of which says anything about Philadelphia’s AI search market.

The measured data, in full

Everything above comes from these tables. They were pulled on 17 September 2026 and carry that date so you can judge how stale they are when you read this.

What currently ranks for ‘ai seo agency philadelphia’, measured September 2026
PositionDomainDAResult typePage
1— AI Overview ——AI Overviewgenerated answer, no link
1thriveagency.com49organic/philadelphia-seo-company/
2agencies.semrush.com86organic/list/seo/philadelphia/
3coalitiontechnologies.com41organic/philadelphia-pa-seo
4seolocale.com47organic/
5localplus.co13organic/ai-seo/philadelphia
51digitalagency.com—local pack/
6facebook.com96organic/fb-answers/ai-seo-services-philadelphia/
6seolocale.com—local pack/
7directiveconsulting.com47organic/blog/philadelphia-top-seo-agencies/
71rankseo.com—local pack/
8macraes.com27organic/philadelphia-seo-agency/
9phillyseo.ai5organic/
10theguardian.com94organic (off topic)AI explainer, not about Philadelphia
11gatesnotes.com81organic (off topic)AI essay, not about Philadelphia
12youtube.com100organic (off topic)AI video, not about Philadelphia
13nytimes.com95organic (off topic)AI opinion, not about Philadelphia
14darpa.mil82organic (off topic)AI research programme
Measured demand in Philadelphia, September 2026
KeywordMonthly searchesCPCSEO difficultyIntent
seo agency philadelphia1,300$20.2341Navigational
ai seo agency philadelphia0—4—
Every city we measured, September 2026
City‘seo agency [city]’ volCPCSD‘ai seo agency [city]’ volLowest DA in the top tenDA
Austin4,400$28.12400aicoads.com7
Los Angeles2,400$13.40410seotuners.com19
Miami1,900$17.00430kiaora.digital10
Phoenix1,900$20.41400localfiseo.com10
Philadelphia1,300$20.23410phillyseo.ai5
Boston1,000$30.89380weframetech.com14
Dallas1,000$56.07410qoulomb.com16
Chicago880$68.44320teramok.us12
Houston590$21.68390directoryone.com25
Denver590$32.07370thebrandsmen.com25
Seattle480$15.08370vertigroupinternational.com20
Atlanta210$14.89380wislr.com11
One national agency holds the top of most city SERPs, September 2026
Citythriveagency.com positionagencies.semrush.com positionLocal pack positionsAI OverviewResults turn generic
Austin436-8yesno
Los Angeles783-5yesat 16
Miami784-6yesno
Phoenix121-3nono
Philadelphia125-7yesat 9
Bostonabsent4 (AI list)noneyesno
Dallas325-7nono
Chicago1absent4-6nono
Houston451-3nono
Denverabsent6 (AI list)3-5nono
Seattleabsentabsent2-4nono
Atlanta12noneyesat 9
Where each SERP runs out of relevant results, September 2026
CityLast relevant positionWhat Google falls back toWhat it means
Philadelphia9The Guardian, Gates Notes, NYT, DARPA, YouTube, r/agencyNine relevant results, then nothing local left to show
Atlanta9YouTube, GAO, The Guardian, Gates Notes, DARPANine relevant results, and no local pack at all
Los Angeles16YouTube, GAO, The GuardianSixteen relevant results in the second-largest market on the list
Chicago24+None in the range measuredRelevant results as deep as position twenty-four
Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, Houston18+None in the range measuredNo fallback observed inside the range we pulled
Miami, Boston, Denver10-17None in the range measuredNo fallback observed, though we pulled these three less deeply

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Everything else we have written on search, AI and getting found

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Websites and design

Choosing and working with an agency

Social, content and brand

By industry and by situation

Want the same measurement for your own market

We will pull the SERP, the authority of everyone in it and the demand on both terms for your city, and tell you honestly whether it is worth a page yet. One of the twelve we measured carries 210 searches a month, and we say so on its page.

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Not sure which of these applies to you?Tell us the situation and we will say plainly what we would do first, and what we would not.

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By industry and by situation

How deep each SERP stays relevant before falling backHow deep each SERP stays relevant before falling back
Philadelphia and Atlanta are the two markets where Google has nine relevant things to show and then nothing. Everything below position nine is general journalism about artificial intelligence.
What it means when a SERP runs outWhat it means when a SERP runs out
A page ranking tenth against the New York Times sounds impressive and is not. It means Google ran out of relevant results at nine.
What the Philadelphia result set is actually made ofWhat the Philadelphia result set is actually made of
Five yeses and three noes. The domain authority 5 site at position nine is the lowest-authority incumbent of any city in the study bar Houston.
Philadelphia and Austin both serve an Overview and behave differentlyPhiladelphia and Austin both serve an Overview and behave differently
Austin has five times the demand and a full page of relevant competitors. Philadelphia has less demand and almost nobody on the page. Those are two different opportunities, not one.
What we would do for a Philadelphia businessWhat we would do for a Philadelphia business
Content first here because two things point the same way: an AI Overview rewards being a source, and a SERP that runs out at nine has room for one more relevant page.
Where the twelve cities sit on supply against demandWhere the twelve cities sit on supply against demand
Top-right is demand with room to take. Philadelphia is the only city with meaningful volume in the upper band — Atlanta shares the room and has a fifth of the searches.
Philadelphia, in numbersPhiladelphia, in numbers
Nine relevant results and the weakest of them is a domain authority 5 site. That is what an under-supplied market looks like when you measure it rather than assert it.

Frequently asked questions

What is unusual about the Philadelphia SERP?
It runs out of relevant results at position nine. Below that, Google serves a Guardian article about AI and parenting, a Bill Gates essay, a YouTube video, a New York Times opinion column and a DARPA research page — none of which is about Philadelphia, agencies or SEO.
What does that actually mean?
That supply is the constraint rather than competition. Google is not choosing general AI journalism over local pages; it has no more local pages to choose. A genuinely Philadelphia page has less to displace here than in any other city we measured except Atlanta.
Would ranking tenth in Philadelphia be an achievement?
No. It would mean sitting above an off-topic Guardian article. The competitive field ends at position nine, and any report presenting position ten as a win in this market is misreading the page.
Is there an AI Overview on this query in Philadelphia?
Yes. Philadelphia, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and Atlanta all served one when we measured; Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Houston, Denver and Seattle did not.
What should a Philadelphia business do first?
Confirm crawler access and rendering, then rewrite existing pages so each heading is answered in its first two sentences. An Overview sits above every result here, so that editing is second rather than fourth.
How much demand is there in Philadelphia?
‘seo agency philadelphia’ measured 1,300 monthly searches in September 2026 at a $20.23 cost per click and an SEO difficulty of 41 — joint hardest of the twelve cities alongside Dallas and Los Angeles.
Does ‘ai seo agency philadelphia’ get any searches?
No. It measured zero, with an SEO difficulty of 4. The demand is entirely on the established term at this point.
Who holds the weakest ranking position in Philadelphia?
phillyseo.ai at domain authority 5, position nine. Only Houston has a weaker incumbent, at domain authority 2.
Does an exact-match .ai domain help?
The domain name is not a ranking factor in itself, though an exact-match name tends to travel with an exactly-matching page. We would not recommend buying one: it mostly gets you a site with no history competing against your own established domain.
Who is the strongest genuinely local competitor?
seolocale.com at domain authority 47, holding organic position four and a local pack slot at six. Below it the local field thins quickly to domain authority 13 and 5.
Why is Facebook ranking for this query?
Position six is an auto-generated Facebook answers page at /fb-answers/ai-seo-services-philadelphia/, on a domain authority 96 site. The same pattern appears in Phoenix. It is a programmatic template applied across local service queries.
Should I try to outrank it?
No. A domain authority 96 site publishing a page per city-and-service combination will win on authority. It is also a useful signal: programmatic templates get pointed at queries with demand and thin supply.
Where is the local pack in Philadelphia?
Interleaved at positions five to seven — 1digitalagency.com, seolocale.com and 1rankseo.com. That is worth real visibility, though less than in Phoenix where the pack holds the top three.
Which Philadelphia roundup is worth approaching?
directiveconsulting.com’s ’15 Best Philadelphia SEO Agencies For B2B’ at domain authority 47, position seven. It is the one reachable roundup on the page.
Can you get me into the AI Overview?
No, and nobody can promise that honestly. What can be done is the work that makes a page a plausible source and an accurate monthly record of what the assistants said.
Are these your own rankings?
These are not our rankings — every position in the tables belongs to another company. We publish the measurement because it is useful to anyone deciding where to spend.
Does zero volume mean nobody searches the AI term?
It means below the tool’s measurement floor. Treat it as too small to measure rather than nonexistent, and treat any specific figure quoted for it as invented.
How does Philadelphia compare with Austin?
Both serve an AI Overview and they are different opportunities. Austin has five times the demand and a full page of relevant competitors down to position eighteen. Philadelphia has less demand and almost nobody on the page below position nine.
Is a city page enough on its own?
No. It is one page on one query. Access, rendering, answer-first structure across the site and the Business Profile all sit around it.
How often should this be re-measured?
Quarterly. AI Overview presence in particular is unstable, and a market that serves one today may not in six months.
Do you work with businesses outside New York?
Yes. We are based in Sunnyside, New York, and the search work is not geographically constrained. The Business Profile work is the part that depends on where your customers are.
Where did these numbers come from?
The Ubersuggest API, US location, pulled on 17 September 2026. The full twelve-city dataset is in the tables above.

Want this done for your site?We build and maintain the search, content and paid programmes described on this page.

Get a free proposal

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