SearchLab Digital Makes the Inc. 5000 for the Fifth Consecutive Year

SearchLab Digital has been included in the 2026 Inc. 5000, Inc. magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America, for the fifth consecutive year. The announcement was made on August 11, 2026, marking another milestone for our Chicago-based Local SEO and PPC agency that launched in 2017 with a single consultant and has grown into a nationally recognized team.

Making the Inc. 5000 once is an achievement of it’s own. Making it five years in a row reflects something more durable: a business model that keeps working, a client base that keeps growing, and a team that keeps delivering results in a category where the competitive pressure does not slow down.

Five Consecutive Years on the Inc. 5000

The Inc. 5000 ranks private U.S. companies by percentage revenue growth over a three-year period. To qualify, companies must be privately held, for-profit, U.S.-based, and independent, and must meet minimum revenue thresholds across both the base year and the most recent year.

The list is one of the most widely cited benchmarks for sustained private company growth in the country, and a consistent appearance on it signals compounding momentum rather than a single strong year.

For SearchLab, the five consecutive appearances span the company’s entire growth arc: from a small but ambitious agency making its first Inc. 5000 list in 2022 to a recognized leader in Local SEO and paid search for multi-location brands today.

• 2022: First Inc. 5000 appearance
• 2023: Second consecutive year
• 2024: Third consecutive year
• 2025: Fourth consecutive year
• 2026: Fifth consecutive year

The Recognition Goes Beyond Growth

Whether we’re improving a dealership group’s visibility across dozens of Google Business Profiles, rebuilding a paid search strategy, or testing how businesses appear in AI-generated recommendations, the goal isn’t simply more rankings, impressions, or traffic.

It’s helping more of the right customers find our clients and take action.

That means connecting search visibility to calls, leads, appointments, store visits, and ultimately revenue.

That client-first approach has produced recognition beyond the Inc. 5000 as well. SearchLab won Best Local Campaign at both the 2025 U.S. Search Awards and the 2025 U.S. Agency Awards for its work with Jim Burke Ford, and holds Google Premier Partner status, placing the agency in the top 3% of Google Partners agencies in the country. Microsoft also named SearchLab its Global Emerging Partner of the Year.

Built by Search Specialists

The team behind our award-winning work includes some of the most recognized practitioners in Local SEO, technical SEO, paid search, automotive search marketing, content, and AI visibility.

That includes Greg Gifford, SearchLab’s CSO and one of the industry’s most recognized Local SEO experts, and Dane Saville, Head of Search and AI Visibility, who has spent more than 16 years working in automotive SEO and search marketing.

That depth matters even more as search becomes increasingly fragmented.

Customers aren’t only searching on Google anymore. They’re discovering businesses through Google Maps, traditional search results, paid ads, ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and other AI-powered experiences.

Our job is to understand how those systems are changing and what businesses actually need to do about it.

Search Is Changing, and So Is Our Work

SearchLab enters the second half of 2026 with a growing focus on the intersection of Local SEO and AI search visibility, an area where the agency has invested significantly in research and testing.

The next chapter of SearchLab’s growth isn’t about chasing the latest acronym. It’s about continuing to understand where and how customers search.

Our team is actively researching how platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Mode surface businesses and make local recommendations. We’re combining that testing with the same Local SEO fundamentals we’ve spent years studying across thousands of Google Business Profiles.

As customer behavior changes, our services will continue to evolve with it.

About SearchLab Digital

SearchLab Digital is a Chicago-based Local SEO and PPC agency specializing in multi-location brands. Founded in 2017, SearchLab works with automotive dealer groups, law firms, medical practices, home services companies, and franchise brands across the United States.

SearchLab Digital has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies for five consecutive years, holds Google Premier Partner status, and has won multiple U.S. Search Awards.