Longer Guides for Careful Buyers: Content Marketing in McHenry County
The median household in McHenry County earns $101,205, and buyers at that level tend to read before they decide. Our work on content marketing services for McHenry County businesses: blog posts built on real customer questions, pages that say plainly what you do and landing pages for each town you work in, written in plain language.
Local picture
Behind the 78.4: What McHenry County Offers a Writer
Local Content Opportunity Index
78.4/ 100
Ranks 114 of 1,822 counties with 20,000 or more residents, 87 of the 400 markets here. A higher score marks more content to cover and more research-minded buyers. How it is scored
LCOI, our content index, scores every county from 0 to 100 for how much there is to write about and how many buyers read before they pick up the phone. Seven research-heavy trades, the number of towns, business growth, income and permits make up the score. McHenry County scores 78.4, well above the middle of the pack.
What shapes the result most is a $101,205 median household income, followed by 16 places above 2,500 residents. Every tile below sets one number against the other counties we rank. This is where we begin on local content for McHenry County businesses.
- Research-heavy businesses per 10,000 people 28.7 Above 79% of counties
- Towns over 2,500 people 16 Above 96% of counties
- What the middle household earns (2023 est.) $101,205 Higher than 94% of counties
- Change in research-heavy locations, 2017 to 2022 +6.7% Above 63% of counties
- Research-heavy locations run by fewer than five 70.7% Above 76% of counties
- Net new employer locations, 2017 to 2022 +121 Below 59% of counties
- Population change since 2020 +0.8% Near the middle of counties
- Homes permitted in 2025 per 10,000 residents 48 Above 71% of counties
Each percentile is the share of the 1,822 ranked counties scoring below McHenry County. Sources: Census population estimates, the 2017 and 2022 County Business Patterns, SAIPE income estimates, Building Permits Survey.
Communities
McHenry County Place by Place
The largest places in McHenry County: 16 places clear 2,500 residents, and 7 top 10,000.
| Rank | Town or city | 2023 population | Slice of the county | Size next to the largest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crystal Lake | 40,861 | 13% | 100% |
| 2 | Lake in the Hills | 28,661 | 9% | 70% |
| 3 | McHenry | 28,251 | 9% | 69% |
| 4 | Woodstock | 25,699 | 8% | 63% |
| 5 | Huntley (part) | 22,477 | 7% | 55% |
| 6 | Algonquin (part) | 21,849 | 7% | 53% |
Residents are Census estimates. Cities, towns and census-designated places all count; cities that cross a county line show only their McHenry County part.
31% of residents live in the top three places; the other 69% are spread across smaller towns and unincorporated areas.
The editor's read
The Brief for Content That Answers Questions in McHenry County
Money is part of the picture in McHenry County: a $101,205 median household income puts it higher than in 94% of counties. Bigger purchases get longer deliberation, so depth, specifics and plain explanations of how a business works matter more than short announcements.
Two more details shape the plan. The county has 16 places of 2,500 or more, ahead of 96% of counties. There are 897 research-heavy locations, above 79% of counties per resident. The first pieces should be thorough comparisons, not announcements.
For scale, 312,800 residents make McHenry County the 231st largest of 3,143 counties, with 8,082 employer locations (258.4 per 1,000 residents) providing 85,659 jobs. The median household earns $101,205, more than 96% of counties. One more group is easy to miss: 62,307 residents, 20% of the county, live outside any named place and tend to search by road or neighborhood, not by town.
Volume, in numbers
Counting Pages: The McHenry County Town Grid
Say a McHenry County business offers three services and wants each one on its own page in each of the 16 places above 2,500 residents: that grid is 48 pages. Each plan's build time for that grid is in the table.
| Option | Monthly fee | Landing pages each month | Months to build the town grid | Content Assets in 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silver | $1,495 | 25 | 1.9 months | 48 (3.0 per place) |
| Gold | $2,495 | 50 | 1.0 months | 96 (6.0 per place) |
| Platinum | $3,495 | 100 | 0.5 months | 144 (9.0 per place) |
Three services per large place is an assumption. Plan volumes match the pricing page.
Three services is an example, not a quote; nothing here predicts leads or rankings. Written assets come on top.
Rivals for the same readers
The Research-Heavy Field in McHenry County, Category by Category
897 employer locations ordered by density compared with a typical county. The last column counts teams with fewer than five staff, the ones with the least time to spare.
Each bar shows locations per 10,000 residents relative to the median county; the tick marks 1.0x. Source: County Business Patterns, 2017 to 2022, which says nothing about web activity. See the method
Residential remodelers are the most numerous per resident in McHenry County: 222 locations, 2.4 times the typical county's density, up 26.1% since 2017. People choosing among them are trying to learn how to choose materials, which projects people tackle first and what drives a change order. Dentists follow at 1.6x the typical county.
Real estate agents and brokers grew fastest, up 57.7% since 2017 to 112 locations. Only dentists and insurance agencies shrank. Small teams are most common among real estate agents and brokers: 105 of 112 locations have fewer than five employees. Across all seven categories it is 634 of 897.
Everything here is a business count, not what any of them publishes, so treat it as a map, not a forecast.
Similar counties
Six Markets That Resemble McHenry County
McHenry County's six closest matches out of 400 markets, compared on six traits. Useful context for content marketing services for McHenry County businesses.
| Look-alike county | LCOI | Headcount | Towns above 2,500 | Income at the median | Employer-location growth since 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McHenry County, IL (you are here) | 78.4 | 312,800 | 16 | $101,205 | +121 |
| Dakota County, MN | 77.3 | 447,440 | 11 | $100,012 | +243 |
| Kane County, IL | 78.4 | 514,982 | 20 | $97,543 | +447 |
| Orange County, NY | 77.4 | 407,470 | 20 | $93,492 | +652 |
| St. Charles County, MO | 76.8 | 416,659 | 9 | $98,765 | +384 |
| Union County, NJ | 75.8 | 572,726 | 13 | $100,031 | +439 |
| Anoka County, MN | 70.0 | 372,441 | 18 | $96,661 | +513 |
Chosen out of our 400 markets using six measures: size, income, score, towns, growth and research density. See the sources above.
Dakota County, MN resembles McHenry County most closely (77.3 on the index to 78.4, 11 towns of 2,500+ to 16); Anoka County, MN is the outlier of the group at 70.0. A look-alike is a reference, not a promise.
New construction
Housing Permits in McHenry County Hold Near 1,503 a Year
Bars show housing units approved by permit that year. Data from the Census Building Permits Survey, and a year-to-date comparison. Approved units are not all built.
Permits stayed within a narrow band, from 900 to 1,565 units, and came to 1,503 in 2025. Through the first eight months of 2026, 1,009 units were approved against 1,145 a year earlier, down 11.9%.
Residential remodelers, at 2.4x the typical county, are the housing-linked trade with the most locations per resident. New residents are working out how permits work, how long a job disrupts a household and how to compare bids.
Put your figures in
What Has to Come Back: Local Content for McHenry County Businesses
Every plan has a clear price; the real question is what it has to earn. Type what a customer in your trade is worth in McHenry County, what you keep and how many leads you close.
Pricing
Plans and Pricing for Blog and Website Content in McHenry County
You get content through the Organic Growth plans, and the plans scale the monthly volume. Month to month, no setup fee, no contract. Talk to our CEO about which plan fits.
FAQ
Questions About McHenry County Content Marketing
How much does a content marketing agency in McHenry County cost?
It is priced by the month and bundled with the rest of Organic Growth: Silver ($1,495) writes 4 Strategic Content Assets, Gold ($2,495) writes 8 and Platinum ($3,495) writes 12. There is no setup fee and no contract. Set the fee against what one new customer is worth to you; the calculator above does that arithmetic, and a $101,205 median household income in McHenry County is background only.
Does household income in McHenry County change the kind of content?
It can. The median household earns $101,205, higher than in 94% of counties, and buyers at that level often compare for longer, so longer guides and detailed comparisons earn their place.
What do McHenry County's small teams mean for a publishing schedule?
70.7% of McHenry County's research-heavy locations are under five employees (ahead of 76% of counties). Those owners rarely have spare hours to write.
What does a year of Strategic Content Assets add up to in McHenry County?
Twelve months bring 48 assets on Silver, 96 on Gold and 144 on Platinum, each written one at a time. Gold's 96 across 16 places comes to roughly 6.0 apiece. Landing pages are separate: 48 town-and-service pages take 2 months on Silver and 1 month on Platinum.
How do you write for residents who live outside any town in McHenry County?
62,307 people, 20% of the county, live outside any named place. Content for them describes service areas by roads, drive times and neighborhoods rather than by town boundary.
Where in McHenry County should the first local pages go?
Follow the population: Crystal Lake (40,861, 13% of the county), Lake in the Hills (28,661) and McHenry (28,251) come first. Smaller places follow, and any town where your customers cluster can move up. With 16 places above 2,500, a three-service grid comes to 48 pages.
Which research-heavy trade is busiest in McHenry County?
Residential remodelers, with 222 locations at 2.4x the typical county's density, up 26.1% since 2017. Dentists are next at 1.6x. The questions buyers bring to residential remodelers tend to be what drives a change order, how permits work and what a kitchen or bath project costs; plain answers to those are the natural first topics for McHenry County content strategy.
Should content for McHenry County speak to people who have just moved in?
McHenry County permitted 48 homes per 10,000 residents in 2025, higher than in 71% of counties, and the population has changed +0.8% since 2020. Enough new households arrive that a share of the writing should answer first-month questions: who to call and how things work here.
Does a score of 78.4 mean results for a McHenry County business?
No. 78.4 places McHenry County well above the middle of the pack, which only describes the amount to write about and the readers who check first. What the plans fix is monthly volume, month to month, with no setup fee and no contract.
Next door
Where Else We Cover Near McHenry County
Markets within reach of McHenry County, with distance, population and score.
- Boone County, IL, 19 miles from McHenry County, 53,202 residents, scoring 50.2
- Walworth County, WI (24 miles away; 105,822 people; LCOI 70.5)
- Kane County, IL, 27 miles from McHenry County, 514,982 residents, scoring 78.4
- DeKalb County, IL, 34 miles from McHenry County, 100,288 residents, scoring 54.5
Talk to Us
Talk Through McHenry County Content Marketing With Our CEO
Tell us what you do and where in McHenry County your customers are, and we will sketch a plan. Phone 610-825-4363 or write to hello@getphound.com to arrange a call with our CEO.