Guides
Marketing, explained like
you're not a marketer.
Plain-English guides for local business owners: what's worth your money, what isn't, and how it all actually works.
The same straight answers we give clients, published for free.
Featured guide
AI Search
How to get your local business found in ChatGPT and AI search
A plain-English guide to AEO, GEO, and AI visibility: what actually gets you recommended by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode, and what’s just hype.
Start here
Begin with the basics. These guides answer the most common questions.
All guides
Trust & Conversion
Do professional photos actually matter for your business?
What the research says about photo quality and customer behavior: trust, engagement, Google Business Profile results, and conversions, with the studies to back it up.
Reputation & Reviews
How to get more Google reviews without being annoying
A practical system for more honest reviews: the right timing, SMS vs email, direct review links, one-reminder follow-up, and automation that works.
Marketing Strategy
SEO vs Google Ads: which should you use first?
Speed, cost model, compounding value, lead quality, and tracking, compared honestly, plus when the smartest answer is running both.
Pricing
How much does local SEO cost in 2026?
What local SEO actually costs, what each price level should include, the red flags to avoid, and how to decide what your business should spend.
Local SEO
Why isn’t my business showing up on Google Maps?
The most common local-ranking problems, in the order worth checking: profile setup, categories, relevance and distance, reviews, citations, website signals, and suspensions.
Local SEO
Is SEO worth it for your local business?
What SEO is in plain English, what it actually does for a business like yours, the math for deciding, and the honest cases where it isn’t worth it yet.
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The same advice we give clients, free