Notes
Most popular SEO notes
The notes people find most on Google, ranked by clicks and then by how often Google showed them.
Most popular SEO notes
Ranked from Search Console, last 3 months to Nov 6, 2026.
What is a koinophobe?
A koinophobe is someone afraid of living an ordinary life. The word comes from koinophobia, coined by John Koenig in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. It's also the name of our SEO agency, and here's why.
Sep 27, 2026 · 3 min read
How to do an SEO audit yourself: a one-afternoon checklist
You can find most of what's holding a small business site back in one afternoon with free tools. The checklist we'd give a business owner: indexing, technical basics, your pages, your Business Profile, tracking and AI crawler access, with what good looks like for each.
Oct 29, 2026 · 3 min read
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user: what to do
You told Google which URL to index and it picked a different one. What a Google canonical is, the three canonical statuses in Search Console, why Google overrides your tag, when Google is right, and how to line up redirects, canonicals, sitemaps and internal links so it agrees with you.
Oct 19, 2026 · 4 min read
Google Search Console for contractors: setup and the reports worth reading
Google Search Console for contractors: how to set it up, the five reports worth checking, and what steady growth looks like, using a clinic's monthly clicks.
Oct 1, 2026 · 4 min read
Can ChatGPT read your site? How to check AI crawler access
Before ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity can cite a page, a crawler has to fetch it. Which AI crawlers matter, the three ways business sites block them by accident, and what we'd put in robots.txt.
Oct 5, 2026 · 5 min read
What a monthly SEO report should include (and what to ignore)
A monthly SEO report should fit on one page: calls, forms, Search Console clicks against the same month last year, the pages added or fixed, and next month's list. What goes on it, how to read a number that looks bad, and what to ignore.
Oct 9, 2026 · 4 min read
How to track ChatGPT traffic in GA4 (and Perplexity, Claude and Copilot)
ChatGPT tags its links with utm_source=chatgpt.com, and other assistants show up as referrers. A ten-minute GA4 setup that separates AI assistant visits from everything else, with the regex we use.
Sep 26, 2026 · 3 min read
How to appear in Google AI Overviews: what Google says and what I measured
Google says there are no special requirements to show up in AI Overviews. My data says the sources it picks are rarely the pages ranking underneath it. Both are true; here's the six-step version and what it means for your site.
Sep 18, 2026 · 4 min read
Why did my website traffic drop? A 30-minute diagnosis
Before you panic or pay anyone, spend 30 minutes finding out what kind of drop it is. The order we check things in: broken tracking, seasonality, which pages fell, indexing, recent site changes, Google updates and AI Overviews, mostly using Google's own debugging steps.
Oct 25, 2026 · 3 min read
Google Business Profile categories: how to pick the primary and the rest
The primary category on your Google Business Profile does more for your map rankings than almost any other setting, and most owners pick it once and forget it. Where the category list is, how to choose the primary, which additional categories to add, and how to check what competitors use.
Oct 16, 2026 · 4 min read
House cleaning SEO: how cleaning companies get booked from Google
People search for the kind of clean they need: deep cleaning, move-out cleaning, biweekly service. How a cleaning company's site should be built around those searches, why a prices page matters, the Business Profile settings, and how to turn one-time cleans into recurring customers.
Oct 18, 2026 · 4 min read
How to submit a sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing
A ten-minute job that most small business sites skip. Where to find your sitemap on the common platforms, how to submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, what the statuses mean, and how to fix a sitemap Google couldn't fetch.
Oct 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Ten questions to ask before hiring an SEO for your business
Ten questions to ask before hiring an SEO, what a good answer sounds like for each, and the two answers that should end the conversation on the spot.
Oct 27, 2026 · 4 min read
Crawled, currently not indexed: what it means and how to fix it
Google visited these pages and decided not to keep them. How to sort the URLs in this Search Console status into the ones that matter and the ones that don't, the usual reasons, and what to change before asking Google to look again.
Oct 12, 2026 · 4 min read
Discovered, currently not indexed: why Google hasn't crawled your pages yet
Google found these URLs and put off crawling them. What the status means in Google's words, why new and template-heavy sites see so much of it, and the order we'd fix things in: server speed, wasted URLs, internal links, then requests.
Oct 15, 2026 · 3 min read
Concrete driveway SEO for paving contractors
Concrete driveway SEO for paving contractors: a page per job, honest cost factors, job photos, town pages, schema, and tracking every quote request.
Oct 23, 2026 · 4 min read
AI Overviews and your traffic drop: how to tell, and what to do
Impressions up, clicks down, rankings fine? That's often an AI Overview answering the question on the results page. How to confirm it in Search Console, which pages are exposed, and how to shift effort to searches that still send customers.
Sep 29, 2026 · 3 min read
How to report fake Google Business listings, and when not to bother
Fake listings and keyword-stuffed business names push real companies down the map pack. How to tell a fake from a competitor you just don't like, which of Google's three reporting routes to use, what evidence to gather, and what to expect afterwards.
Oct 21, 2026 · 3 min read
Core Web Vitals for contractor websites: what they measure and what to fix
Core Web Vitals for contractor websites in plain terms: the three metrics, Google's good thresholds, where to check them, and what usually slows sites down.
Oct 2, 2026 · 3 min read
How to track phone clicks with Google Tag Manager and GA4
How to track phone clicks with Google Tag Manager and GA4, step by step, from the tel: link to the key event, plus which calls it will never see.
Aug 8, 2026 · 4 min read
Call tracking for contractors: which calls came from Google?
Most contractors can't say how many calls came from Google last month. Here's how to track website calls, Business Profile calls and forms without a big tool.
Sep 11, 2026 · 3 min read
Lawn care SEO: how to rank in your town before spring
Lawn care searches jump in spring, and pages take months to rank. What lawn care companies should build over the winter so Google sends calls by March.
Sep 26, 2026 · 3 min read
Merrimack Valley SEO for contractors around Lawrence, MA
Merrimack Valley SEO for contractors in Lawrence, Methuen, Andover, Haverhill and Lowell: town pages, Business Profile service areas and a free estimate page.
Oct 30, 2026 · 3 min read
Service area businesses on Google: hiding your address, setting areas, and still ranking
If you go to your customers, Google treats you as a service area business. When to hide your address, how to set service areas, why they don't decide where you rank, and what to do about the towns farther out.
Oct 13, 2026 · 3 min read
SEO for pool deck repair and resurfacing companies
How pool deck repair and resurfacing companies can rank on Google: a page for each service, before-and-after proof, the right map category and timing.
Sep 24, 2026 · 3 min read
How much does AI SEO cost? What drives the price, and what ours includes
AI SEO and GEO quotes run from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands a month. What actually drives the price, what you should get at each level, and the full breakdown of what our $300-a-month add-on covers.
Oct 3, 2026 · 3 min read
Google AI Mode SEO: how query fan-out changes which pages get found
AI Mode answers one question by running many searches you never see. That changes which of your pages can win. What Google has said about it, and how we'd structure a site for it.
Sep 19, 2026 · 3 min read
Roofing contractor schema: what to add and where it goes
Roofing contractor schema, page by page: what to mark up on your home page, service pages and articles, what it won't do for you, and how to test it.
Aug 26, 2026 · 4 min read
Local Services Ads vs SEO for roofers: how they stack up on the page
Local Services Ads vs SEO for roofers: where each shows on Google, how you pay, when LSA makes sense, why SEO compounds, and how to track both side by side.
Oct 11, 2026 · 3 min read
614 keywords on page one for a game shop in Charles County, MD
Over The Table Top is one independent board game and card shop in Charles County, Maryland. Here's what 17 months of Search Console data says worked, what didn't, and what we'd do next.
Sep 30, 2026 · 2 min read
How much should a roofing company pay for SEO in 2026?
What roofing SEO costs in 2026, from survey data on 439 providers, what each price level buys, and the red flags that mean you're paying for nothing.
Sep 19, 2026 · 3 min read
What separates an AI cited page from a page that merely ranked
Very often, we have been told of a plethora of actions that, if performed should get your pages seen by AI assistants, we ran some measurements to find out what actually moves the needle.
Sep 12, 2026 · 22 min read
Google Business Profile setup for roofing companies
How to set up a Google Business Profile for a roofing company: category, service areas, address rules, phone tracking and photos, so the map sends you calls.
Sep 5, 2026 · 3 min read
Shared leads vs SEO: what a contractor gets from each
Shared leads vs SEO for contractors: how lead services split one homeowner among several bidders, what your own site brings, and how to compare the two.
Aug 22, 2026 · 4 min read
The three conversion events every local business should track
You do not need a complicated analytics setup. You need three events wired up correctly. These are the ones that count.
May 15, 2026 · 3 min read
How to rank in the Google map pack: what you can change and what you can't
How to rank in the Google map pack using Google's own three factors: what you control under relevance, distance and prominence, and what gets you suspended.
Nov 3, 2026 · 4 min read
Moving company SEO: local moves, long-distance routes and the trust problem
Moving is a trade where customers expect to be scammed, so trust does as much work as rankings. How we'd set up a mover's site: local town pages, long-distance routes that aren't doorway pages, the federal ad rule most sites miss, estimate pages and timing for the summer rush.
Oct 24, 2026 · 3 min read
How we build a flat roof repair page from job photos
How to build a flat roof repair page from your own job photos: compressing, naming and converting images, what goes on the page, alt text and links.
Oct 15, 2026 · 3 min read
How to optimize images for website speed on a contractor site
How to optimize images for website speed on a contractor site: resize, convert to WebP, compress, name and size them properly, and lazy load the right ones.
Aug 29, 2026 · 4 min read
How a clinic went from 158 to 501 clicks in six months
A short walk through a real result: what was broken, what we changed, and how the numbers moved.
Apr 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Before and after photos SEO: why your project gallery ranks for nothing
Before and after photos SEO for contractors: why a text-free gallery ranks for nothing, and how to put each pair on the service and town pages that sell.
Oct 17, 2026 · 3 min read
GA4 reports for contractors: five questions and where to find each answer
The GA4 reports a small business or contractor needs: five plain questions, the report that answers each one, and how to mark calls and forms as key events.
Oct 6, 2026 · 4 min read
Reddit and AI search: why forums get cited, and what a business should do about it
Google's AI Overviews cited forums and social sites four times as often as ChatGPT did in our study. What that means for how your business gets talked about, and the ways to show up that won't get you banned.
Sep 24, 2026 · 3 min read
How to write content that AI assistants cite
The pages ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and AI Overviews cited in our study had a shape: article-like, direct, specific and longer than what ranked. A page template any business can use, built from those measurements.
Sep 23, 2026 · 3 min read
Schema markup for AI search: what our data shows and what Google says
Does structured data help you get cited by ChatGPT or AI Overviews? Having schema at all made no measurable difference in our study. One type did line up with citations. Which schema we'd add, and why.
Sep 22, 2026 · 3 min read
GEO vs SEO vs AEO: what's different, and what a business owner should pay for
SEO, AEO, GEO, LLM SEO, AI SEO: five names, one customer asking a question. Where they overlap, where they differ, and how to tell whether you're buying something new or something renamed.
Sep 17, 2026 · 3 min read
Getting more Google reviews as a roofer, within the rules
Reviews decide a lot of who wins the map. How roofers can ask for Google reviews at the right moment, and what Google and the FTC now prohibit.
Sep 17, 2026 · 3 min read
AI search for local businesses: what our citation study suggests
AI search for local businesses: what our study of ChatGPT, AI Overviews and other assistants found, its limits, and the plain steps worth taking for your site.
Sep 15, 2026 · 4 min read
NAP consistency for contractors: one name, address and phone everywhere
NAP consistency for contractors: where your name, address and phone number need to match, how mismatches creep in, and how to find and fix them.
Aug 31, 2026 · 4 min read
Contact form not working? An email setting and a speed plugin broke two client forms
Contact form not working on your WordPress site? Two causes we found on client sites, how each was fixed, and the monthly test that catches the next one.
Aug 15, 2026 · 3 min read
Electrician SEO: pages for emergency calls and planned jobs
Electrician SEO for both kinds of search: urgent calls from the map, and planned jobs like panel upgrades, EV chargers and generators that need a page.
Nov 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Tree service SEO: catching storm calls and planned work
Tree service SEO for both kinds of demand: storm cleanup calls that spike overnight, and the planned removal, trimming and stump grinding people research.
Nov 9, 2026 · 4 min read
A contractor website homepage that converts: a checklist, top to bottom
A contractor website homepage checklist: what the first screen must say, the proof that earns a call, services, towns, the estimate form, speed and tracking.
Nov 8, 2026 · 4 min read
Google Business Profile suspended? Why it happens and how to appeal
Google Business Profile suspended? The common reasons from Google's own guidelines, how to check the status, how the appeals tool works and what not to do.
Nov 7, 2026 · 4 min read
SEO vs Google Ads for contractors: how each one gets you calls
SEO vs Google Ads for contractors: how the ad auction charges you, why SEO builds over time, where Local Services Ads fit, and how to track both side by side.
Nov 7, 2026 · 4 min read
Affordable roofing SEO: what a small roofer can get for $500 to $1,500 a month
Small roofing companies don't need a $3,000 retainer to compete locally. What a smaller budget should cover, what to cut, and the cheap offers that cost you more later.
Nov 6, 2026 · 2 min read
Are GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot crawling your site? How to check
Your robots.txt can allow every AI crawler and they still might not come. How to find GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and the rest in your logs, which pages they read, how to tell a real bot from a fake one, and what a visit does and doesn't mean.
Nov 6, 2026 · 4 min read
Google Business Profile categories by trade: roofers, plumbers, HVAC and more
The primary and secondary Google Business Profile categories we'd pick for each home service trade, and the categories that look right but cost you calls.
Nov 6, 2026 · 2 min read
How long does SEO take? Real timelines from two sites we work on
How long does SEO take? Month-by-month click data from a clinic, a roofing site's year of rankings, and what to expect at months 1, 3, 6 and 12.
Nov 6, 2026 · 4 min read
A local SEO checklist for home service businesses
A local SEO checklist for home service businesses: Business Profile, service and town pages, reviews, citations, tracking, speed and the monthly upkeep.
Nov 6, 2026 · 4 min read
A monthly SEO report template for home service businesses
A one-page monthly SEO report a roofer or plumber can read in five minutes: the six numbers, the order to put them in, and the two sentences every report should end with.
Nov 6, 2026 · 3 min read
A roof repair page that ranks: what to put on it
Roof repair searches come from homeowners with a problem today. What a repair page needs so it ranks in your towns and gets the call, from leak symptoms to response times.
Nov 6, 2026 · 2 min read
Roofing SEO in Bradenton, Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch
Manatee and Sarasota counties mix older coastal homes with big planned communities, and homeowners search very differently in each. How a roofer here should split pages and profile work.
Nov 6, 2026 · 2 min read
Roofing SEO in Florida: what changes in hurricane country
Florida roofers compete in a market shaped by storms, insurance and code. What that does to the searches homeowners make, and the pages and profile work that win them.
Nov 6, 2026 · 3 min read
Roofing SEO in Las Vegas: desert roofs, different searches
Las Vegas roofers deal with heat, tile, flat roofs and planned communities, not hurricanes. How those differences change what homeowners search, and the pages a Vegas roofer should build.
Nov 6, 2026 · 2 min read
SEO onboarding questions: what I ask every new client before I touch the site
The questions I ask a new service business client before I change anything: which jobs pay, which towns you want, how calls get answered, what's been done to the site before, and the accounts I need. Answer them yourself first and you'll know more about your site than most agencies will.
Nov 6, 2026 · 4 min read
Solar company SEO in 2026: rewriting the pages the tax credit used to sell
For years, solar websites were built around the 30% federal tax credit for homeowners. That credit ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025, and plenty of sites still advertise it. What to fix first, the pages homeowners search for now, and how to compete with the lead sellers.
Oct 31, 2026 · 3 min read
Charles County, MD SEO for small businesses in Waldorf, La Plata and nearby
Charles County MD SEO for small businesses in Waldorf, St. Charles, La Plata and Indian Head, using a local game shop's real Search Console numbers.
Oct 29, 2026 · 3 min read
Business not showing up on Google when searched by name? How to fix it
Business not showing up on Google when searched by name? The common causes, the name signals to fix, and what we changed when it happened to our own brand.
Oct 28, 2026 · 3 min read
A seasonal marketing calendar for home services: publish before the rush
A seasonal marketing calendar for home services: what roofers, HVAC, lawn and pool companies should publish each month so pages rank before the busy season.
Oct 25, 2026 · 4 min read
Pest control SEO: rank for the pest, sell the plan
Pest control SEO built around how people search: a page per pest, a recurring plans page, seasonal timing, town pages, reviews within the rules and tracking.
Oct 21, 2026 · 4 min read
Roofing keywords worth building a page for
Which roofing keywords deserve their own page, how to find the ones your site already shows for in Search Console, and four searches from a real roofing case.
Oct 13, 2026 · 4 min read
What is technical SEO? A plain-English guide for business owners
Technical SEO is the part of SEO that decides whether Google can find, read and index your pages at all. What it covers, in plain English, the checks you can run yourself in an afternoon, and when it's worth paying someone.
Oct 10, 2026 · 3 min read
How to hire an AI SEO agency: 12 questions to ask, and the answers to want
AI SEO and GEO agencies appeared overnight. Twelve questions that separate the ones who measure from the ones who sell the trend, with the answers you should want and the red flags to walk away from.
Oct 9, 2026 · 3 min read
How to rank in ChatGPT: what we measured, and what we'd do for your business
There is no ranking in ChatGPT the way there is on Google. There is a pool of pages it can cite and a habit of naming the companies Google already trusts. How to get into both, from our own measurements.
Oct 8, 2026 · 4 min read
What a free estimate page needs before anyone fills it out
A free estimate page is where a search turns into a lead, and most of them leak. Here's what we put on every one now, from builds for clients in Lawrence, MA and around the US.
Oct 7, 2026 · 2 min read
How to track AI search visibility without fooling yourself
Asked the same question three times, ChatGPT kept 4.5% of its cited pages. One screenshot tells you almost nothing. A tracking setup an owner can run in a spreadsheet, using the method from our citation study.
Oct 7, 2026 · 4 min read
How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT
When a customer asks ChatGPT for a dentist, a roofer or a bakery near them, which businesses get named, and why? A practical checklist for owners, built on what we've measured and what OpenAI and Google say.
Oct 4, 2026 · 4 min read
What a roof replacement page needs, in the order homeowners read it
What goes on a roof replacement service page, in the order a homeowner reads it: materials, repair vs replace, process, cost factors, photos and booking.
Oct 4, 2026 · 4 min read
A Lawrence, MA tint shop owns its name. 'Window tinting near me' is next.
Tint Lordz Auto Spa ranks at position 2 or better for every version of its own name. The generic search sits at 19. Here's the data, and the plan any tint shop in the Merrimack Valley can copy.
Oct 3, 2026 · 2 min read
Is SEO dead because of AI? What our data says
AI assistants mostly name companies that already rank on Google, they need crawlable pages to cite, and Google still sends the clicks. What changed, what didn't, and where a business owner should put the money.
Oct 2, 2026 · 3 min read
Bing's AI Performance report: how to see when Copilot cites your site
Bing Webmaster Tools now shows how often Microsoft Copilot cites your pages, which pages, and the searches behind them. It's the first first-party AI citation data any platform has given site owners. How to set it up and read it.
Sep 28, 2026 · 3 min read
Brand mentions and AI search: how assistants decide which companies to name
AI assistants named the same companies Google ranks far more often than they cited the same pages. That makes being recognized across the web a bigger part of AI visibility than any single page. How to build it.
Sep 25, 2026 · 3 min read
The storm damage pages every roofing website needs
After a storm, homeowners search questions before they search roofers. The storm damage pages to build now, so they rank before next hurricane season.
Sep 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Does llms.txt help SEO or AI search? What the evidence says
llms.txt is a proposed file that lists your important pages for AI models. Google has said no AI system currently uses it. When it's worth adding anyway, and what to do instead if you want to be cited.
Sep 21, 2026 · 3 min read
Perplexity SEO: how to get your site cited by Perplexity
Perplexity shows its sources more prominently than any other assistant, and it cites fewer of them per answer. What we measured about how it picks sources, and the steps that make your pages eligible.
Sep 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Generative engine optimization (GEO): what it is and what holds up
GEO is the name for getting your business into answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. What the term means, which GEO advice our own measurements support, and which they don't.
Sep 16, 2026 · 3 min read
Why your contractor website isn't showing up on Google
Search your company and your site isn't there? Work through these checks in order, from the WordPress setting that hides you to pages Google never indexed.
Sep 14, 2026 · 3 min read
How to build service area pages for a roofing company
One page per town works for roofers, if each page is real. What to put on a roofing service area page, how many to build, and where Google draws the line.
Sep 9, 2026 · 3 min read
Hurricane shutter SEO: your next customers may be one county over
Hurricane shutter SEO data from one Florida company: 38% of its visibility came from outside its home county. What that means for town pages and timing.
Sep 8, 2026 · 4 min read
Ranking but no clicks? Fix the title tag, then the page
Ranking but no clicks? 307 search terms in Google's top ten got zero clicks across three sites. How to find yours in Search Console and fix title and page.
Sep 3, 2026 · 3 min read
What 1,250 'near me' searches taught us about local SEO
We pulled every 'near me' search from five client sites. 1,250 queries, 780 on page one, 191 in the top three. Here is what the ones that rank have in common.
Sep 2, 2026 · 3 min read
How to do a website redesign without losing SEO rankings
A website redesign without losing SEO comes down to redirects, keeping the pages that rank, and watching Search Console after launch. Here is our checklist.
Aug 19, 2026 · 4 min read
HVAC SEO: get your pages live before the season turns
HVAC SEO runs on two seasons. Which service pages to build, when to publish them, a maintenance plan page, HVACBusiness schema and how to track the calls.
Aug 12, 2026 · 4 min read
Plumbing SEO: how to get the 2 a.m. emergency call
Plumbing SEO for emergency calls: Business Profile settings, a service page per job, town pages, Plumber schema and the call tracking that proves it works.
Aug 4, 2026 · 4 min read
Rankings without tracking are a vanity metric
A page-one ranking feels great. But if you cannot tie it to a call or a form, you are guessing. Here is how we close that gap.
Jun 1, 2026 · 3 min read
Book a free SEO call. I’ll tell you what I’d fix first.
Book a free 20-minute call, or email me if you’d rather write. Every price is on the pricing page, so there are no surprises when we talk.
Free, 20 minutes · same-day replies
Delivery guarantee. If I don't finish the month-one list within 30 days, you get your first payment back. The terms.
What happens on the call
- I look at your site and your Google listing before we talk.
- You get the two or three things I'd fix first, and what they'd cost.
- If nothing's worth paying for, I'll tell you. No sales pitch.