Operator Notes / The blog
Playbooks, not think-pieces.
Everything here is written for somebody who has to act on it this week, in a business they already run. Each category tells you what it covers, who it is not for, and where to start. Nothing is behind a form.
A good place to start
Practical reads for people running a business.Website conversion / Start here
Why your traffic is fine and your inquiries are not
What to fix first when people arrive and do not call, and how you will tell whether it worked.
Read the playbookPut the playbook to work
Know the problem?
Let’s work on it.
SEOD builds websites, improves visibility and fixes the processes behind the business. Start with a review, then agree the priorities, scope and price.
Website not doing its job?
Build or improve the pages, navigation and next steps your customers rely on.
Explore website developmentNeed more qualified interest?
Review search, content, advertising and what happens after someone finds you.
Explore GrowthToo much manual work?
Improve SOPs, reporting and handoffs, with systems your team can run.
Explore OperationsFollow your curiosity
Find your next read.
Getting found
Being visible to someone who is looking for what you sell, in the places they look.
Google Business Profile and local SEO
Which of your own profile settings is costing you position in the map pack, and how long a real change takes to show.
Start with Google Business Profile categories: the single strongest lever you control
AI search and AEO
Whether an AI search recommendation is genuinely new work or ordinary SEO under a new label.
Start with llms.txt: what a 137,000 site study found
Google Ads and paid local
Whether ads make sense for your margin at all, and what your account is losing money on if you already run them.
Reviews and reputation
Whether your review habit is the thing holding your ranking back, and what to change first if it is.
Start with Review velocity: the local ranking factor most businesses ignore
Multilingual and community marketing
Whether a second language would earn its keep in your business or just add maintenance.
Start with Marketing a business to a bilingual customer base
Turning attention into customers
What happens after they find you, which is where most local businesses actually lose the sale.
Website conversion
What to fix first when people arrive and do not call, and how you will tell whether it worked.
Start with Why your traffic is fine and your inquiries are not
Web design and branding
Whether you need a new website or a better one, and whether the quote in front of you is reasonable.
Start with What a small business website actually costs in 2026
AI phone and lead response
Whether your phone is actually costing you business, measured rather than guessed.
Analytics and dashboards
Which few numbers are worth your attention weekly, and when a change is real rather than noise.
Start with The numbers a small business owner should see every week
Your industry
The problems that only make sense if you run this particular kind of business.
Restaurant marketing
Why you sit below restaurants you consider worse, and which of the causes you can fix this month.
Start with How restaurants actually get found on Google in 2026
Restaurant operations
Where the points are going in your P&L, and which control will survive a Friday night.
Start with Labor variance: how to find the four points you are losing
Dental and med spa marketing
Where your practice loses patients between the search and the chair.
Start with What a new dental patient actually costs to acquire
Home services marketing
Which towns you are actually visible in, and where your emergency leads are going instead.
Start with Emergency searches and how home services businesses capture them
Catering and event business
Whether catering is worth pursuing in your kitchen, and what has to exist before you chase it.
Before you hire anyone
Choosing and working with an agency
How to run a hiring process that protects you, including against us.
Start with How to find a good SEO company
Latest
- Reviews when the customer is handing over everything they own Reviews & Reputation
- Medical optometry, and why the website rarely mentions it Website Conversion
- Two reviews a month is the real constraint in an auto repair shop Reviews & Reputation
- What a home care agency may say about its caregivers, and the registry families can check Website Conversion
- When accounting demand actually appears, read from the filing calendar Analytics & Dashboards
- The buyer conversation moved before the first showing, and the site has to hold it Website Conversion
Earlier articles
Written before the library above, and still worth reading.
- How to Get Cited by ChatGPT (and Perplexity) in 2026
- How to Get Cited in Google's AI Overview
- Perplexity for Local Business: A 2026 Playbook
- Schema Markup for AI Search: What's Changed in 2026
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Explained
- Bing Copilot for Local Business: The Underrated AI Traffic Source
- AI Search vs Traditional Google: Should You Optimize Differently?
- When AI Search Drops Your Referral Traffic: What to Do
- How to Monitor Your Brand Inside AI Answers
- Voice Search Optimization for Local Business in 2026
- Why Review Velocity Matters More in the AI Era
- The 40-Point SEO Checklist We Actually Run for Every Client
- Local Business Marketing, What Actually Works
- SEO for Dentists, A Practical, Jargon-Free Guide
- Local SEO for Landscaping Companies, The Seasonal Playbook
- How to Find a Good SEO Company (even if it's not us)
- Spanish Marketing in the Bay Area: What Actually Works
