The wiki

The reference desk for winning online.

Evergreen guides — kept current, backed by our own scan data, written in plain talk. Every article opens with the answer, not a preamble.

01 — Local SEO

What Is Local SEO? The Plain-English Guide

Local SEO is the practice of making your business visible when nearby customers search for what you sell — in Google's map pack, local results, and AI answers. It runs on five levers: your Google Business Profile, reviews, city-specific pages, structured data, and website speed.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

Google Business Profile: The 20-Minute Monthly Routine That Ranks

Your Google Business Profile is the single highest-leverage asset in local search — it decides map-pack visibility more than your website does. Winning takes a complete profile, weekly activity (posts, photos, Q&A), and steady review velocity with owner replies — roughly 20 minutes a month.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

Why Isn't My Website Showing Up on Google? (Diagnosis & Fixes)

A website missing from Google is almost always one of five problems, in this order of likelihood: it's too new to be indexed, it's accidentally blocking Google (noindex tag or robots.txt), it has no authority yet for competitive terms, it's technically broken in a way that prevents crawling, or it's been penalized. The diagnosis takes ten minutes with Google Search Console — and the fix is usually simpler than feared.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

02 — Speed & Core Web Vitals

Website Speed: Why It Decides Your Rankings (and Revenue)

Website speed affects rankings and revenue through Core Web Vitals — Google's three field metrics: LCP (loading, keep under 2.5s), INP (responsiveness, under 200ms), and CLS (visual stability, under 0.1). Slow sites rank lower and lose roughly half of mobile visitors before the page even renders.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

03 — Schema & Rich Results

Schema Markup for Local Businesses: The Missing 20 Minutes

Schema markup is machine-readable code (JSON-LD) that tells Google exactly what your business is, what you sell, and what customers say — unlocking rich results like stars, prices, and FAQs. Across industry scan data, roughly 80% of local sites have little or none, making it one of the fastest competitive wins available.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

04 — Web Design

How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? Real Numbers

In 2026 a professionally built small-business website costs $2,500–$10,000 up front, DIY builders run $200–$500 a year plus your evenings, and template freelancers charge $500–$1,500. The real question isn't the price — it's whether the site generates more than it costs.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

How to Redesign a Website Without Losing Your SEO

Redesigns lose rankings when URLs change without redirects, ranking content gets deleted, or the new site is slower than the old one. The protection protocol: inventory what currently ranks before touching anything, keep URLs stable wherever possible and 301-redirect every one that changes, preserve the content earning traffic, match or beat the old site's speed, and monitor Search Console daily for a month after launch. Done properly, redesigns typically improve rankings.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

Do I Need a New Website? A 10-Point Self-Audit

You need a new website when it fails the tests that cost you money: it loads slowly on phones, looks broken or dated on mobile, can't be found for your own services, embarrasses you against competitors, or can't be updated without a developer archaeology project. Run the 10-point audit below — three or more failures means redesign; one or two usually means targeted fixes are the cheaper answer.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

05 — Growth

SEO vs Google Ads: Where Should a Local Business Spend First?

Ads buy leads this week and stop the moment you stop paying; SEO takes months to build and then compounds for years. The practical answer for most local businesses is sequencing, not either/or: run tightly-managed ads for immediate cash flow while building the SEO foundation, then rebalance spend toward organic as it matures. Businesses that need leads now start with ads; businesses that can wait 4–6 months often never need them.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

AI Search Optimization: How to Get Cited by AI Overviews & ChatGPT

AI answers — Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity — cite sources that make extraction easy: direct answers in the opening paragraphs, clear question-matched headings, structured data, named-source statistics, and genuine expertise signals. The playbook overlaps heavily with good SEO, with one shift in emphasis: write so a machine can quote you accurately in two sentences, because that's what citation is.

UPDATED 2026-07-08 · READ →

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