Practical writing on websites, local SEO, and running a small business.
2026-05-11
A review from someone who never hired you sits in a gray zone Google sometimes removes and sometimes doesn't. Flagging is lower-risk than most owners think, but the public reply you write matters more than the flag.
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2026-05-04
AI search is eating top-of-funnel traffic, and the businesses showing up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews are the ones giving the internet something specific to cite. Four things to fix, in the order that actually matters.
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2026-05-01
Real five-star reviews vanishing within days has multiple causes Google actually publishes, and the asking patterns that put your reviews at the highest risk are the same patterns Google's policy explicitly prohibits.
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2026-04-28
Core updates aren't a penalty you can appeal, but the pages they demote follow a clear pattern. Here's how to triage your top 10 lost pages in Search Console, add the signals Google is actually rewarding, and stop publishing thin content that's making it worse.
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2026-04-27
Google's auto-moderator misses obvious fakes, the in-dashboard "Report review" button rarely works, and the only real path to removal is a separate appeals tool most owners don't know exists (and only get one shot at). Here's the playbook.
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2026-04-22
Addresses get stuck after a move, phone numbers get hijacked, and primary categories go stale. Here's the playbook for fixing a Google Business Profile when it quietly breaks.
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2026-04-21
A new software studio in Western North Carolina, and why we started it.
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