Writing

Notes on strategy, execution, and how AI changes the way a business works.

• How much should a local business spend on Google Ads, and how do you know it's working? July 7, 2026

  The right Google Ads budget is derived from what a customer is worth to you, not guessed. Here is the arithmetic, and how to tell if the spend is working.

• Intent vs. interruption advertising: where a local business's dollar actually works July 7, 2026

  Two kinds of advertising: one reaches people already searching for what you sell, the other interrupts people who never asked. Here is why a limited local budget should follow intent.

• Google Business Profile: the highest-leverage thing a local business owns June 30, 2026

  What a Google Business Profile actually controls in local and AI-answer results, and how to set one up so a search engine and an AI assistant both trust it: claim it, pick the right category, complete every field, and keep it consistent with your website.

• How AI and Google decide which local business to recommend June 30, 2026

  When someone asks an assistant who to hire near them, the engine returns one answer, not a page of links. Here is what actually decides which business gets named, and how to be the one that does.

• Is your website ready for AI? A quick self-check June 30, 2026

  A plain-language self-audit for local business owners, built around three questions: can AI find your site, can AI read it, and can AI cite it. Each comes with a concrete, non-technical check you can run in an afternoon.

• LocalBusiness schema, and what structured data does for a local business June 30, 2026

  A plain-language explanation of LocalBusiness schema markup: what structured data is, what it does and does not do for a local business, and why it has to match your Google Business Profile and your visible page.

• The three layers of a website most people only build one of June 30, 2026

  A website does three jobs at once: it looks credible, it moves a visitor to act, and it can be read by AI engines. Most sites only do the first, which is why they vanish when a customer asks an AI instead of scrolling Google.

• Why AEO matters now: your customers are starting to ask AI, not just Google June 30, 2026

  More of your customers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview a direct question instead of scrolling a page of links. If your business is not legible to those answer engines, you are invisible in the answer. Here is what changed, why it matters for a local business, and what to do about it.

• How a coastal Virginia business gets found when customers ask AI June 30, 2026

  When someone in Hampton Roads asks an AI assistant who to hire nearby, it names a few businesses. Here is what decides whether a coastal Virginia business is one of them, and what to look for if you are hiring someone to handle it.

• Should you let AI read your website, or block it? June 30, 2026

  For a local service business, you want answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity to read and cite your site, because being named in the answer is how customers find you. This explains who should block AI crawlers, who should not, and how to invite them in.

• Why isn't my business showing up on Google? Start with your name, address, and phone June 22, 2026

  The most common reason a real local business stays invisible online is the most boring one: its name, address, and phone number do not match everywhere they appear. Here is why that matters more than ever, and how to fix it.

• Will AI replace your job? Look at what QuickBooks did to accountants June 22, 2026

  When affordable accounting software arrived, everyone said accountants were finished. The opposite happened. The same pattern explains what AI does to most knowledge work.