My Awesome SEO Blog
How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT and AI Search
Search is changing. For years, businesses focused primarily on one question: How do I get my business to rank higher on Google? That question still matters. But now I hear another one from business owners: How do I get ChatGPT and other AI search tools to recommend my...
What Separates a Good SEO Company from a Great One?
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert If you've ever searched for an SEO company, you've probably noticed something. Most websites sound almost identical. Every agency promises: Higher rankings More traffic More leads Better visibility Long-term growth On the surface,...
The 5 Questions I Ask Every New SEO Client
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert When a new client contacts me about SEO, they often expect me to begin with keywords. They assume I’ll immediately ask: What keywords do you want to rank for? Who are your competitors? How many blog posts do you want each month? How...
Why I Rarely Recommend a New Website
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert One of the first questions I hear from prospective clients is: "Do I need a new website?" It's understandable why people ask. Maybe their website is a few years old. Maybe a competitor launched a beautiful redesign. Maybe another...
How Small SEO Improvements Created Big Organic Growth: A Real Client Example
By Jen Ruhman, SEO Expert in San Diego Most Business Owners Think SEO Is One Big Thing One of the biggest misconceptions I hear from business owners is that successful SEO comes from finding one secret strategy. Maybe it's the perfect keyword. Maybe it's publishing...
What I Look for During the First 30 Minutes of an SEO Audit
By Jen Ruhman, SEO Expert in San Diego Every SEO Audit Starts the Same Way... People often ask me what software I use when performing an SEO audit. The truth is... Software isn't where I start. Yes, I eventually use tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics,...
Why I Build Internal Links Before I Build Backlinks
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert When I start working with a new SEO client, I almost never begin by looking for backlinks. That surprises a lot of people. One of the first questions I hear is: "How many backlinks do we need?" My answer is usually... "Let's make...
The SEO Changes I Ignore (And Why)
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert If you've followed SEO news for any length of time, you've probably noticed a pattern. Every week there's another headline claiming everything has changed. "Google released another core update." "SEO is dead." "AI is replacing...
How Much Does SEO Cost for a Small Business in Poway?
If you're a small business owner in Poway considering SEO, one of the first questions you're probably going to ask is: How much does SEO actually cost? It's a reasonable question. But if you've already started researching SEO companies, you've probably discovered that...
The Biggest SEO Mistake I See Small Businesses Make
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert After more than 20 years working in SEO, I’ve audited hundreds of websites. Some belonged to brand-new businesses. Others had been around for decades. Some ranked well. Others barely showed up in Google at all. But regardless of the...
The SEO Advice I Used to Believe (But Don’t Anymore)
By Jen Ruhman, San Diego SEO Expert If you've been working in SEO for as long as I have, you learn one important lesson very quickly: SEO never stands still. When I first started optimizing websites more than 20 years ago, the SEO landscape looked completely different...
What Is Topical Authority? A Simple Guide for Business Owners
One of the biggest misconceptions I see in SEO is that ranking on Google is simply about finding the right keyword and creating a page for it. Keywords still matter. But modern search is much more sophisticated than exact keyword matching. Search engines also need to...
Why Your Website Ranks on Page 2 of Google (And How to Move It to Page 1)
Ranking on page 2 of Google can be one of the most frustrating places for a business website to be. You're close. Google clearly understands your website. Your page is indexed. You're relevant enough to rank for the keyword. You may even be sitting at positions 11,...
Why Publishing More Blogs Doesn’t Always Improve SEO
If you've ever been told, "Just publish more blog posts," you're not alone. For years, businesses believed that writing as many articles as possible was the secret to ranking on Google. While consistently publishing helpful content is important, more content doesn't...
Why Your Poway Business Isn’t Showing Up on Google Maps
If you own a business in Poway and can't find your company when you search Google Maps, you're probably wondering what you're doing wrong. Maybe your Google Business Profile is completely filled out. You have a website. You've collected some reviews. You know your...