My Awesome SEO Blog

By Jen Ruhman, Owner of Jen Ruhman SEO Quick Answer: How Do You Build Local SEO Without Keyword Stuffing? You build local relevance by clearly demonstrating where you operate and who you serve, not by repeating city names unnaturally. Google looks for consistent,...

By Jen Ruhman, Owner of Jen Ruhman SEO Quick Answer: What Are the Most Important SEO Lessons From Competitive Markets? After working with businesses in competitive San Diego industries, the biggest SEO lessons are: strategy matters more than activity intent matters...

Choosing an SEO company can be difficult because almost every provider promises some version of the same thing: More rankings. More traffic. More leads. More visibility. The problem is that those promises don’t tell you much about how the company actually works. If...

Quick Answer: What Should Happen During the First Month of SEO? The first month of working with an SEO company should typically include: Understanding your business and goals Establishing baseline SEO performance Reviewing Google Search Console and Analytics Technical...

By Jen Ruhman, Owner of Jen Ruhman SEO Quick Answer: How Can You Tell If an SEO Company Truly Understands Local SEO? A real local SEO expert understands how search engines evaluate geographic relevance, local search intent, and proximity signals. They should be able...

  What a 6-Month SEO Plan Should Look Like for a San Diego Business By Jen Ruhman, Owner of Jen Ruhman SEO If you’re hiring someone to handle SEO for your business, you should have some idea of what they’re actually going to do. SEO shouldn’t be six months of:...

An SEO audit should do more than generate a list of errors. It should tell you why your website is struggling, where the strongest opportunities are, and what should be fixed first. That distinction matters. I’ve worked in SEO for more than 20 years, and one thing...

If your business travels to customers instead of serving them at a traditional storefront, Local SEO works a little differently. Plumbers, electricians, roofers, landscapers, cleaners, mobile service providers and many contractors fall into what Google calls a...

If you've ever checked your Google Maps ranking from your office and thought, “Great, I'm #1,” there's an important question I would ask next: #1 from where? Local search results can change depending on where the person searching is located. A business may appear...

You search for one of your important keywords and see your business sitting near the top of Google Maps. Great. Then you scroll down to the regular organic search results…and your website is nowhere to be found. I see this with local businesses all the time. It can...

Not every SEO relationship works the same way. Some businesses hire an SEO provider primarily to complete a defined list of tasks. Others want someone who becomes more involved in strategy, priorities, performance, and ongoing decisions. I think of these as two...

If you’re trying to improve your Google rankings, it’s easy to end up with a very long list of things you’re supposedly required to do. Publish more blogs. Get more backlinks. Add more keywords. Post on your Google Business Profile. Improve your website speed. Add...

SEO Red Flags That Tell Me a Business Hired the Wrong Agency If you’re already paying for SEO and quietly wondering whether it’s actually working, that feeling is worth paying attention to. I’ve had business owners come to me after months — sometimes longer — of...

Yes. I’d keep this one substantial because “why did my Google rankings drop?” is a strong standalone problem/diagnostic intent. Here’s the full replacement I’d use. Why Did My Google Rankings Drop? 9 Things to Check Before You Panic Seeing a Google ranking drop can be...