The questions most people ask — answered.

I'm based in San Luis Obispo County and work with small businesses across the Central Coast — San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, and Santa Barbara — plus selected clients statewide in California and nationally when the fit is right. The work is the same either way: clean websites, honest SEO, measurable advertising.

Send me a link to your site and any current marketing, and I'll send back a written review of what's working, what's broken, and where the biggest opportunities sit — usually within three business days. No meeting required to get that first look. If the fit feels right after you read it, we book a call to talk specifics. Start a free audit →

No long-term contracts. Project work (website builds, audits) is fixed-scope with a defined price and delivery date. Monthly work (SEO, paid ads, analytics) runs month-to-month with 30 days notice to cancel — the work has to keep earning the relationship. If you're getting value, you stay. If you're not, you shouldn't be locked in.

Most small business custom websites fall between $3,500 and $12,000, split across two tiers. Standard custom builds ($3,500–$8,000) cover smaller sites where the brand is already in place and content is largely ready. Larger custom builds ($8,000–$12,000) cover sites with 20+ pages, e-commerce, brand-development work, or content production support. You get a fixed quote up front — no hourly surprises. If I'm rebuilding an existing site, I map every URL with traffic so rankings hold through the redesign. Learn more about custom web design →

Most small business SEO engagements run $750 to $1,500 per month. Single-location local campaigns sit at the lower end; multi-location or competitive markets sit higher. One-time audits are project-priced separately. SEO is a compounding investment, not an expense — pages ranking now keep earning traffic for years. I model realistic numbers for your situation during the audit, not an industry average. Learn more about SEO services →

Local SEO for a single-location business in San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara County typically runs $750 to $1,500 per month. Multi-location or competitive service categories cost more. The work covers Google Business Profile, local citations, location-specific page content, reviews strategy, and local schema. Pricing always reflects scope, not a packaged tier — I quote after seeing your current footprint. See local SEO for SLO →

Management fee runs $650–$1,000/mo — lower for single-platform Search-only, upper for multi-platform with creative testing and full-funnel tracking. Ad spend is separate, paid directly to Google on your account; most accounts run $500–$2,500/mo in spend depending on vertical and goals. The specific number comes out of the free audit. Learn more about paid advertising →

Management fee runs $650–$1,000/mo — lower for single-platform Search-only, upper for multi-platform with creative testing and full-funnel tracking. Ad spend is separate, paid directly to Meta on your account; most accounts run $500–$2,500/mo in spend depending on vertical and goals. The specific number comes out of the free audit. Learn more about paid advertising →

There's no single right number — it depends on your stage, your category, and how aggressive you want to grow. As a working frame: most small businesses I work with run a combined budget across some mix of SEO ($750–$1,500/mo), paid management fee ($650–$1,000/mo), and ad spend ($500–$2,500/mo paid directly to Google or Meta). Newer businesses building demand spend more relative to revenue; established businesses with a steady customer base can spend less and lean on retention. A single percentage is shorthand, not a plan — your actual number depends on your category, growth stage, and what's already working. Start a free audit →

PPC management — covering Google Ads, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), or both — runs $650–$1,000/mo in management fee, with ad spend separate and paid directly to the platform on your account. No markup on ad spend — every dollar you spend goes to the platform, not to me as a media commission. Lower end of the fee covers single-platform setups (most often Search-only Google Ads). Upper end covers multi-platform accounts with creative testing, full-funnel conversion tracking, and ongoing landing-page work. For platform-specific ranges, see How much do Google Ads cost (Q7) and How much do Meta ads cost (Q8). The specific number lands inside one of these ranges after the free audit. Learn more about paid advertising →

Most custom builds take 4 to 8 weeks from kickoff to launch, once content and branding are locked in. Simpler sites move faster; e-commerce or multi-location sites take longer. The biggest variable is content — if you need copywriting or photography, that adds time. I build on WordPress, Squarespace, or Shopify so you can edit text, swap images, and add posts after launch without me. Learn more about custom web design →

Early movement — new pages indexing, technical fixes taking effect — usually shows in 4 to 8 weeks. Meaningful traffic and lead growth lands at 3 to 6 months, longer in competitive markets. On the Central Coast, local SEO often moves faster than national SEO because the competitive set is smaller. SEO compounds: the work done this quarter keeps producing results next year. Learn more about SEO services →

High-intent search campaigns usually produce leads within the first two weeks — people actively looking for your service click and convert quickly. The first 30 to 60 days is the learning phase while the algorithm gathers data and I tune bids, keywords, and copy. Every call, form, and booking is tracked back to the keyword that caused it, so you see exactly what's working from day one. Learn more about paid advertising →

Yes, if you want customers to find you, trust you, and book you without friction. Most buyers research a business online before contacting it — even when the lead came from a referral. A simple, fast, mobile-friendly site that answers the obvious questions and makes contact easy beats a bigger site that does neither. If you're in services, a website is the cheapest salesperson you'll ever hire.

For most local service businesses, yes — once the basics are in place. SEO is worth it when your customers actively search for what you sell, your average customer is worth more than ~$500 in lifetime value, and you can wait 3 to 6 months for compounding returns. It's not worth it if you need leads next week (run ads instead) or if no one searches for your category. Anyone guaranteeing #1 rankings is selling you something other than SEO.

Look for four things: fixed-price quotes (not hourly surprises), measurement shipped by default (GA4 setup, conversion tracking, a real dashboard — not just "we'll send a report"), no long contracts, and case studies with actual numbers attached. Ask to see a live client dashboard before you sign. If they can't show you how the work gets measured, the work probably isn't getting measured.

Paid ads first if you need leads in the next 30 days; SEO first if you have 3 to 6 months of runway and want compounding returns. Most small businesses do both — ads to fill the pipeline immediately while SEO builds the long-term asset that keeps producing without ongoing spend. The honest answer depends on your cash flow, your category's search volume, and how patient your business model is. Learn more about paid advertising → or SEO services →

Google Ads catches demand — people actively searching for what you sell, ready to buy. Meta catches attention — people scrolling who didn't know they wanted you yet. Google works for service categories where customers actively search (legal, medical, home services, plumbing). Meta works for discovery-driven categories (wineries, events, restaurants, lifestyle brands). Run both when your category supports both. The platform decision is about where your customers already are, not which platform is "better."

Yes, when the account is set up cleanly and the budget matches the category. The trick is matching campaign type to intent — high-intent Search campaigns work for service categories where customers actively look (legal, medical, home services, plumbing); Performance Max and Shopping work for product categories with clear margin math. A recent Central Coast home services account closed Q3 2025 at 11x ROAS ($80,530 in revenue from $7,270 in spend) — above average for service-area businesses but achievable when conversion tracking and account structure are clean. Google Ads stop working when the budget is too low for the algorithm to optimize against meaningful conversion data, when the landing page can't convert, or when the account is left to autopilot. Learn more about paid advertising →

Each month covers:

• Technical maintenance and cleanup — broken links, schema, page speed, indexing
• Keyword and topic research, plus on-page content improvements
• Local signals — Google Business Profile, citations, review prompts
• AI-search optimization — direct-answer formatting, FAQ schema, citation positioning
• A written report showing exactly what was done and what moved

No busywork PDFs of "errors" that never get fixed — the work is the deliverable. See the full SEO services page →

SEO ranks your site in the blue-link results. AI search optimization (called GEO or AEO depending on who you ask) gets your business cited as the answer when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews. The underlying work overlaps — strong content, clean technical foundations, topical authority — but AI search rewards specific formats: direct answers, structured Q&A, schema markup, and cited sources. I build for both. Learn more about SEO services →

Five things move the needle: structure answers as direct first sentences (AI engines extract the lead), publish FAQ pages with proper schema markup, get cited on third-party sites the AI engines already trust (industry directories, press, podcasts), keep your business facts consistent across the web (name, address, services), and make your numbers easy to extract — specific prices and timeframes get cited more than vague ranges.

Yes — local search is the core of the work for most clients across SLO County and Santa Barbara County, including San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Santa Maria. The work covers Google Business Profile optimization, local citations, location-specific service pages, local schema, and reviews strategy. I know which signals move rankings in each market. See local SEO for SLO →