Show up when it matters. Stay there.

Usually one of three things went wrong: the technical foundation was never fixed, so content work couldn't gain traction. Or the content was built for keyword volume instead of buyer intent, so it attracted traffic that didn't convert. Or there wasn't enough patience — the program was evaluated at 60 days instead of 180. We'll tell you which one it probably was when we look at what you have. Most of the time the previous work isn't worthless — it just wasn't finished.

Honest answer: meaningful movement in rankings takes 3–4 months. Meaningful movement in traffic takes 5–6. If you're looking at month one data to decide if SEO is working, you'll make the wrong call. We set clear milestone expectations at the start of every engagement and report against them — so you're not guessing whether progress is happening.

Ranking for your brand name means people who already know you can find you. SEO is about being found by people who don't know you yet — searching "craft gin Chicago" or "organic hot sauce buy online" or "wine tasting Sonoma." That's the traffic that grows the business. Brand search is table stakes. Category search is the opportunity.

Yes — and they work better together. Paid ads show you which keywords convert. SEO lets you earn that traffic without paying for every click. Most brands eventually run both: paid to generate immediate revenue and test messaging, SEO to compound organic traffic over time. If you're only running paid and not building organic, you're renting a channel you could own.

Either. Some clients have internal writers we brief and review. Some clients have no content function at all — we handle it. The Custom tier includes content production. The Standard tier doesn't — but we can add it as a scoped project. We'll figure out what makes sense on the first call.