It’s funny how sometimes the biggest lessons in SEO come from the smallest clients. We once worked with this little family-run coffee truck—nothing fancy, no flashy logo, just great espresso and a loyal morning crowd. They reached out because someone told them they “needed SEO,” and they had no idea what that meant. Honestly, I think they thought it was some sort of Google membership.
We started with the basics. Built out their Google Business Profile. Wrote a few landing pages that sounded more like them than a marketing intern. We found that the phrase “coffee near Scottsdale Civic Center” had just enough volume to matter, and we didn’t overthink it.
One thing I’ve learned—people don’t care about technical jargon. They care about being found. And they want to know that when someone types “best espresso truck in Old Town”, there’s a chance their name might pop up. That someone might show up not because of luck, but because the internet was finally listening.
We didn’t use AI-generated content. No spun articles, no cheap backlinks. Just real words. Their words. Their story. And after a while, it started to work. One of our favorite tools, Ahrefs, showed their branded search volume tick up. Not a lot. But enough to smile about.
A few months in, the owner sent us a text: “Some guy said he drove 20 minutes just to try our mocha. He said he saw us online.” That was the moment that hit different. That’s when I remembered—we’re not just tweaking tags and pushing keywords. We’re helping someone’s livelihood get noticed. We’re part of someone else’s leap of faith.
I’ve read a hundred blog posts on “SEO strategies that still work in 2024”. Most of them feel cold. This work isn’t cold. It’s emotional. It’s messy. It involves explaining to a 60-year-old bakery owner why her blog post about cinnamon rolls needs a meta description.
But if I’ve learned anything at Scottsdale SEO Pro, it’s this: SEO isn’t a secret formula. It’s showing up again and again, fixing what’s broken, writing what matters, and making sure the people who should see you… actually can.
The rankings will come. But trust? That’s what we build first.
