Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on what you choose. Presence is a one-time $1,499 website build — we build and host a fast, professional site with a basic contact form and Google Business Profile setup, and you own it. No monthly fees. Growth ($499/mo) adds 2 blog posts and 8 social media posts published to your profiles every month. Authority ($899/mo) expands to 4 blog posts per month, up to 20 social posts, a formal keyword strategy, and a quarterly SEO review — plus you can text us job photos and details for 3 custom posts a month with a 48-hour turnaround. The monthly plans deliver finished, published content — not drafts sitting in a shared folder waiting for you to do something with them.

Both — and we think that's the right answer. We use AI-assisted tools to research, draft, and structure content efficiently. Every piece is then reviewed and revised by a human with knowledge of the Metro East Illinois market, your trade type, and the kind of language that resonates with local homeowners. We don't publish raw AI output. We publish content that sounds local, reads naturally, and is accurate to your service. The tools handle volume; the judgment handles quality.

Yes — we serve HVAC and heating companies, plumbers, roofers, auto detailers, electricians, landscapers, pressure washers, general contractors, pest control operators, and painters. The content we write varies significantly between trades: an HVAC post about furnace efficiency reads very differently from a roofing post about storm damage. We adjust tone, terminology, and topic to fit your trade, so the content sounds like it came from your business.

Your website goes live within the first week. The harder question is search rankings: content SEO takes time. Blog posts typically begin gaining traction in Google's index within 3–6 months, and compounding visibility builds over 6–12 months of consistent publishing. We don't promise specific timelines or ranking positions — anyone who does is guessing. What we can promise is consistent, quality content published every month, which is the prerequisite for any organic growth.

It depends on the package. On Presence, we can rebuild your existing site on a faster, cleaner platform or work with what you have if it's in reasonable shape. On Growth and Authority, we evaluate your current site during onboarding — if it's on a platform that makes regular content publishing difficult, we'll recommend rebuilding. If it's functional and modern, we can publish new blog content directly to it. We'll give you a clear recommendation after the discovery call with no obligation.

Minimally. We need one onboarding call — typically 30–45 minutes — to gather your business details, service offerings, tone preferences, and any topics you want us to focus on or avoid. After that, we handle everything: research, writing, design, scheduling, and publishing. You don't approve posts before they go out, you don't manage a content calendar, you don't send us monthly updates. If something changes — new services, new service area, address change — just let us know and we update accordingly.

We serve trades businesses across Metro East Illinois: Collinsville, Belleville, O'Fallon, Edwardsville, Fairview Heights, Shiloh, Glen Carbon, Troy, Highland, Hamel, Bethalto, and Maryville. If your business is in Madison or St. Clair County and your city isn't listed, reach out anyway — we may be able to serve you.

On the monthly plans there's an initial 3-month commitment — the minimum time needed to build your site, establish your content baseline, and begin seeing meaningful output. There's no setup fee: your first payment is due before we build, and your next payment comes one month after your site goes live. After the initial term, billing is month-to-month with 30 days notice to cancel. The one-time Presence build has no commitment at all — pay once, and the site is yours.

A freelancer is one person — a writer, or a designer, or an SEO specialist. When you hire a freelancer, you're managing a person: giving direction, reviewing drafts, handling revisions, making sure they post it. Cornerstone is a system: keyword strategy, writing, design, publishing, and ongoing SEO rolled into one monthly subscription. You don't manage us. We deliver the output. If your freelance writer goes dark for a month, nothing gets published. With Cornerstone, the machine keeps running.

Emergency search intent is different from any other type of local search. When a homeowner's AC fails on a July night, they search, they call the first result that looks credible, and they book. There's no long consideration phase. That means the businesses that show up first get a disproportionate share of jobs — and consistently publishing content is the single most effective way to show up first. Trades owners also have the least time to do any marketing themselves. The business that has a great content presence is almost never the one that the owner built — it's the one that outsourced it.