The recipe box · free refills
These are the SEO recipes we use on client sites, written in plain English so you can cook them yourself: how to get found on Google, how to get recommended by ChatGPT and Claude, and how to build your name online. We study this stuff obsessively and keep adding cards as we learn — no email gate, no “ultimate guide” PDF, no catch.
yes, actually free. steal them ↓Most local SEO advice overcomplicates it. Google mostly rewards pages that say plainly what they are, to people plainly looking for that thing.
Recipe No. 01●●○
A page that targets two searches at once wins neither. Pick the single search a page should win — and give every other service its own page.
If your title says “Plumbing & HVAC,” split it. Two focused pages beat one split one.
Recipe No. 02●●○
Your page's web address, browser title, main heading, and very first sentence should all carry the same plain phrase a customer would search. Clever headlines lose to clear ones — the match is what ranks.
First sentence test: does it name what you do and where? “Welcome to our website” fails.
Recipe No. 03●○○
A web address like /services/page2 tells Google nothing. /water-heater-repair tells it everything. Slug length was never the problem — emptiness is.
Renaming an old page's address? Set up a redirect from the old one so existing links keep working.
Recipe No. 04●●●
Target the searches of people ready to buy — and once they land, spend about 80% of the page on why you, not on educating them about the service. They already know what a drain cleaning is; they don't know why it should be you.
Count your paragraphs: how many argue for your business vs. explain the trade? Rebalance.
Recipe No. 05●●○
Write down the exact vocabulary of what you sell — and use it consistently on the page, your Google profile, your socials, everywhere. Saying “power washing” one place and “pressure cleaning” another splits your identity in Google's eyes.
Make a one-page “language sheet” of your 10 core terms. Everything you publish uses those words.
Recipe No. 06●●●
For “near me” searches, an optimized Google Business Profile outweighs any change on your website. It's the single highest-impact hour of local SEO work there is — categories, photos, hours, and steady reviews.
Claim it today if you haven't. Then answer every review, good and bad, like a human.
Your next customer may never see a results page — they'll ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or Siri who to call, and get one answer. These recipes get you into it.
Recipe No. 07●●○
AI assistants build answers by lifting clear, standalone sentences from pages. Every section of your site should open with one: what it is, where, for whom — a sentence that works even quoted alone.
“In today's fast-paced world…” gets skipped. “We repair water heaters across the Valley, same day” gets quoted.
Recipe No. 08●●●
The fastest AI-search audit is free: ask ChatGPT and Claude the questions your customers would ask — “best [your trade] in [your town]?” — and see who gets named and why. The pages they cite show you exactly what to imitate.
Run 3–5 buyer questions today, save the answers, and re-run them monthly to track your progress.
Recipe No. 09●●○
Assistants rewrite a customer's rambling question into short, flat search phrases — and pages matching those phrases win. Write your headings the way a stressed customer types, not the way a brochure talks.
A visible FAQ with real questions ("Do you charge for estimates?") is assistant food. Add one.
Recipe No. 10●●●
Invented review counts, fake ratings, and stuffed keywords are exactly the things search engines and assistants are best at catching — and penalizing. Real reviews, real credentials, real service areas only.
No reviews yet? Ask your last five happy customers today. Five real stars beat fifty fake ones forever.
Rankings follow reputation. A brand-new website with zero mentions ranks for nothing — these recipes build the mentions, links, and recognition that make everything else work.
Recipe No. 11●●○
New site, new service, new service area, new van — post it on your Google profile, LinkedIn, Instagram, all of it, every time. Links are scarcer than they used to be, so clicks and shares now carry real weight as signals.
Launching something? Before it's "old news," write the three-sentence announcement and post it everywhere at once.
Recipe No. 12●○○
Real businesses appear in directories — general ones and your industry's own. Each listing is a mention, a link, and a consistency signal. Track every submission in a spreadsheet (site, email used, login, description) so a rebrand never strands stale listings.
One directory a week. Same business name, same phone, same description — from your language sheet — every time.
Recipe No. 13●●●
Platforms like Source of Sources, HARO, and Featured send out daily requests from journalists looking for expert quotes. Answer one a day — lead with why you're the expert, don't pitch — and the published article links back to you. It's the most systematic link-building there is.
Funnel all three platforms' emails into one folder. One good answer a day, five minutes, compounding forever.
Recipe No. 14●●○
A small free tool, a price guide, real local data — something useful enough that people link to it without being asked. Expect steady niche links, not viral millions, and describe it in your niche's vocabulary so the authority lands on your topic.
Ours is the missed call cost calculator — free, useful, and yes, this card is also us practicing the recipe.
Recipe No. 15●○○
Once or twice a month, write about what your business actually did — a job you're proud of, a new area, a new service. Don't chase keywords with it; your service pages do the ranking work. The blog proves you're alive and feeds your announcements.
Last interesting job you finished? That's this month's post. Three photos and 200 honest words.
Recipe No. 16●●○
Spreading across every service and suburb from day one splits your authority thin. Dominate your strongest service in your home area first — then expand into neighbors, one page at a time, once the mentions and links accumulate.
Pick the one search that makes you the most money. Win that. Everything else comes second.
Because none of it is secret — it's just work. Some owners will cook these recipes themselves and never need us; genuinely, good luck and enjoy the rankings. Most discover they'd rather run their business than run a content calendar. That's the job we're for: every recipe on this page is included in every Ah Web Oh! plan, done for you, month after month. And this box keeps growing — when we learn a new trick that works, it gets a card.
Book a free 15-minute call. We'll look at your site together, tell you honestly which recipes it's missing — and you can take the list and do it yourself, or let us handle the whole kitchen.