The Fix Scale Grow blog
Notes from building sites, ranking local businesses and running ads, written as we go.
15 articles, newest first
SEO · 8 min readBy Faith Rogers · August 22, 2026Ranking for the Wrong Keywords Feels Like Winning. It Isn’t.
A report full of green arrows and a phone that doesn’t ring means someone chose the searches because they were easy to win, not because your customers make them. Here is how to tell the difference.
Read it →Who Owns Your Google Accounts When You Leave an Agency?
Your Business Profile, your Ads account, your analytics and your domain should be in your name, with the agency as a guest. Here is how to check each one in ten minutes, and what to do if it is the other way round.
By Amanda Knowlton · August 21, 2026SEO · 8 min readThirty Pages With the City Name Swapped Is Not Local SEO
If your agency built you a page for every town within fifty miles and the only difference is the place name, Google has a name for that, and it is not a compliment. Here is how to tell, and what a real city page contains.
By Faith Rogers · August 20, 2026Working With an Agency · 7 min readWhy You Stop Hearing From Your Agency After Month Two
The sales calls were great. Then the account went quiet. Here is why that happens, what it usually means, and the three things to ask for before you sign with anyone.
By Amanda Knowlton · August 19, 2026SEO · 8 min readNobody Can Guarantee You a Ranking. Here Is What You Can Hold Us To.
“Page one in 90 days, guaranteed” is the most common promise in this industry and the least honest. Google says so. Here is what a realistic timeline looks like and what you should hold an SEO to instead.
By Faith Rogers · August 18, 2026Working With an Agency · 8 min readYour Marketing Report Should Answer Three Questions. Most Don’t.
If you finish your monthly report and still don’t know what you spent, what you got, and what changes next, the report failed. Here is what to ask for, and what Google says you are owed.
By Amanda Knowlton · August 17, 2026Local Search · 6 min readLocal Services Ads vs Google Ads: Which One Should You Fund First?
Pay per lead or pay per click? When Local Services Ads beat a search campaign, when they don’t, and how I split the budget between them on real accounts.
By Kyle Rogers · July 28, 2026Local SEO · 6 min readWhat Moves the Map Pack in 2026
Relevance, distance and prominence is Google’s answer. Here is the short list of changes that produced measurable movement in the accounts we manage this year.
By Kyle Rogers · July 11, 2026Strategy · 6 min readThe 14-Point Audit We Run Before Taking Any Client
The exact order we work through to find out whether a business has an SEO problem, a website problem, an ads problem, or an operations problem in disguise.
By Kyle Rogers · June 19, 2026AI Search · 6 min readGetting Cited by AI Answer Engines Without Writing More Filler
AI Overviews and chat assistants pull from a narrower set of pages than classic search. What makes a local business page quotable, and what gets it skipped.
By Kyle Rogers · May 30, 2026Working With an Agency · 6 min readTransparency in Marketing: What You Are Owed and How to Check It
See what was spent, what it produced and who owns the accounts, without asking twice. What Google requires of agencies, and how we go further.
By Kyle Rogers · March 19, 2026Strategy · 6 min read12 Data Checks Every Business Owner Should Run on Their Marketing
Twelve checks you can run yourself, in your own accounts, in under an hour, that show whether your marketing is measured honestly and where the money goes.
By Kyle Rogers · March 10, 2026Conversion · 6 min readHidden Marketing Leaks: Where the Money Goes and How to Find It
Most marketing budgets lose a third of their value before a lead reaches you. The six leaks I find most often, how to spot each, and the order to fix them.
By Kyle Rogers · March 5, 2026Strategy · 7 min readWhy Cookie-Cutter Marketing Fails Small Businesses
Packaged plans look efficient and fail the same way: the work is aimed at the package rather than your phone. What a plan built for one business looks like.
By Kyle Rogers · February 12, 2026Local SEO · 6 min read7 Overlooked SEO Wins That Still Move Local Rankings
Seven fixes I find undone on most local business sites, each backed by Google’s own documentation and each more likely to move the phone than another post.
By Kyle Rogers · January 25, 2026Want this applied to your accounts?
The articles are the short version. The diagnostic is the version aimed at your business.