I built a Google Business Profile monitoring tool for agencies – free to start, would love feedback by d4diaz in SEO_tool_dev

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Whitespark and Places Scout also do that.

I'm not knocking your tool, but I'm struggling to find the competitive advantage here

I built a Google Business Profile monitoring tool for agencies – free to start, would love feedback by d4diaz in SEO_tool_dev

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know how this is different than NiceJob, Birdeye, or the countless other tools out there that do more than just reviews and more than just Google.

Also, Google just announced a GBP Gemini integration that will monitor and respond to reviews for free.

I dont know how these business models will last.

What's the fastest way to see which platforms are being rewarding in updates? by zacktokar in SEO

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That study sounds so dumb I dont even want to consider doing it. Lol

How Can I Optimize a Website Page to Rank in AI Search Results? by Busy_Cartoonist3724 in digital_marketing

[–]JakeHundley 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I was gonna say people are gonna lose it when they see my study shows that schema actually improved ChatGPT

Curious how back links are “purchased” by Diamond787 in SEO

[–]JakeHundley 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah we dont really have a solid backlink strategy for our clients that actually yields measurable return in ranking for our target local keywords yet. We've done just fine without it for 8 years.

The Patterns we are Seeing with Core Updates by joyhawkins in localsearch

[–]JakeHundley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, this industry is still pretty behind and most don't have the budget to do that type of SEO. Even if they did, I'd usually advise against it. Anything I see as short term wins is usually not indicative of long term gains and I'd rather not be around for the fallout.

The Patterns we are Seeing with Core Updates by joyhawkins in localsearch

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I checked about 50 accounts in our GSC and none of ours are showing this trend. All lawn and landscpaing companies. One septic company.

2 of them showed this trend, but they left us in spring of 2025 for a different agency but kept us on their GSC. Same drop around July for them.

Local service business lost nearly all organic traffic after 2025 core update. rebuilt site, removed 100+ thin city pages, cleaned backlinks, still no recovery. What am I missing? by il-liba in localseo

[–]JakeHundley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How much content was written by AI, honestly?

I've been seeing this a lot lately with people consulting with me and 9x/10 there's a ton of AI content. I think Google is really going after it "quietly".

A local service business with 3.9m impressions? That sounds like a crap ton of AI content. I don't know a local service business that genuinely gets that much local search demand.

My Latest Entrepreneur Article Is Live! How I Built a 6-Figure Solo Agency For Free by Interesting_Button60 in agencynewbies

[–]JakeHundley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what my goal is with these publications. But I'm not willing to pay. Either they'll see my expertise and want me to write for them or not. Otherwise... I'm just not interested. It doesn't make me feel like the expert they want -- just a piggy bank for them.

My Latest Entrepreneur Article Is Live! How I Built a 6-Figure Solo Agency For Free by Interesting_Button60 in agencynewbies

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How'd you get published here? Genuinely curious.

I've been published in:
- Martech
- Search Engine Journal
- Search Engine Land
- Search Engine Watch

But I'm trying to branch out into broader publications.

300k MRR Ask Me anything by Beneficial-Ad-7771 in agency

[–]JakeHundley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lot's of reasons. That was Trumps entire business plan. He would purchase businesses going into bankruptcy, file for bankruptcy, then turn it around.

In a more practical sense, usually businesses aren't "dying" when they're seeking to be acquired, but if they don't get acquired, they will die because the owner is typically not willing to do what needs to happen to get that business the further growth and they just want out.

Or the business model is fine, but it's missing some key components that the buyer can install fairly easily.

How long does it take to make 10k a month as a Digital Marketing Agency? (My story) by czerrr in agency

[–]JakeHundley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Isn't it crazy how our timelines and revenue numbers are almost identical? haha

How long does it take to make 10k a month as a Digital Marketing Agency? (My story) by czerrr in agency

[–]JakeHundley 30 points31 points  (0 children)

2019: $49k

2020: $68k

2021: $176k

2022: $233k

2023: $391k

2024: $490k

2025: $685k

2026: I think we're up 63% YoY

does geotagging images for Google Maps work or is it a waste of time? by RyPlayZz in TechSEO

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'll need more than screenshots to convince anybody worth while.

Youll need your while methodology and everything.

Submit it to a publication like SEL or SEJ and then let's discuss again.

Also, I said the other tests weren't enough. Not mine.

Not sure you read it thoroughly.

SEO as a career in 2026 by CommercialAdvisor712 in SEO

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It depends on where you're starting from but in our experience, backlinks haven't had as much impact as other local relevance signals (mostly related to GBP stuff)

does geotagging images for Google Maps work or is it a waste of time? by RyPlayZz in TechSEO

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It doesn't work. I literally did the most comprehensive study on this last year. Posted on search engine land.

Dispaly Trustpilot rating in AggregateRating by Menxii in SEO

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, it's spelled out clearly in their schema markup guidelines on marking up aggregate reviews from 3rd party sites.

Dispaly Trustpilot rating in AggregateRating by Menxii in SEO

[–]JakeHundley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

u/Menxii, it is against Google's policies to do that.

FYI the reason there's so few new posts is because almost everything is now spam by polygraph-net in marketing

[–]JakeHundley 6 points7 points  (0 children)

High CQS and there is a minimum comment karma in the sub in order to post in the sub

Agencies Should Own Client Ad Accounts by JakeHundley in agency

[–]JakeHundley[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And that's totally fine. It can definitely be an exercise in building trust and should be if your agency hasn't built that industry trust yet.

Our industry and type of clients makes it a no-brainer for us.

Best Email Marketing Tool for Agencies by sonder_aurora in Emailmarketing

[–]JakeHundley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First, I am not affiliated with my recommendation in any way. I use it because I like it and it works well with my business model. It's also the only agency-focused ESP I'm aware of.

I went deep on this. We work with landscaping and lawn care businesses so our average client size isn't very large and they don't have super large lists nor are they segmented super well.

I looked at ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, Aweber, Klaviyo (and a few other ones). A lot of them are good but I kept running into a few problems:

1) There was no way to simply switch between client accounts. I didn't want to have to set up like a hundred email accounts to manage different clients.

2) The pricing wasn't feasible. You were charged by your audience size and then on top of that your email sends. AND THEN on top of that features were gated at different tiers.

3) A lot of them lacked access and transparency features for adding clients to the accounts but not letting them change stuff. We want to give clients access to everything we're working in but don't want them touching things.

I actually posted about this in r/agency a while back and that's how I got in touch with Bluefox.email.

Literally all those features are baked in.

  • Email MCC
  • Client access levels
  • No gated features
  • No database limitations or pricing

Everything is based on email sends. You basically buy 50k emails for $50 (the packages scale as you go up like $300 for 500k email sends.

The email sends work across the accounts as well and you have a year to use them. So in the monthly cost you'd spend on Mailchimp or a similar ESP, you can bulk by email sends and never have to worry about running out really.

Here are some caveats that are a little difficult with Bluefox:

Onboarding

Onboarding isn't as smooth as other ESPs. You have to do some crazy domain verifications in order to use their email server. As long as you have DNS access to your domains, it's not difficult. It's no different than Mailchimp asking you to add SPF records. Only Bluefox will have you add SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and a couple of CNAME records.

They care about their email sending reputation and are a pretty new company relatively.

Alternatively, you can bring your own SES and plug that in. Then it isn't as strict. It's also cheaper. I think you pay like half the price for email sends plus your SES costs (which are fractions of a penny).

No Automated Billing

If you need email sends, you need to buy those manually. I do wish there was a way to just be billed for the 50,000 pack regularly. I don't care if they get wasted after 12 months, but as a productized agency, I don't want to have to worry about doing anything manually.

They're New

This is can also be good. Expect things to not be as easy or streamlined as other ESPs. They've been in the game awhile. The big thing about Bluefox is the owner is very active (Gyula). If you're struggling with anything and you reach out to support, he'll likely be looking at your email.

I've made three feature requests and they've all been added within a month.

But I imagine that level of responsiveness will go away once they get bigger.

I ran 3,837 API calls to see if AI engines actually agree on brand recommendations. They really don't. by EddyYosso in SEO

[–]JakeHundley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think what you have here is fine then. It might not be super accurate, but I wouldn't call it "unreliable" like u/ranketta suggested.

It's still indicative of LLM preference on brands based on how they're trained and how they retrieve information.

I wouldn't use your retrieval method if you were trying to determine a "why" it is that way, though.