Insights

Writing that helps Alberta businesses win online

What we have learned filming inside real businesses and getting them found. Plain language, no invented numbers, nothing you need a marketing degree to read.

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AEO: Same work. Different target

AEO NX Century · 5 min read Is AEO different from SEO, or just a rebrand? Mostly the same work, aimed at a different result. Here is the part that genuinely changed and the part that is being sold to you twice. Read now

AEO: Less theory. More checklist

AEO NX Century · 6 min read How do you actually do AEO? A working checklist Most explanations stop at why it matters. This is the list of things to actually change on a site, in the order worth doing them. Read now

AEO: Get named In the answer

AEO NX Century · 6 min read How do you get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini? Nobody outside those companies knows the ranking rules. Here is what is observable, what is guesswork, and what is worth your time regardless. Read now

AEO: It named them. Not you

AEO NX Century · 6 min read Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitors and not me? Usually because it has never been given a reason to know you exist. The fix is unglamorous and mostly not on your website. Read now

AEO: The box Above the links

AEO NX Century · 5 min read How do you rank in Google's AI Overviews? The overview is assembled from pages Google already ranks. Which means the route in is less exotic than it sounds, and the reward is different. Read now

AEO: Fewer clicks. Same demand

AEO NX Century · 5 min read AI Overviews took my traffic. Is my SEO broken? Probably not. But the number you have been measuring has quietly stopped measuring the thing you think it measures, and the fix starts with telling the two apart. Read now

AEO: Llms.txt Honest answer

AEO NX Century · 4 min read What is llms.txt, and does it actually do anything? A proposed file for telling AI systems about your site. Worth an hour. Not worth believing the claims made about it. Read now

AEO: Blocking bots Cuts both ways

AEO NX Century · 5 min read Should you block GPTBot and PerplexityBot? These crawlers do different jobs, and blocking the wrong one removes you from answers you wanted to be in. The distinction most people miss. Read now

AEO: Schema helps. Just not how

AEO NX Century · 5 min read Does schema markup actually get you cited in AI answers? No confirmed causal link. A real practical benefit anyway. Worth understanding the difference before paying someone for it. Read now

AEO: Seven fixes. One afternoon

AEO NX Century · 6 min read Seven AEO fixes most local sites are missing The failures are boringly consistent and almost all fixable in an afternoon. Here they are in the order worth doing. Read now

AEO: It shows Its sources

AEO NX Century · 5 min read How do you get your business mentioned in Perplexity? Perplexity cites its sources openly, which makes it the most diagnosable of the assistants. Use it to work out what is missing. Read now

Analytics: Find the AI traffic

Analytics NX Century · 5 min read How do you track traffic from ChatGPT and AI search in GA4? It arrives lumped in with referral traffic and disappears into the noise. Separating it out takes about fifteen minutes. Read now

AEO: Ask for The evidence

AEO NX Century · 5 min read How do you measure AEO ROI, or is it just a monthly PDF? A lot of AI visibility reporting is unfalsifiable by design. Here is what can actually be measured and what to ask for. Read now

AEO: One page. Beating you

AEO NX Century · 5 min read A weaker competitor is ranking above you in AI answers. Why? A one-page website is beating you and it feels like the system is broken. It usually is not, and the reason is fixable. Read now

AEO: Three names. One order

AEO NX Century · 5 min read AEO, SEO or GEO: which should you actually do first? Three names, heavily overlapping work, and a clear order of operations for a local business with limited time. Read now

Search: Invisible for Your own name

Search NX Century · 6 min read Why doesn't my site show up for my own business name? Alarming, more common than you would think, and almost always one of five specific causes. Work through them in this order rather than guessing at it. Read now

Web: Read the quote Not the number

Web NX Century · 6 min read What should a small business website actually cost? Quotes for the same site vary by more than an order of magnitude. Here is what drives the difference, so you can read a quote properly. Read now

Web: Instagram is Rented ground

Web NX Century · 5 min read Do small businesses still need a website? A lot of businesses run entirely on social and do fine. Here is what they are actually giving up, and when it starts to hurt. Read now

Trades: Word of mouth That scales

Trades NX Century · 6 min read Is social media actually worth it for a trades business? Most contractors get work by word of mouth and wonder why they should bother posting. Posting is word of mouth, running while you sleep. Read now

Local: Missing from The map

Local NX Century · 6 min read Why isn't my business showing up on Google Maps? Legitimate businesses vanish from the map for a small number of specific reasons. Here they are, in the order worth checking. Read now

Local NX Century · 6 min read Google Business Profile verification keeps failing. Now what? Service-area businesses without a storefront get caught in this constantly. What actually gets it through, and what wastes weeks. Read now

Local NX Century · 6 min read Google suspended our profile and denied the appeal Suspension arrives with no explanation and no phone number. What actually moves an appeal, and what to stop doing immediately. Read now

Local: Fake reviews. What works

Local NX Century · 6 min read Can you get fake one-star reviews removed? Sometimes, and the process is narrower than people hope. What actually gets a review taken down, and what to do about the ones that stay. Read now

Local: Asked an AI Who to call

Local NX Century · 5 min read Do AI assistants rank local businesses differently? Different inputs, different outputs. What appears to matter when an assistant recommends a local business, and how it differs from the map pack. Read now

Local: Not just Google

Local NX Century · 5 min read Do you need Bing Places and Apple Business Connect? Both take an afternoon, and neither will bring much direct traffic on its own. The reason to set them up anyway has genuinely changed, and it is not about Bing. Read now

Local: The radius Nobody mentions

Local NX Century · 6 min read How far from your shop can you actually rank on Google Maps? Less far than most businesses assume, and it is the reason your competitor across town seems untouchable. What to do about the limit. Read now

Trades: Film the part Nobody sees

Trades NX Century · 6 min read What should a contractor actually post? A list of things worth filming on a normal job, from someone who films them. No trends, no dancing, nothing that requires you to be a personality. Read now

Trades: Work there. Rank there

Local NX Century · 6 min read How do contractors rank beyond their home city? You work across half the province and only appear in one town. The legitimate routes out, and the shortcut that gets profiles suspended. Read now

Local: City pages. Done properly

Local NX Century · 6 min read Do city landing pages still work in 2026? The templated version stopped working years ago. The version that still works is more effort and much harder to copy. Read now

Search: Do it yourself? Sometimes yes

Search NX Century · 6 min read Do your own SEO or hire someone? An honest breakdown A lot of this is genuinely doable yourself. Here is the part that is, the part that is not, and how to tell if you are being sold nothing. Read now

Red Deer: Flyers still Beat nothing

Red Deer NX Century · 6 min read Flyers or Google? Advertising a small business in Red Deer Local business conversation in Red Deer is still mostly about where to put a flyer. That gap is an opportunity if you are the one who moves first. Read now

Trades: Stop renting Your leads

Trades NX Century · 6 min read Getting off the lead services Shared lead platforms sell the same homeowner to four contractors and let you fight over price. Here is what owning your own lead flow looks like instead. Read now

Alberta: Check this Before you sign

Alberta NX Century · 7 min read Hiring a contractor in Alberta: what to check first WCB coverage, the prepaid contractor licence, what a contract has to spell out and the warning signs worth walking away from. Written for homeowners. Read now

How often should a small business actually post?

Strategy NX Century · 4 min read How often should a small business actually post? Three to five times a week is the honest answer, and consistency beats volume every time. Here is why the number matters less than you think. Read now

Search: Do the work Then ask

Search NX Century · 5 min read How trades businesses actually get more Google reviews Reviews decide who shows up in the map results and who gets called. Most contractors do excellent work and ask for nothing. Read now

Dental: Consent first Then camera

Dental NX Century · 7 min read What a dental clinic can and cannot post Patient content is the strongest material a clinic has and the easiest to get wrong. Consent, privacy and what to film when you cannot film patients. Read now

Dental: Search, map Then reviews

Dental NX Century · 6 min read Where new dental patients actually come from Not the feed, and not the sign outside. For most clinics it is a search, a map result and a set of reviews, in that order. Read now

Search NX Century · 5 min read Why your Google Business Profile beats your website For a local business, the profile decides whether you appear in the map results that sit above every link. Most people never finish setting it up. Read now

Patients: It has been A while

Dental NX Century · 5 min read How to choose a dentist when you are dreading it Written for patients, not clinics. What actually matters when picking somewhere, and what to ask if it has been a long time since your last visit. Read now

Real estate: Video sells The showing

Real estate NX Century · 6 min read Does listing video actually sell a house faster? Video does not sell the house. It sells the showing, and the showing sells the house. Getting that order right changes what you should film. Read now

What content actually brings customers through the door

Craft NX Century · 4 min read What content actually brings customers through the door Plated food, tool shots and stock smiles are the default in most industries. They are also the weakest thing you can post, and here is what replaces them. Read now

Real estate NX Century · 5 min read Why buyers pick an agent before they pick a house Sellers choose an agent from a very short list of people they already trust. Almost none of that decision happens on a listing page. Read now

Creators NX Century · 6 min read What brands actually want from a creator It is rarely the follower count. What gets a creator booked twice is being easy to work with and delivering something the brand can use. Read now

Artists: Instagram is Rented ground

Artists NX Century · 5 min read Do artists still need a website? Instagram is where the audience is. It is also rented, unsearchable and gone the moment an account is locked. Both things are true. Read now

What social media management really costs in Alberta

Money NX Century · 5 min read What social media management really costs in Alberta Packages advertised from a few hundred to several thousand a month, all called the same thing. Here is what actually drives the number. Read now

Events: Fill the room Before the night

Events NX Century · 6 min read How to promote an event when nobody has heard of it A first event has no audience, no proof and no reviews. What you post before it decides whether the room fills. Read now

Events: Get the room Not the stage

Events NX Century · 5 min read What to actually film at an event Most event footage is unusable because it captured the stage and nothing else. A short list of what to get, and when. Read now

Do you need a new website, or just a better one?

Web NX Century · 4 min read Do you need a new website, or just a better one? Rebuilding is often cheaper than fixing, and sometimes it is a waste. Here is how we decide which one to recommend. Read now

AI is answering your customers. Are you in the answer?

Search NX Century · 5 min read AI is answering your customers. Are you in the answer? People increasingly ask ChatGPT for a recommendation instead of scrolling links. Being quoted is a different job from ranking. Read now