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SEO · Charleston, SC
Google changed the rules again in March 2026. ChatGPT and Perplexity added their own rules. Ranking today takes real content about the work you actually do, honest technical setup, and proof that you're a real business — not keyword tricks from 2015.
How to pick · worksheet
Five questions that separate real SEO from the 2015 playbook.
If the answer is 'AI-generated briefs passed to offshore writers,' walk away. The 2024 and 2026 Google updates specifically target that stack. Real ranking content takes someone who understands the business writing about the actual work.
If they mention 'guest posts at scale,' 'link packages,' or 'PBNs,' run. The only links that hold up in 2026 are earned — local press, partnerships, real directory citations. Everything else is a ticking time bomb.
A real share of searches now get answered inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews without a click. If the agency has no plan for that, they're optimizing for a shrinking pie.
If the SEO agency's own site ranks for nothing competitive, that's the answer. Not a gotcha — just signal.
Anything faster than 3–6 months on a new site is either a lie or a penalty waiting to happen. Short-term wins on established sites (technical fixes, content gaps) are real. Ranking #1 for a head term in 60 days is not.
Side-by-side · evaluation
Service area · Lowcountry
Pick a city for a version of this page that speaks to that market directly — local benchmarks, competitor context, and relevant case studies.
FAQ · common questions
Next steps
Send the URL and a sentence about where you’re stuck. We’ll come back with a short written take and — if it’s a fit — a 30-minute call to walk through scope and sequencing.