Field notes

The Digital Horizon Journal

Working notes on SEO, web performance, and the software we build for northern Nevada service businesses.

Code on a dark monitor — the moment you decide whether to write your own or rent someone else's.

01May 4, 202612 min read

Custom Software vs. SaaS: When to Build, When to Buy

The build-vs-buy decision shapes how a small business operates for the next decade. Six scenarios where custom software wins, four scenarios where SaaS is the smarter call, and the warning signs that you've made the wrong choice.

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Abstract data-visualization curves on a dark background — the long compounding line of organic vs. the spike-and-fade of paid.

02May 4, 202611 min read

SEO vs. Paid Ads for Northern Nevada Small Businesses: A Decision Framework

If your marketing budget can only fund one channel, which should it be? A practical framework for Carson, Reno, and Lake Tahoe businesses — when SEO is the right call, when paid ads make more sense, and when running both wastes money.

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Minimal desk with a laptop and notebook in low light — the calm before signing a contract you won't regret.

03May 4, 20269 min read

How to Choose a Web Designer in Carson City: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

Hiring the wrong web designer is expensive twice — once when you pay them, again when you pay someone else to fix the result. Twelve specific questions that separate Carson agencies who deliver from the ones you'll regret signing with.

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A close-up of a smartphone screen showing the icons of multiple AI assistants (ChatGPT, Grok, Meta AI, Gemini) — the new generation of generative engines that compose answers directly instead of returning lists of links.

04Apr 30, 20269 min read

GEO: How to Be the Source AI Search Engines Cite

Search is shifting from "ten blue links" to AI-generated answers — Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. The work of being one of the cited sources is different from traditional SEO. Here's what changes, and what doesn't.

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A topographic map showing contour lines and elevation across mountainous terrain — a visual stand-in for the geographic precision that schema markup brings to local SEO.

05Apr 29, 20268 min read

Schema for Local SEO: How to Tie Your Site to a Specific Geography

Schema markup is the cleanest way to tell Google exactly where you operate, who you are, and what you do — but most service-business sites either skip it or wire it up wrong. Here's the structured-data setup that actually moves rankings, and the location-correlation trap to avoid.

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Vintage computer monitor and disk drives from a museum exhibition — a literal artifact of the era when Google's ranking algorithm was first being built.

06Apr 28, 20269 min read

From PageRank to AI Overviews: 26 Years of Google's Ranking Algorithm

Every major Google update has been a response to a specific way the previous one was being gamed. Read the timeline backward and you can see the shape of where it's headed.

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Long-exposure photograph of glowing light trails on a dark background — an abstract stand-in for the inbound-link metaphor: every credible connection traces a line back to your site.

07Apr 22, 20267 min read

Backlinks Still Matter. Here's How to Earn Them Without Hiring an Agency.

Links are one of the top ranking signals Google still trusts. The good news: you don't need a PR firm or a five-figure budget to earn them — you need a short list of habits and the willingness to stick with it.

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