Not a sales rep, not a junior, not a team overseas. One person, every client. I started in 2018 helping a Tampa jeweler show up on Google. They’re still a client. That tells you most of what you need to know.
I kept watching Tampa businesses pay agencies for reports instead of results. So I built the opposite: one person, five numbers, no contracts.
A Tampa jeweler wanted to show up on Google. I did the work myself and could explain every number that moved. Still can. Still do.
Finance from SMU, then the Semrush certifications. Numbers first, always. Mavilo Wholesalers became a client and never left.
Business school on top of the SEO. Useful for one thing above all: pricing that is fair, clear and set by your Domain Authority, not your budget.
The question changed from “do we rank on Google” to “do we show up in ChatGPT.” Every client is now tracked on both, in a portal they can open any time.
No account manager, no ticket queue. The person on the call is the person doing the work, and you have my direct line.
Every strategy runs on connorcedro.com before it touches a client site. This site ranks for 1,217 keywords. That is the proving ground.
Authority, traffic, keywords, referring domains, page-one keywords. If a 5th grader can’t read it, it is not on your report.
No contract, ever. Clients stay because the numbers go up, not because a document says they have to.
Every client gets a private portal with these five, updated as the work happens. Same five the free quiz pulls for you.
How much Google trusts your site, 1 to 100. Trust comes from good sites linking to you.
Visits from Google each month, without ads.
Searches your site shows up for on Google.
Different websites that link to yours. Each one is a vote for you.
Searches where you are on Google’s first page. That is where the clicks are.
The honest answer: I started building websites to teach myself, ended up reverse-engineering why some of them ranked and others didn't, and realized SEO was the most leverage-per-hour skill in marketing. Most channels stop working when you stop paying. SEO compounds. Five years later, that compounding is what I sell – for clients and for connorcedro.com itself, which is the proving ground for every technique before it touches a client account.
For most businesses under a few hundred employees, the math favors a solo consultant. Agencies route accounts through junior staff and account managers; you pay the senior rate and get the junior output. With me, you get the same person doing the strategy, the writing, the technical work, and answering your texts. The trade-off: I can't scale to twenty accounts at once. That's why the client list is intentionally small and the engagement cadence is direct.
Anyone looking for a 90-day miracle, anyone whose intake or operations can't absorb more leads, and anyone in a category where the right move is paid ads (e.g., very seasonal businesses, brand-new sites with no domain authority, or commoditized products where margins won't support content investment). Saying no to those engagements early saves both of us time. The right fit is established or near-established businesses with real margins, decent operations, and a willingness to invest for 9-12 months.
Yes, but not the way most people mean. AI helps with research, outlining, and first-pass drafts. It does not write the final published version. Every piece of content that goes on a client site gets human-edited for accuracy, tone, and the specific market context the AI doesn't have. Pure AI-generated content is recognizable, ranks poorly for competitive terms, and is exactly the kind of thing Google's quality systems are trained to filter. Used well, AI is a productivity multiplier. Used badly, it produces the same generic content thousands of other sites are publishing.
Week one is the SEMrush audit and competitive analysis. Week two is the action plan and the kickoff call where we agree on keyword priorities and content topics. From there, monthly cadence: I deliver content, technical fixes, and link work; you review the published assets and approve next month's plan. A 30-minute strategy call once a month for ongoing direction. Direct text or email access in between for anything urgent. No layered approval chains, no waiting on account managers – you ask, I answer, the work moves.
Don't see your question? Book a free audit and I'll answer it directly.
Type in your website. Thirty seconds later you have your Domain Authority, five key numbers, a printable audit, a free call and your package. No email needed to see the score.