The Trusted retainer
Every month, more of the ways people look lead to you, and what they find there earns their trust.
Monthly retainer, quoted at discovery.
It starts after Found
Trusted builds on a foundation. Your facts in one place, your profile complete, your site passing the test. I do not start it before that, even for a paying client, because every page I would write needs those facts, and every link I would earn needs a site worth linking to.
Already there? A full audit checks every exit criterion of Found. If they are met, we start here.
Content, one cluster a month
One cluster a month: a main page and four pages around it. Which cluster comes first is chosen from your scorecard, from the ways people look where you were absent, not from a volume target.
Service depth, questions people ask you, and proof pages come first. They are built from your material: what you tell me on a call, your photos, your prices, your rules. Not from a prompt that could have written it for anyone.
Pure how-to content is capped. When someone asks Google how to do something, the AI summary answers, and fewer people click.1 That traffic was never going to call you.
Being talked about
Trust is what others say about you. Google tells its raters that when your own site and reputable outside sources disagree about your business, they should trust the outside sources.2 So the other half of every month is outside your site: citations and directory listings with your exact facts, review velocity under your industry's rules, posts on your Google profile, and links from places that make sense for your trade and your town.
And your socials get fed. Every cluster comes back to you as a pack for the channels you use or want to use: posts, one Google profile post, one email, one short video script, written from the same material. You post. I don't, and nobody at Alchmy posts as you.
Your part each month
At onboarding you get a written time budget: how many minutes a month I need from you, and for what. Usually one call for the cluster's material, a yes on each page before it goes live, and photos when I ask. Nothing goes live that you have not read.
Socials: I treat them as a place your facts must match, and as the channel for the packs above. At onboarding you also get a one-page posting sheet: which kinds of posts work for a local business (the founder story, the before and after, the question you get asked every week, the behind the counter), how often, and what to skip. I do not run them day to day.
Hosting and one batch of edits a month on your site are included, as in every Alchmy retainer.
How it is measured
Your number every month, the same one from Found. Coverage every 90 days, on the same method and the same list, so the line compares. A move smaller than the noise is reported as no change.
When you are ready for Booked
Ads are earned, not sold. Three signs:
- Your number and your coverage trending up on two scorecards in a row.
- Demand proven at the searches a campaign would target.
- Room in your calendar to serve more.
When all three are there, I bring it up. Not before.
Questions I get
- Why not just ads?
- Because a search campaign sends people to the business you are today. Trusted makes that business worth the click. And some of what Trusted earns, ads cannot buy: the reviews, the listings, the places that mention you.
- Do you run my socials?
- No. I make sure they carry the same facts as everything else, and every cluster comes with its pack for the channels you use. Posting is yours, and the sheet shows you how.
- Is this AI content?
- It is written with AI agents I build, from material that is yours: your calls, your photos, your prices, your rules. The agents draft. The facts, the claims limits and the final yes are human: mine, then yours.
Start with your scorecard.
Monthly retainer, quoted at discovery.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears, July 2025. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
- Google, Search Quality Rater Guidelines, September 2025. guidelines.raterhub.com/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf