What’s old is new as location pages and fundamental optimization drive results in the AI era
Chuck McHenry owner of Gecko Powerwash in CA has been doing SEO since 2004, and after two decades in the game, he’s seeing a fascinating shift: the basic tactics that worked years ago are becoming the secret weapons of today’s most successful local businesses. He discussed his viewpoint on a recent episode of Jeremy Rivera‘s Unscripted SEO podcast
Everything old is new again.
Chuck McHenry has witnessed the complete evolution of SEO, from the wild west days of 2004 to today’s AI-dominated landscape. His journey from a naive medical supply entrepreneur who thought “once I launched, I was like, all right, where are all the sales at?” to running successful home service businesses offers a unique perspective on what actually works in modern local SEO.
After two decades in the game, Chuck has made a striking observation: “It’s kind of like how we used to joke a lot like, you know, your fashion, it’s going to come back in style… Well, kind of the same thing’s happening in the SEO industry and the marketing industry, especially for local SEO, where everyone’s getting back to kind of like the basics now, because that’s what’s working in the industry.”
Location Pages: The Forgotten Goldmine
The most powerful revelation from Chuck’s experience centers on location pages. While many SEOs abandoned city-specific pages after Google’s crackdown on doorway pages, Chuck discovered they’re now the secret weapon of local dominance.
“Those location pages are hugely important because it’s giving Google a signal saying, you actually do work in this city. And without those location pages, your advertising is not going to show up in those cities as much,” Chuck explains. “Which is crazy. So if you look at like some of the LSA… And some of the companies that really dominate, they’re the ones that have all these city pages.”
The impact extends beyond organic search. Chuck emphasizes that “one hand is feeding the other” – your on-page SEO directly influences paid advertising performance. Companies with 15-20 well-optimized location pages aren’t just ranking better organically, they’re crushing it in Google’s Local Services Ads.
Death of Generic Content
Chuck’s approach to content strategy represents a fundamental shift from the old playbook. Host Jeremy Rivera perfectly captured the problem: “how many articles from how many different SEO agencies had their own versions of what is power washing?”
Chuck’s solution is refreshingly practical: “Use your experience, man. It’s just making sure that when somebody comes to your website, they’re getting a good sense of what you’re going to do for them in detail.”
He points to a common oversight: “I’ll talk to a company, you guys do this, you guys do that. Oh yeah, we do that. Why doesn’t it say that on your website?” The user experience improvement is immediate – “it does save a phone call too. Oh, I read it on your website. I see the process, instead of them having to ask those 20 questions.”
Social Media as the New SEO Frontier
Chuck identifies social media, particularly TikTok and YouTube, as critical ranking factors that most local businesses are ignoring. “You know, I know lots of companies that do extremely well with TikTok and Instagram. And honestly, I feel like TikTok is huge. Like just setting up a tripod and showing where you’re at and, you know, at the end of the day, taking that footage and showing what you did and tagging it and talking about what your location was.”
His YouTube strategy is particularly clever: “It might be hard sometimes to rank a webpage for pressure washing in Los Angeles, but you do a video on YouTube about it, that thing pops up right away.”
The timing couldn’t be better, as Chuck notes: “Google last week… came out and said, OK, we’re going to start indexing Instagram for businesses… not for like your personal accounts, but they’re going to start indexing.”
The AI Search Revolution
Chuck has observed customers beginning to use AI tools for local business discovery: “I’ve seen it now where customers are actually starting to use the AI to try to find service providers, you know, they’re going to chat… and chat GPT and they’re like, okay, I need a water heater company in Redlands, California.”
His analysis of how AI selects businesses reveals the importance of reputation signals: “a lot of it does pull like reviews and stuff like that… the AI is pulling information off your website as well and it’s serving it up.”
However, Chuck warns about AI overview accuracy: “those AI results in Google, they can be really helpful depending on the query. But a lot of times… it gets the information wrong. And it’s like very confusing… I’m like, wow, this isn’t even accurate information.”
The Multi-Channel Future
Perhaps Chuck’s most important insight addresses the evolution of the SEO profession itself. As Jeremy Rivera observed: “you can’t just do just do SEO anymore as a success and be successful.”
Chuck agrees: “You definitely… can’t neglect the other, but it’s all come full circle and it’s all intertwined now.” His own business evolution from pure SEO services to hands-on home services demonstrates this principle in action.
The Cyclical Nature of Digital Marketing
Chuck’s two-decade journey reveals a fundamental truth about digital marketing: “You know what’s crazy is like, even stuff that you’re… focusing on years ago, and you’re like, yeah, this is important, but you know, maybe there’s like a new twist on it.”
The core principle remains constant – clearly communicate your unique value proposition. But the channels, tactics, and technical requirements continue to evolve. Chuck’s success comes from recognizing that mastery requires both honoring proven fundamentals and adapting to new platforms and search behaviors.
His final insight captures the current state perfectly: “Everything is so connected now.” Success in modern local SEO demands expertise across search optimization, social media, reputation management, and customer experience – not as separate disciplines, but as integrated components of a single strategy.
For local business owners and SEO professionals, Chuck’s message is clear: embrace the basics that never stopped working, master the new channels that customers actually use, and remember that at the end of the day, your job is to help potential customers understand exactly what you do and why they should choose you.