Taxi Confessions and Local SEO

Archive note — 2026: I wrote this in 2014 after spending years driving a taxi while trying to figure out how the hell Google worked. Google+ is gone, products have changed, and some of the SEO advice below belongs firmly to its era. I’m leaving most of it intact because it documents how a small St. Augustine taxi company tried to learn local search before any of us were worrying about AI search. Some lessons, surprisingly, haven’t changed at all.

After about a year of participating in Google+ communities, I decided to share some of my SEO mistakes and successes.

The reason I started reading SEO communities was simple: I knew very little about websites and, more importantly, how people could actually find my business.

As a taxi driver in what had become a very competitive St. Augustine market, I had spent years finding directories and filling out my business information.

I also had a website built by a major company. Through Google+, I eventually realized that my expensive .com wasn’t being found by some of the major players, including Google.

Whether that was intentional, accidental or simply human error, I couldn’t say.

I had also moved, been inconsistent with my business name and changed my web address.

My local SEO needed massive medical attention.

First, Get Yourself a Website

The first thing I learned was the importance of having a good website.

Hire a professional you trust to build it. In my case, Ian Wortley decided to help me and created a nice WordPress site.

Back then, Google+ was a big part of my education. I opened a Gmail account, created a Google+ profile and started reading articles and discussions about local search.

I was relatively new to the entire business alphabet:

SEM, SEO, SERP, PPC, et al. and ad nauseam.

Eventually, I found resources such as Moz and Moz Local that helped me begin making sense of it all.

I was still a taxi driver, however, and had no clue about Excel or .csv files.

Fortunately, many of these tools were reasonably friendly to novices like me and probably a snap for people who were more computer savvy.

Getting a New Business Found

Back then, paid advertising through things like Google AdWords and the Yellow Pages could provide immediate visibility while you waited for your website to gain traction.

Building a viable website took time.

Think long term.

A blog was another useful addition. WordPress was an option, and Blogger was completely free.

Social media was everywhere: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest and, of course, my beloved Google+.

My theory was that everything we created should somehow lead people back to the business website.

Things I Learned Along the Way

If you’re starting a new business, these were some of the lessons I learned:

• Have a professionally built and properly hosted website.
• Choose your business name carefully. KISS: Keep It Simple, Silly.
• Be consistent with your business name, phone number and address.
• Establish your business on the major local directories and maps.
• Connect your website, blog and social-media presence.
• Learn how analytics and webmaster tools work.
• Use paid advertising when necessary while building organic visibility.
• Start blogging and become knowledgeable about your field.
• Be very careful about anyone promising instant SEO miracles.

And then there were backlinks.

Backlinks could make your website stronger, but the subject was complicated and doing it badly could land you in Google jail. Do not pass Go!

Tread carefully on that slippery slope of SEO.

Content Is King

It seemed that almost everyone—including Google, which was unusual—agreed on one thing:

Content is king.

Writing unique and original material about what you do, who you are and what you know seemed to be smiled upon by the algorithmic gods.

Do your research and beware of people who promise too much.

I was still spending money on advertising, but at least I was learning not to waste it on companies that were either incompetent or couldn’t deliver what they promised.

I was a work in progress.

I was learning every day.

And after spending thousands of dollars figuring some of this stuff out the hard way, I wished I had discovered Google+ and SEO years earlier.

Confessions of a Taxi Driver

Please consider the source.

I drive a taxi.

My expertise in search-engine marketing was practically nonexistent when I started this journey.

This was never intended to be a complete SEO guide—just a jump-start for another small-business owner who might be as confused as I had been.

If sharing my mistakes could save somebody else a few thousand dollars, so be it.

And remember:

Google can be a bit capricious, continuously changing its mind.

Stay fresh.

Stay current.

And keep learning.

Abraxi Taxiom: Google is a capricious god. Stay fresh and current.