You don't give Google or AI enough information to work with.
So they describe you in vague terms, or pull from Yelp and LinkedIn instead.
Examples
/scaffolding-services, but there's no page named for it./canopy lists sizes and types, and AI tools repeat them. The rest are too vague to use.None of this is complicated. It just takes time, and nobody has done it.
/shoring)Short version. The full fifteen-line list, with what done means for each, is in what $10,000 covers.
Every one of the audit's 16 high-severity findings has a line in this scope that acts on it.
Everything below is here if you want it and ignorable if you don't.
This is the complete list. Fifteen lines, each with what finished looks like. Anything not on it isn't in the $10,000: follow-ups and add-ons are priced in what else this could cover; specific exclusions from this proposal are in what this doesn't fix. The small numbers on each item trace back to the audit.
Not included: anything not on the list above. The additions people usually ask about are priced in what else this could cover. What's excluded permanently is in what this doesn't fix.
Who handles each of these is your call. If it takes more conversations to get the information, we'll have them.
Work completes 5-6 weeks from kickoff, contingent on the three calls happening inside the first three weeks and engineering data arriving soon after you request it.
| Milestone | Share | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Kickoff | 40% | $4,000 |
| Launch: all pages live and verified | 40% | $4,000 |
| 90-day results walkthrough | 20% | $2,000 |
The final 20% is tied to the 90-day walkthrough so the follow-up stays a real commitment on both sides. That last milestone lands about four and a half months after kickoff — five to six weeks of build, then ninety days before the re-test is worth running.
Week one issues every long-lead request at once: engineering load data, Google Business Profile verification, project figures, credential and insurance documents, and the current benchmark re-run.
Two case studies widen the engineering-data dependency, since project figures now come out of the same review cycle as the load capacities.
Everything that doesn't need DEC input runs in parallel: analytics install, technical cleanup, structured data (name, address, phone, and services written so machines can read them), competitive review, directory audit.
Items with external review cycles are the difference between a five-week project and an eight-week one.
Revisions. Two rounds per deliverable. I flag anything beyond before the work happens.
Scope changes. I raise anything that needs meaningfully more time than estimated before the work happens, not invoiced afterward.
Each one expands, numbered to match the scope list above. Skip the whole section unless something up there needs justifying.
The audit. This proposal is built on the July 2026 Website & AI Search Visibility Audit, sent alongside it. Thirty-three findings across five groups, sixteen rated high severity. Finding numbers throughout this document refer to it.
I install both before anything else, so data starts collecting immediately. Data has to start collecting immediately so the 90-day walkthrough has something to measure against, and so a deeper data-driven audit is possible later.
DEC has neither. You can't recover baseline data after the fact, so every week without them is a week you can't measure later.
Claimed, verified, completed: opening or operating hours, categories, service area, description, photos, service list.
Needed because nobody has claimed the profile and DEC never shows up in the three local businesses Google puts on a map (findings 1.4, 1.5).
Verification requires Google confirming the business at 1510 Lunt Ave, usually by a mailed postcard. I request that in week one.
Scaffolding, swing staging, canopy, custom monorails, shoring, and the rest. Expanded from roughly 120 words into full pages including carrying load capacities, dimensional specifications, use cases, scope of supply, and other information I'll learn about from the engineers.
Search and AI tools quote pages that carry real figures; they skip or paraphrase pages without them (findings 1.2, 1.3, 3.1).
Ten thin pages don't match many search queries. Ten specification-dense pages match a much wider set, including the specific technical questions the audit showed DEC losing.
Dependency. Load capacities and structural specifications have to come from DEC's engineering department, and someone accountable for them has to sign off. Published load figures carry liability, and I won't publish anything engineering hasn't confirmed. This item depends on an external review cycle, which makes it the most likely to affect timeline. I'll request this in week one.
A page covering scaffolding rental as a service: what's available, how rental works, terms, delivery and pickup, scope of supply.
Rental exists only as a paragraph inside another page, so no title, URL, or heading targets the word (finding 1.1). This fixes a problem nothing else in the project touches.
Separate from the custom equipment rental page under what else this could cover, which covers standalone rental of DEC-manufactured equipment and is still unconfirmed. See Open Question 1.
Written answers to specific questions: permits, rental minimums, insurance requirements, lead times, rent versus install, union labor, weekend and night work, custom fabrication process, safety certifications.
Each answer stands alone and makes sense pulled out of context. That is how AI engines use this information.
The site has no FAQ content, while competitors and AI follow-ups show the gap this section closes (findings 3.4, 5.4). See Open Question 2 and Open Question 3.
Union signatory status stated plainly, plus certifications, affiliations, and safety credentials. The footer badges (Iron Workers, SAIA, LiUNA Local One) are images only, so I'll add text machines can read (invisible to visitors).
Credentials sit buried or unreadable to machines today (findings 3.5, 3.8).
Structured data means writing DEC's legal name, address, phone, founding year, services, and service area in a format machines can read. I'll also write the FAQ so each answer reads as a discrete response.
Technical term: JSON-LD (a common way to write that information in the page), using Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQPage schema types (named categories for that writing).
Needed so machines can identify DEC correctly instead of pulling identity from third-party listings or merging it with someone else (findings 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 4.1).
I replace the repetitive sitewide duplicated content with unique titles and descriptions. I correct heading structure. I add alt text, which is a way of writing descriptions for images that machines can read, on undescribed images: 60+ confirmed, likely over 100 sitewide. I restore mobile pinch-zoom. I clear placeholder and broken links. I rebuild the services hub page with real descriptions instead of ten bare links. I verify sitemap and crawler files, which tell Google which pages exist and which to skip, directly.
These are the technical defects documented in findings 4.2 through 4.8. Machines and people don't read content correctly under a messy heading structure, regardless of how good the writing is.
Google Business Profile, Yelp, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo. I'll claim where possible, correct everywhere, and make them consistent with each other and with the site. These are the four platforms with audit findings behind them (2.1, 2.2).
AI tools already read these listings to describe DEC (findings 2.1, 2.4).
Search engines cross-reference business details across platforms, so mismatches between these listings reduce confidence in all of them. This feeds directly back into item 07. Procore and The Blue Book profile expansion fall under the Catch Up Fully option.
A full technical account covers what the site required, what DEC engineered, what DEC installed, how long it took, and how it turned out — with figures throughout.
Recommended pair: Vista Tower / St. Regis and O'Hare. The Vista Tower page already cites 700 linear feet of monorail and 12,000 man-hours; that is the depth these two pages are meant to reach. Any project from 2023 forward that represents DEC better can be swapped in. See Open Question 4.
Dependency. Project figures come out of the same engineering review cycle as the load capacities in line 03. I won't publish anything engineering hasn't confirmed.
Two pieces rather than one report.
At launch: a written one-pager. Every page live, structured data validating, pages showing up in Google (indexed), with the audit's baseline restated for comparison. A Million Dreams-branded and written so someone who had no involvement in the project can understand it and forward it as-is, if desired.
At 90 days: results walkthrough and AI re-test. A re-run of the identical question set from the audit against the same engines it tested: Google AI Overviews (the AI answers that appear at the top of some Google searches), ChatGPT, Perplexity. Running the same questions against the same engines is what makes the comparison mean anything. Testing earlier would be less effective, because there's no guarantee those systems will have re-crawled meaningfully by 30 days.
An updated site that sat static since 2022 can take three to six months to show changes in search rankings and AI citations.
A competitor's FAQ states its model plainly: they calculate cost per piece, state a minimum rental cycle, then bill per day after that. No dollar figure anywhere. AI engines extract and quote that line, and it costs that competitor nothing competitively.
DEC's version would cover structure only:
No margins, no rate cards, no line-item bid sheets.
Job figures work the same way: tons of steel erected, maximum working height, total man-hours. DEC already publishes this kind of figure on the Vista Tower page. See Open Question 5.
The freshness problem comes back. A one-time rewrite resets the clock on June 2022. It doesn't keep the clock moving, and this project can't solve that on its own. An ongoing content arrangement is out of scope here.
If your crews already produce jobsite photography, posting at least one project update a month to the site keeps freshness signals alive between larger improvements.
The $10,000 gets the site current and acts on all 16 high-severity findings. Everything below is additional. The audit surfaced content this market hasn't published and search and AI systems would reward.
Additional case studies. Same full technical account as the two in Core Fixes: what the site required, what DEC engineered, what DEC installed, how long it took, how it turned out. Figures throughout. Any project beyond those two qualifies. Depth follows available documentation — projects with photos and figures on hand get the full account; others get whatever can be rebuilt from what you provide. See Open Question 4 for the included second project.
Additional audience pages. Worth building only if DEC actually sells to those audiences differently. The first audience page is included in Core Fixes; see Open Question 9.
"Swing Stage vs. Scaffolding" comparison page. Which system suits which conditions: building height, facade type, duration, access constraints, cost profile, crew implications. Perplexity listed this comparison as one of its own suggested follow-up questions about DEC, and no company in this market has published a strong version. DEC manufactures and installs both systems, which few competitors do. AI engines also cite comparison content at a higher rate than promotional content, because it's structured as a decision.
Manufacturing and capability page. What's fabricated in-house, capacity, tolerances, turnaround on custom work. The audit rated manufacturing capability as claimed but never substantiated: no specifications, no capacities, no fabrication detail anywhere on the site.
Rebuild the menu and how pages link to each other. Every page, old and new, restructured so people and search engines can move through the site. This is the direct answer to the clutter concern about competitor sites, since a large site with disciplined structure reads differently than one without it. It's also the hardest item to retrofit after a rebuild, which makes it worth deciding early.
Equipment and systems available for rent. The fleet itself, with capacities, dimensions, and configurations for each system available on a rental basis. This is the load-capacity question answered in published form: the single question the audit showed DEC losing outright. Separate from the rental process page in the $10,000, which covers how renting works rather than what's available.
Procore and Blue Book profile expansion. Beyond the accuracy corrections in Core Fixes. These are construction-industry platforms, and The Blue Book already appears in DEC's own footer. Expansion means fuller profiles that trade buyers actually use, not just name and address fixes.
Pages targeting questions currently unanswered.
Chicago permits explainer. Height and duration thresholds, fees, insurance requirements, timelines. Frequently searched and frequently answered by AI engines. Government sources usually own the direct answer, but a supporting citation is realistic.
Service Area and Jurisdictions page. Municipalities DEC serves and how permitting differs across them, with completed projects as supporting detail.
Worth explaining, since this departs from the audit. The audit noted a competitor running eight location pages Google has found and stored (indexed) against DEC's zero. Those eight are near-duplicates with the municipality name swapped. Google has been filtering out thin copy-paste pages like that for well over a decade, so their existence proves someone published them, not that they work. It's also the pattern behind the clutter objection. One substantive page covering jurisdictional differences answers the same search intent without the filler.
"Working With DEC": a contractor-facing page. How a project actually runs: assigned project manager, site walks, ongoing consultation. Plus what a GC needs at prequalification: union labor, insurance thresholds, safety record, scheduling. The audit flagged that nothing on the site describes either. Whether that process is worth publishing, and what it actually is, is your call.
Both figures assume an included equipment rental page. Open Question 1 decides that.
↑ Back to topSeveral of these change scope. No need to write anything down; we can go through them on the first call.
| # | Question |
|---|---|
| 1 | Is DEC-manufactured equipment available for standalone rental? If so, how is cost calculated, is there a minimum rental period, and who handles delivery and pickup? Determines whether the custom equipment rental page applies at all. Separate from standard scaffolding rental, which is already covered. |
| 2 | Beyond union signatory status, what credentials come up during pre-qualification? Safety ratings, EMR, certifications, insurance thresholds, association memberships. |
| 3 | Does DEC offer equipment training, or handle historic restoration? Both surfaced as questions AI tools generated about DEC. The site answers neither. If either is a real capability, it's content worth having. |
| 4 | Which second project for the included case studies? Vista Tower / St. Regis is the recommended first. Is O'Hare the right second, or does anything from 2023 forward represent DEC better? |
| 5 | Are structural figures available for other projects? Tons of steel, maximum working height, man-hours. Vista Tower already publishes figures of this kind. Question is whether equivalent numbers exist elsewhere, and whether anything shouldn't be published. |
| 6 | Who owns engineering data, and can I be introduced? Load capacities and structural specifications need to come from someone accountable for them. Most likely item to affect timeline, so worth resolving in week one. |
| 7 | Does quality photography of the manufacturing facility exist outside of Instagram? Relevant to Catch Up Fully. |
| 8 | Does Activate Hype still hold anything DEC doesn't have direct access to? Theme files, hosting, DNS. |
| 9 | Which audience should the included audience-specific page target? Working assumption is general contractors at prequalification. Confirm or adjust. |
Call me and say go, and we'll figure out a kickoff date and the first call slot. Or if you have any questions, let me know and I'll answer them.