SEO + AI Search Consulting
Lehi, Utah · Working Nationwide
Make your expertise easier to find.
And easier to choose.
SEO + AI Search consulting for Shopify and service businesses that need useful visibility—not another report full of keywords.
Blackout connects technical SEO, clear buying information, internal links, credible expertise, and conversion measurement. We focus the work on the buyers, pages, and business outcomes that matter.
The short answer
Blackout helps businesses improve how their pages are discovered, understood, and used in traditional and AI-assisted search. We identify the questions buyers ask, the pages best suited to answer them, and the barriers between discovery and a useful outcome. Existing pages come first; new pages need a distinct job.
For Shopify stores, that often means collection and product architecture, buying guidance, and technical clarity. For service businesses, it means specific service pages, real geographic coverage, credible expertise, and a path from inquiry to qualified opportunity. Blackout is based in Lehi, Utah and serves clients across the United States.
Where search work becomes business work
Find the Right Questions
Map service, product, comparison, cost, and problem questions to the buying journey. Separate buying intent from searches that cannot become a customer.
Improve the Right Pages
Review crawl access, indexability, titles, canonical URLs, mobile usability, content clarity, and internal links. Consolidate overlap before creating another page.
Make the Expertise Verifiable
Use accurate authorship, real service coverage, attributed reviews, and permissioned examples. Structured data describes visible facts; it cannot create an endorsement.
Connect Visibility to Value
Review relevant non-branded queries, clicks, qualified inquiries, and customer economics. Search impressions, AI citations, and revenue are different measures.
How traditional and answer-led discovery differ
Traditional search can bring a buyer to a ranked page or result. Answer-led surfaces may summarize several sources and may not send a click. Both depend on useful, accessible information. We structure pages around real buying questions, clear answers, accurate supporting detail, and navigable links—then verify how those pages actually perform rather than treating every AI mention as demand.
For deeper measurement decisions, use our Marketing Attribution + Analytics resources.
What we monitor
Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools help reveal eligible pages, queries, clicks and crawl issues. GA4 and the sales or ecommerce system help connect visits to qualified outcomes when the measurement is sound. We record identifiable AI referrals or citations separately because those surfaces disclose incomplete data. A baseline, reporting timezone and complete comparison windows belong in the plan before claiming improvement.
Shopify SEO that respects the storefront
Help shoppers choose before asking search engines to rank. We review collection intent, product details, taxonomy, availability, descriptive imagery, filters that can create crawl traps, internal linking, and structured data supported by visible content. For rebuilds, redirect and migration planning belong in the scope before launch—not after traffic changes.
Benjamin Nieporte has worked hands-on in Shopify design, development, and marketing since 2011, across hundreds of client engagements during his career. That experience informs Blackout’s work. Historical projects and reviews are attributed to the work and period they actually describe.
Explore Shopify Website Design & Development · Read the Shopify Collection SEO Audit Guide · Ecommerce Growth Consulting
Local relevance. National reach.
Utah businesses need more than a city name in a headline. We evaluate the actual service area, accurate business details, legitimate reviews, buyer questions, and the page a prospect reaches after searching. For national services and ecommerce, the content should explain genuine capabilities, delivery, and fit without implying offices everywhere.
For professional-services teams, organic traffic only becomes useful when the inquiry fits your service, market, and buying process. We connect search intent to qualification and CRM and marketing attribution where the available evidence supports it.
Professional-Services Lead Generation · Multi-Location Consulting
Know what you are buying
Select the work around your actual constraint. The final proposal identifies the deliverables and limits; the examples below are available scope, not a promise that every item is included in every package.
A Prioritized Opportunity Map
A defined page inventory, relevant query themes, technical and content findings, recommended actions, and a clear distinction between confirmed issues and hypotheses.
Page Briefs & Internal Links
Buyer-focused page outlines or copy, source and proof requirements, contextual link recommendations, and decisions about improving, consolidating, or creating pages.
Bounded Website Improvements
Changes to agreed pages with rollback evidence and checks for layout, links, metadata, and structured data. Development, production volume, and platform access are agreed first.
An Evidence-Based Review
A baseline, reporting windows, relevant query/page trends, and a plan for qualified leads or ecommerce outcomes. Known attribution limits stay visible.
Which problem should we solve first?
More traffic is not always the first fix. Use the evidence you have to choose the next conversation—not to diagnose a whole business from one metric.
The Right Buyers Cannot Find You
Start by checking: whether the intended page is indexed, what relevant queries it appears for, and whether its content answers the buying question.
A useful first output: a prioritized page-and-query map separating verified access issues, content gaps, and hypotheses. This is the starting point for scoped SEO + AI Search work.
Visitors Arrive but Do Not Take the Next Step
Start by checking: traffic relevance, the offer, mobile usability, product or service clarity, and whether the intended action is measured correctly.
A useful first output: a short list of observed friction points and bounded improvements. Review Shopify storefront and conversion work before assuming more content will solve the problem.
You Cannot Tell Which Inquiries Are Valuable
Start by checking: the lead definition, source capture, duplicate records, and how qualified opportunities are distinguished from all form submissions.
A useful first output: a measurement map with known gaps and owners. Explore marketing attribution; incomplete measurement is not proof that a channel failed.
The Store Is Hard to Navigate or Change
Start by checking: the specific templates, navigation paths, app constraints, and maintenance problems preventing shoppers or your team from completing a task.
A useful first output: a repair-versus-rebuild recommendation with dependencies. Use the Shopify design and development guide to prepare; a rebuild is not the default recommendation.
Prefer to start with one collection? Use our free collection SEO prioritization worksheet to record the evidence and decide what to fix first.
A practical first step
Bring your site, your priority customer, and the growth problem you need to solve. We review the existing content and evidence, define a bounded first scope, and agree what success would mean before expanding the work.
Use the Free Search + AI Opportunity Finder to organize your starting questions. Its output is a planning aid—not a live ranking report or an AI-citation guarantee.
Search + AI questions, answered
What does SEO + AI Search consulting include?
The agreed scope can cover technical and content review, a page-and-query map, internal linking, revised page briefs or copy, scoped implementation, and measurement. Each proposal identifies the pages, deliverables, access, dependencies, and work your team owns. It is not an unlimited content or development subscription.
Is AEO different from SEO?
Answer engine optimization focuses on being useful to people using AI-assisted answers. Those surfaces differ from traditional results, but Google says its established SEO practices remain relevant to its AI features and no special markup is required. Blackout focuses on useful, crawlable, accurate pages and credible business information, then measures the surfaces separately when possible.
Will this guarantee a ranking or AI citation?
No. Search systems decide what to crawl, index, rank, and cite. We can improve eligibility, clarity, relevance, and evidence, but cannot guarantee placement or a timetable.
Should we publish a page for every Utah city?
Only when the business genuinely serves the market and the page adds specific value. Repeated city names on otherwise identical pages are not a substitute for relevant information or a real local presence.
Do we need a complete Shopify rebuild?
Not necessarily. Better collection architecture, product guidance, internal links, or a targeted technical fix may be a more sensible first step when the store is otherwise sound. A full redesign is a separate scope.
How is pricing determined?
Use the current Engagements page to compare published options. The proposal defines the number and type of pages, implementation responsibilities, research depth, and reporting. This service page does not introduce a separate price or silently expand an existing package.
How will we know whether the work is helping?
Agree on a baseline and complete comparable reporting windows. Evaluate relevant query and page trends alongside qualified leads, purchases, and business economics. Track identifiable AI referrals or citations separately. Sparse daily impressions or one AI mention are not a growth conclusion.
Our approach follows Google’s published AI-feature guidance: helpful content and sound SEO foundations, without special-schema promises.
Bring the problem. Leave with a clearer next move.
Talk directly about the buyer you need to reach, the pages that should support the decision, and the evidence needed to prioritize the work.
Talk With BlackoutSenior-led consulting from Lehi, Utah · Serving clients nationwide