Metapix

STAYING VISIBLE IN THE AGE OF AI

October 15, 2025 by John Mangelsdorf

How Business Owners Can Adapt for Generative Search Results

As web browsers and search engines—like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) or Microsoft’s AI-enhanced Bing—increasingly integrate generative AI technologies, website managers and business owners are noticing shifts in how organic traffic reaches their sites. Unlike traditional search, where users click through ranked results, generative AI often summarizes answers at the top of the page, reducing clicks but still heavily relying on credible sources. The challenge: how do you ensure your website becomes one of those trusted sources?

THE SHIFT FROM SEARCH RESULTS WEB PAGE LINKS TO AI-GENERATED ANSWERS

Generative search pulls information from multiple high-authority sources to synthesize a quick, user-friendly response—sometimes without any click required. This has profound implications for SEO. Pages may now be cited in AI-generated responses without receiving clicks from the normal search result listings.

PROACTIVE STRATEGIES FOR AI SEARCH VISIBILITY

To thrive in this evolving environment, website owners must re-evaluate their content and site architecture with AI in mind:

Focus on High-Quality, Authoritative Content: AI prioritizes content from trusted sources. Double down on establishing E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) as you update your website. Cite credible sources when appropriate, create valuable content, and offer unique perspectives on your products and services that AI models can leverage.
Structure for Clarity and Scannability: AI systems excel at parsing well-organized content. Utilize clear headings (H1, H2, H3), bullet points, numbered lists, and concise paragraphs. Implement FAQ sections and “how-to” guides, as these formats are prime candidates for direct inclusion in AI-generated answers.
Prioritize User Intent and Conversational Language: AI search often involves more natural, conversational queries. Optimize your content to directly answer questions users might ask, and consider incorporating question-and-answer formats naturally within your text.
Improve Site Architecture: Ensure clean navigation, fast loading times, mobile responsiveness, and structured URLs. A logically organized site improves crawlability and contextual understanding by AI systems.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The landscape of search is rapidly transforming. Generative AI isn’t killing SEO—it’s evolving it. By proactively updating your content and site structure with AI’s preferences in mind, website managers and business owners can not only mitigate potential traffic loss but also position their sites to be recognized as authoritative sources to ensure they’re not just found by machines, but also chosen by them to show as cited web pages in AI answer summaries.

Header photo Dress Code by Susan Graf, Healdsburg

PRINT BROCHURES MATTER IN THIS DIGITAL WORLD

September 17, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

In a world dominated by screens, print brochures still hold a place in smart marketing strategies, especially for service businesses. Print materials can reinforce brand presence in a way that feels personal and intentional.

Benefits:

Tangible impact: Physical materials are easier to remember and harder to ignore.
Focused attention: No pop-ups, notifications, or competing tabs.
Brand credibility: High-quality print elevates perceived value.
Versatility: Ideal for events, consultations, waiting rooms, partner marketing, and direct mail.

Brochures also allow you to control the narrative—guiding readers through your services, benefits, and story in a structured, visual way that supports your brand voice.

Digital marketing drives discovery. Print reinforces trust. Used together, they create a stronger, more cohesive presence. If you want marketing that feels polished, intentional, and memorable, print brochures remain a smart investment.

PLAN AND ORDER NOW FOR HOLIDAY MARKETING

September 2, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

After twenty years of helping clients with last-minute holiday panic marketing, these are some of the things we often regret not addressing in September.

As autumn begins each year, we remind our clients to start prepping and ordering gift bags, greeting cards, holiday decor, gift certificates, gift tags, posters, etc, and plan online marketing: e-mail campaigns, seasonal website changes, and AdWords campaigns.

Besides setting yourself up for a less stressful fourth quarter, preparation in September means free or economy shipping prices instead of ridiculously marked-up rush shipping for last-minute orders. (Reminder of our rush project policy.) You’ll also have more time to jump on the inevitable last-minute holiday opportunity or crisis.

SEPTEMBER TO-DO

Start a Halloween through mid-January calendar showing holidays, planned marketing campaigns, events, team meetings/training, and drop-dead dates.

Why into January? Because there’s often a drop-off in business in the new year. September’s the time to check into your previous January’s’ numbers (what worked, what did not) and also what your competition previously did for Q1 marketing.
Note drop-dead dates by working backwards from when you need assets finalized and in-hand. Remember that free or economy shipping may take longer over the holidays and plan accordingly.* For example, if you want a printed bring-back card to include with Halloween treats, note placing the order with the printer by October 17th, and working back from that, calendar planning and developing the asset starting a few weeks before that.
Calendar reminders to update your holiday hours over all platforms (especially Google Business Listings).

Research community calendars for events and reach out to potential partners and charities early. When you move forward be sure to plan offers that are trackable and unique to each event/partnership/charity so you have data for informed decisions next year.

Prep a stash of beautiful, printed hand-outs with a generic offer so you have a stash ready and can jump on last-minute partnering opportunities without needing to rush a design and print order.

Check your gift card inventory now! (Gift card companies may have five week lead-times—and possibly longer October through January.)

Start penning your Thanksgiving gratitude message to customers, your holiday greetings, and your Happy New Year wishes so they are ready for social media and email campaigns. During the holiday rush, you won’t have as much bandwidth for sincere message scripting.

Are you sending cards, party invitations, and/or gifts to your clients and partners this year? Let’s get on that too!

Selling gifts? Check your inventory and the lead times of items you wish to stock. From October onwards, order fulfillment and shipping from your vendors may take additional time. Also, be sure you stock plenty of festive packaging and shipping supplies if you plan on mailing items.

Sadly, if you are hosting a holiday party and have not booked your caterer, entertainment, and venue, September may be too late. Skipping the printed invites and going online is a good option to save a few weeks.

Don’t forget your team! The holidays may be extra stressful for them too, so set them up for success and a bit of joy with prepared customer service scripts, holiday season incentives, and share with them your holiday marketing how-tos and goals. Start gathering their holiday plans for your shift schedule.

Plan software updates or IT work in advance.

No stress, added costs, and drama this year — let’s get started on marketing’s silly season work now! We’ve plenty of ideas and sources for product.

Here’s some key events to keep in mind…

OCTOBER

Halloween

NOVEMBER

Daylight Saving

Veterans’ Day

Thanksgiving

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

DECEMBER

Pearl Harbor Remembrance

Green Monday

Festivus

Hanukkah

Christmas Day

Boxing Day

Kwanzza

New Year’s Eve

*This often trips up our clients—planning two weeks for free or economy shipping saves so much money and stress. Ideally, aim for three weeks for shipping so you have time to react if an exchange or reprint is needed.

E-MAIL CAMPAIGN DESIGN , MANAGEMENT, AND COST

July 11, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

(Updated 2025.)

The bottom line: there’s lots of detail in this article, but we know you are mostly interested in the cost, so an up to date price quote is at the end of this page, and here’s a link to our e-mail campaign portfolio where you can see samples of some launched campaigns.

The initial set up and design takes some time and thought, but once up and running, e–mail campaigns are a great way to keep your brand in front of your customers, drive people to your web site, promote your business and events, as well as attract new customers who may sign up for your newsletters via various means.

E–mail campaign designs should:

be designed and coded in such as way as to not get caught in spam filters,
be coded so they render cleanly in any e–mail client, on any system, including tablets and smartphones,
be concise,
drive people to your web site, on-line store, or appointment forms with links,
use graphics intelligently so they don’t hinder load time, readability on all devices, and deliverability,
carry your branding throughout,
contain calls to action, and
be designed so you may use the same template for each launch, making simple edits to text, colors, and photos without re-coding each time.

The initial steps in the process are:

deciding upon your e-mailer design,
how to manage your email list,
designing and coding your email template (this same template will be used from e–mail to e–mail, making updates easy and providing your recipients with consistency),
collection of email addresses, and
the account set up.

These above steps are discussed in our initial meeting and are not repeated after the first e–mail campaign.

Costs

One time set-up costs:

Design drafts, half an hour to two hours depending upon type of e-mailer.
Email template coding, one hour to two hours depending upon type of e-mailer. The simpler the template design, the faster the code is written.
Set up of email campaign service provider account and/or manager account, half an hour.
Cost of initial email address list set up depends upon how muck work is need to format your customer list(s) and import into the email marketing vendor’s contact list system. A good estimate is one hour for someone computer savvy, with experience in Excel. We can also provide technical services to import your customer database, and other contact lists. We would discuss the specific tasks with you and bill for time accordingly.

Here are the steps which are repeated with each following campaign:

Entering content to the template, half to one hour. This assumes a few graphics and several paragraphs of text copy, and also that the content provided is publish-ready and fits to the e–mail template already coded.
Sending you test email and maybe small tweaks, half an hour.
Formatting the address list and uploading to e-mail campaign platform, fifteen minutes.
Launching e-mailer, fifteen minutes.
Reporting, FREE! A few days after the e-mail is sent to your address list, we will e–mail you a report with information which can be helpful to your future marketing. Report will include how many clicks the e–mail generated to a linked web pages, who has opted off of your mailing list, your open rate, which e–mail addresses are not valid, and if any of your e–mails were forwarded and if these recipients added their address to your mailing list.
Also no charge, lot of tips along the way on how to produce an effective e–mail campaign, and how e–mail campaigns can help your web site’s search engine optimization.

The summary is that the first campaign will take 4.5 to 6.5 hours to produce, and that following e–mails will take 1 to 2 hours of work. Our current rate is $155/hour. The monthly service charge from the e-mail campaign platform will depend upon the size of your mailing list. We recommend ConstantContact for your service provider. Please contact John with any questions.

OUT TO PASTURE

June 16, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

We love the websites we have worked on and maintained through the years. And we are grateful for all our clients who trust us with their website projects. But, as there’s no need for a portfolio to contain non-responsive sites anymore, and even although these sites are still working for our clients, we are moving non-responsive sites from our website portfolio to this post for posterity. So even though these websites are still working for our clients (some for over a decade, wow!), we need our portfolio to show sites which work on mobile devices.

Here they are, our final non-responsive website projects:

hubbardgodfrey.com

Built in 2007. We love that when we visit AT&T Park, we see their work.

donnadesmond.com

We started working with Donna in 2013. We still love the look of this site.

earnosethroat-sanramon.com

Made in 2011.

hpdpublicrelations.com

Running since 2012.

Save

MAIL LIST MANAGEMENT FAQ

February 21, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

2025 – update. Very little of this info has changed since we first published this in 2017, so with a few edits, here’s updated info.

The answers below assume you are using one of the main email service providers. (Other than MailChimp as their list management is a struggle and contrary to the way our clients work.)

Q.
If the same e-mail address is on several lists in my account, will that person receive the e-mail campaign more than once?

A.
Short answer, no.

The service provider catches duplications and only sends the campaign to each address once. For example, say you have three lists in your account: Peninsula Clients, Marin Clients, and South Bay Clients. And Maggie Jones with address mj@gmail.com has visited your locations in San Jose and Palo Alto and so is on two lists. If you select all three of your lists to which to send an e-mail, the service provider will catch this and send only one to mj@gmail.com.

Q.
How do I get addresses to you to add to my account?

A.
You’ll need to export them from your internal system or database and send to us, usually as an Excel or .csv file attached to an e-mail. All databases, whether MicroSoft Outlook, gmail contacts, your POS system, etc, have a feature to export. Occasionally John visits a client to train them on how to export, but usually a few minutes Googling “export + your database type” gives adequate direction.

We prefer to work with an Excel doc. But we have also received email lists as pdfs, hand-written addresses, and Word docs.

It is important to name the file to send to us uniquely and logically. For example, if the list is all clients, be sure to name it so – “acme-co-all-clients-022117.xls”, or if it’s just your VIP clients, “acme-co-vip-022117”. Including the date is also a good way to track the file in case we need to troubleshoot in the future.

Even more important, if you have more than one list in your account, be sure to communicate clearly to which list we are adding these new addresses.

Q.
How do I prevent an unsubscribed person from receiving mail from me?

A.
That’s one of the great things about e-mail service providers. Once a person is marked as unsubscribed, there’s no way that account will send to that address. Even if that same address is added to the account manually or through an upload, it will be blocked.

Q.
Can I log onto my account and edit lists myself?

A.
Any time. We don’t own your account; you do. We’ll be happy to point you in the right direction to handle your own list management if you like. For example, some of our clients save by manually updating unsubscribes who have reached out to them directly instead of clicking the required unsubscribe button.

Q.
I have a question regarding mail list management which is not answered here.

A.
E-mail John!

POLICY ON RUSH ORDERS

January 6, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

(Originally posted September 2015. Reposted 2025.)

Due to a terrible few weeks when many rush orders placed with a third–party were bungled by the vendor or delivered late (or both!), and we calculated a significant loss of time and money as we worked with the vendor on our client’s behalf to get reprints, a corrected order, or a refund, we have decided to change our policy on providing free customer support on rush order failures by a third–party.

Customer service time spent with third–party vendors on rush order failures may be billed to our clients at our regular hourly rate.

We know that rush orders are unavoidable and will continue to do all we can to meet any deadline, without any additional rush charges.

However, we are finding that more and more we are losing time and money responding to the issues that so often occur with a rush order or rush shipping. These issues arise from errors completely beyond our control, either from a client who has put off addressing a project or deadline, or a vendor or shipping company which has not met their promised service. Our hope is to always provide the best service and product to our clients, so we generally step in to do all we can to fix any issue, although we are not at fault and although this customer service work can be time–consuming and costly to us. This cost to us in this lack of fault and high–risk situation has led to this new policy.

Of course, if it was an error or delay on our part that caused the need for a rush, you will get our full, un–billed support until the issue is resolved.

Addressing deadlines and projects well ahead of time will prevent the high–risk rush order. For example, order all your holiday season items such as decor, gift bags and wrap, and stocking stuffers in the fall. That way you are not putting pressure on a vendor to rush a job and they can do their best work, checking and proofing as they go, and packaging it in a quality manner to prevent shipping damage. If your item arrives early and is damaged or not as promised, you have plenty of time to get a replacement or refund without impacting your deadline.

To help prevent rush shipping up-charges, we keep to a fast turn–around time. We are happy to help our clients plan ahead and keep to a schedule. We can track down third party standard lead–times if requested, so a project management schedule can be prepared in advance.

The ultimate deterrent to procrastinating and ending up in rush-order-territory? The mark–ups for rush orders by third parties are astronomical.

SUPER BOWL MARKETING TIPS

January 2, 2025 by Rachel Hunter

SuperBowl XL is coming to Levi’s Stadium—how can local businesses benefit when a big game is in town?

When the Super Bowl comes to town, small local businesses don’t need million-dollar sponsorships to win. The smartest owners market around the event, not directly at it. Super Bowl week brings a celebratory mindset, and both visitors and locals are primed to spend. Limited-time “Big Game Week” specials, themed bundles, watch-party kits, or exclusive menu items tap into that energy without touching official trademarks. These promotions feel timely, festive, and relevant—exactly what customers are already looking for in the days leading up to the game.

One of the biggest advantages small businesses have during Super Bowl week is proximity. Hyper-local targeting consistently outperforms broad advertising. Simple phrases like “near the stadium” or “minutes from fan fest” resonate strongly with visitors navigating unfamiliar areas. Importantly, the spending surge happens before game day, so running ads from Wednesday through Monday—rather than just Sunday—captures the bulk of the opportunity.

Beyond discounts, experiences are what truly set local businesses apart. Fans want memories, not just deals. Photo walls with football props, mini tailgate setups, live music, trivia nights, or fun giveaways tied to score predictions create moments people want to share. These experiences naturally encourage customers to linger longer, spend more, and talk about your business both online and offline. In a crowded Super Bowl market, being memorable is more valuable than being cheap.

User-generated content is another powerful—and budget-friendly—way to extend your reach. Encouraging customers to tag your business, use a branded hashtag, or participate in contests like “best fan outfit” turns your audience into your marketing team. Offering a small incentive, such as a free item or discount, can dramatically increase participation. The added benefit is longevity: posts, tags, and shares continue circulating even after the Super Bowl is over, giving your business extended visibility.

Finally, the most successful small businesses think beyond the final whistle. Partnerships with nearby businesses—such as restaurant and brewery bundles or retail pop-ups—multiply exposure and make life easier for visitors. At the same time, capturing emails or SMS sign-ups, offering “come back next time” discounts, or promoting shipping and online ordering helps convert one-time visitors into long-term customers. By tracking foot traffic, average order value, and engagement, even a modest boost can prove that a smart Super Bowl strategy is well worth repeating the next time the big game comes to town.

SKINADE THREE MONTH TRIAL

April 22, 2019 by Rachel Hunter

skinade collagen drink

WEEK ONE – February 26 – March 4

Yum! And whew! Its four o’clock in the afternoon and my first box of skinade just arrived – of course I had to try it right away. Yum! Because it’s delicious, and Whew! Because I’m so glad it tastes good as I’m planning on having it daily for a three month trial.

So who am I, and why am I doing this? My name is Rachel and I’m always personally interested in health and nutrition. And professionally as a website and graphic designer, I like to stay up to date on high-end beauty treatments as many of my clients are in the lifestyle and/or beauty industry. I’m turning fifty next month, an age which I think is great for experiencing something like trying a collagen drink to help skin hydration – I have plenty of aging, sun-damage skin to test skinade upon.

I purchase all products mentioned below from clients. And, full disclosure, I learned about skinade from my client Hayes Valley Medical & Esthetics who carries it, and I did not pay for the first month’s samples I am taking during this trial.

I’m not changing my usual routine with the exception of a daily serving of skinade. Hair care from Halo Blow Dry Bar – Rene Furterer shampoo and conditioner. For my face, I wash with whatever is on hand and if in the shower, I use a Clarisonic. AM, I use SkinCeuticals C.E. Ferulic and PM, Revision Skincare Hydrating Serum. And morning and evening, I use Hayes Valley Medical Skincare Restorative Moisture. Once a month I get a facial with microcurrent from Olive Branch Spa.

Finally, I use a lot of sunscreen – year-round. Hayes Valley Medical Skincare BB Cream Perfection 6-in-1 Cream, SkinCeuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense, and ColoreScience Sunforgettable Brush-on Sunscreen – all from Hayes Valley Medical & Esthetics.

Back to that first peachy sip of my first skinade . . . such a nice clean flavor. The other flavor is unique – mangosteen I have to presume as it’s a taste with which I’m not too familiar. I’ll look forward to each daily drink.

By day seven, my face feels like I just had a facial, with softer, suppler, and hydrated-feeling skin. And in general, my skin all over feels softer – elbows even!

I took a peek at http://us.skinade.com and read that most people felt there skin was more hydrated and soft by day 4 to 6. Yep! Me too! It says that by days 10 to 14, “skin is more smooth, radiant, glowing and more uniform.” Well I hope I continue upon this path!

WEEK TWO – March 5 – 11

I love that I’m getting an extra dose of Omegas 3 and 6 in this product as I’m a vegetarian. And yes, I know the collagen in skinade is sourced from fish scales – not vegetarian – but I figure by the time they are processed down to chains of amino acids, it’s just biological components.

Wednesday – 4am hot flash! Silver lining is that I had my skinade close and it was very refreshing and distracting. Plus, I figure, drinking it in the early hour’s means the best absorption as tummy empty and nice long time until my morning green tea caffeine which hinders Vitamin C efficacy. But no, I don’t plan to set alarms for daily pre-dawn wake-up for my collagen drink.

WEEK THREE – March 12 – 18

I’ve been getting compliments on my skin – overall healthy glow. I’m still enjoying taking skinade each day. The travel sachets are so convenient. I have a stash at home and also in my purse. Usually I take at home, in the evening with my iron pill. A few times, I’ve poured the sachet into a glass at a restaurant. And they are energizing when added to a water bottle during a hike.

I’m noticing the changes to the feel of my skin. Since my teens, I’ve had acne scars along the sides of my eyes and mouth. Usually I can feel little indents and roughness, but I can’t feel them anymore, just smooth skin.

WEEK FOUR – March 19 – 25

Five days in the Mohave Desert! Usually my skin instantly feels different in the dryness. Plus, I’m camping and did not even bother to bring my usual skin care products and am mostly just splashing water and applying sunscreen layer after layer. My skin felt great – hydrated in a way it never is in the desert.

Another pleasure is the feeling when applying sunscreen – my skin is smoother. Lotions seem to glide on.

WEEK FIVE – March 26 – April 1

It’s been one month. I believe my skin is more uniform. Here are a few before and after photos. The fine lines next to my eyes are less deep.

WEEK SIX – April 2 – 8

I met with my client, Hayes Valley Medical & Esthetics and it was fun when Linda saw my skin. She thought I’d been using topical products that were working, but actually the only change is the skinade. Her comment was glowing!

WEEK SEVEN – April 9 – 15

About this time, I noticed I had not been sick with a cold I always get around March. Maybe the added vitamins in skinade are helping?

WEEK EIGHT – April 16 – 22

I’ve been in the high desert of Utah since the 9th – including hiking around Moab and Arches National Park – and my skin feels great. It never does here. Every other visit, I’ve had unpleasant dry across my cheeks and lips. Also, when visiting here, I usually get breakouts, but none this visit. My skin is smooth and even.

Red Cliff Lodge and Arches NP

I’m also wondering if skinade is effecting my over-all hydration, as I usually get nose bleeds in the desert and at higher altitudes, but none on this trip.

My fiftieth birthday! Feeling good. Loving my skin right now. I’m going to be back in the Bay Area soon and will order more skinade to complete the three months try-out. Then I’ll take “after” photos.

SHARON HEIGHTS PHOTO SHOOT

March 27, 2019 by Rachel Hunter

We always love a call from MenloVille La Vita Verde for a photoshoot as we know it’s going to be something beautiful. This time, we were at at Sand Hill Business Park shooting the incredible gardens created by Lisa of MenloVille.

It’s a huge campus and it took a long time to work our way around to cover all the wide-angle vistas down to the thoughtful details in the gardens designs.

Lisa’s talent in landscaping is how she creates layers within each segment of the garden using details like succulents planted in rocks, crystals, and statuary. She’s done a beautiful job updating the 1970’s style of the campus gardens – making the overall vibe of the property more modern, interesting, and inviting to a visitor, and bringing places of rest, socialization, and inspiration to hard-working employees.

We also included some “artistic” filtering on some of the shots. Here’s the entire album…

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