Field notes from a working agency.
Written by senior operators, not a content mill. SEO plays, paid media teardowns, studio production notes — the stuff we actually use with clients across Greater Los Angeles.
The CRTE Blog is where our operators write up the work while it is still fresh — the play that moved a map pack, the paid account we inherited and had to rebuild, the lighting setup that finally made a matte skincare bottle read on a phone screen. Nothing here is commissioned from a content farm and nothing is written to hit a keyword quota.
Every post is written by the person who did the work, reviewed by whoever owns that discipline, and dated so you can judge how current it is. Where a post makes a claim about results, it names the constraint that made those results possible, because a tactic without its context is just a rumour.
One dispatch a month, nothing else
ONE EMAIL MONTHLY · UNSUBSCRIBE IN ONE CLICK
What we write about, and how often.
Local SEO
MonthlyMap-pack mechanics for businesses that serve a specific slice of Greater Los Angeles: profile management, neighbourhood query patterns, review velocity and the citation hygiene that quietly decides who ranks in a five-mile radius.
Paid media teardowns
Every six weeksReal accounts, examined line by line — wasted match types, bid strategies fighting each other, landing pages that cannot support the click cost that Los Angeles categories now command.
Conversion and analytics
QuarterlyWhat we test, how we size a test honestly, and why most reported lifts do not survive contact with a second month of data. Includes the measurement plumbing that has to be right before any of it means anything.
Studio production notes
MonthlyNotes from the floor at CRTE Studio: shot lists that survived a client change of mind, lighting for reflective packaging, how many usable frames a single day actually yields, and what shipping a product to a studio should look like.
Category playbooks
Every two monthsWritten for one industry at a time — law, medspa, restaurants, home services, apparel — covering the funnel math, the seasonality and the compliance edges that generic advice ignores.
How the agency runs
OccasionalPricing, scoping, staffing and the parts of agency work that usually stay behind a curtain. Published because the questions come up on every first call anyway.
On the desk, and coming next.
These are drafted or in progress. Dates move when client work takes the writer, which it regularly does, but nothing on this list has been abandoned.
- This month
What a Google Business Profile audit actually checks
The forty-point list we run quarterly for multi-location clients, published in full with the reasoning behind each check.
- Next month
Rebuilding an inherited Google Ads account without losing the month
A staged teardown that keeps spend productive while structure changes underneath it, written from an account we took over in Encino.
- Autumn
Shooting reflective packaging so it reads on a phone
Studio notes on gradients, flags and polarisation, with frame counts from a fourteen-SKU skincare day.
- Autumn
How many reviews a medspa actually needs to compete in the Valley
Review velocity against the specific competitive sets in Sherman Oaks, Encino and Calabasas.
- Winter
The measurement plumbing most sites are missing
Server-side tagging, consent handling and the four events worth arguing about, minus the vendor pitch.
- Winter
What we charge, and the reasoning under each number
A plain read on our own pricing, why fixed fees beat percentage-of-spend, and where we say no.