The Metro Media Journal

Playbooks, case studies, and honest takes.

Everything we wish agencies would tell you before they take your money. Practical SEO, content strategy, and paid media tactics, short on jargon, long on specifics.

Latest posts · 24 articles
#1
Local SEO · Case Study

How we got a Florida law firm to the top of the map pack in 90 days

A detailed breakdown of the strategy, the tools, and the specific moves that took Dante Law from position 18 to #1.

Sharod Minton 12 min
3x
Content Strategy

The pillar page strategy that quietly 3x'd our client's organic traffic

Pillar pages aren't new, but most people do them wrong. Here's the hub-and-spoke model we've deployed for the last 4 years.

Sharod Minton 8 min
$$
Paid Media · Opinion

Why we stopped running broad-match Google Ads (and what we run instead)

Google has been pushing broad match hard. Here's why it's costing you money, and the exact match strategy that outperforms it.

Sharod Minton 6 min
BR
Branding

The 5-page brand brief that saves clients $10K in revisions

Before any design work starts, we send every client the same 5-page brief. It's the single highest-leverage document we've ever built.

Sharod Minton 10 min
E-E-A-T
SEO

E-E-A-T is real, and most small businesses are getting it wrong

Google's experience/expertise/authority/trust signals aren't mystical. Here's what we actually optimize for our clients.

Sharod Minton 7 min
A.I.
Content · AI

How we use AI in content production (without making it sound like AI)

The exact workflow we use to 5x our output while keeping quality where it needs to be. Not a prompt library, a real process.

Sharod Minton 9 min
-62%
Case Study · Paid Media

Cutting CPL by 62% for a legal services client

Same budget, better targeting, smarter landing pages. How we made one of our clients' ad spend work 2.6x harder in 90 days.

Sharod Minton 11 min
CWV
Technical SEO

Core Web Vitals: the 5 fixes that actually move the needle

Everyone's obsessed with CWV but most sites optimize the wrong metrics. Here's what actually matters for rankings and conversions.

Sharod Minton 8 min
v
Branding · Voice

How to write a brand voice guide your team will actually use

Most voice guides sit in a Notion doc and collect dust. Here's the 1-page format we use that actually changes how writers write.

Sharod Minton 6 min

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