We work with a lot of searchers and acquirers in the trades space, and one of the most common things we see is a digital presence that was never really built for growth, just inherited. Yesterday, I was chatting to a painting company in Colorado. Year one post-acquisition, strong fundamentals, great reputation locally. We pulled up the website as part of our process. Source code had noindex, nofollow set sitewide. Google had been told to ignore the entire site. The new owner had no idea, and there's no reason he would. He bought a painting business. It's a small fix. But it's the kind of thing that can undermine every other marketing effort you make. You can have the best word of mouth in town and still have zero discoverability for anyone who doesn't already know you. In our experience working with acquired businesses, a proper audit should happen in the first 90 days. Not a full strategy necessarily, just a check. And it's broader than the technical stuff. Here's what I'd recommend, if you recently acquired: The technical side: — Is the site indexed? (open the site, right click "view source", CTRL + F and search "nofollow" — Who owns the Google Business Profile? (If you're pre acquisition, get from the owner before they leave) — Are there any active ad accounts and who has access? (pre-acquisition, get Google Ads and Meta pages and ads accounts from the owner before they leave) — Is there a legacy email tied to anything critical that the seller still controls? Then the brand side, which gets overlooked even more: — Is the brand consistent? In small businesses we routinely see one logo on the vans, another on the invoices, and apparel that looks different again. For a local business, consistency is what builds recognition and trust. — Whose voice is the business speaking in? Many acquired businesses are still carrying the old owner's tone, messaging, even their values, years after the handover. You bought the business to be the owner, to have your fingerprints on every part of it and for your impact to be felt. The way the business talks about itself should be yours too. These aren't really marketing questions. They're ownership questions. But I know they're easy to miss when marketing isn't your background. Happy to answer questions if this resonates with anyone here. We spend a lot of time in this space and it's an area we care about getting right for new owners.