Scope Realignment — 2025-12-05
Call date: 2025-12-05
Attendees: Sebastian Gant (AAG), Melissa Cusumano (AAG), Paul Buniel (AAG), Katie Geiser (client)
Next meeting: Friday, December 19 at 10:00 AM
Overview
Scope realignment call to reorient the project around building lead-gen-ready websites for both [1] before moving into PPC and ongoing SEO. The original 3-month plan (foundational SEO, Google Ads setup, training) was revised because the foundational web work turned out to be more extensive than anticipated. Both parties agreed the cleaner path is to complete the website builds first, then transition to a retainer covering hosting, ongoing SEO, and PPC management.
Key Decisions
1. Project Scope Shift
- Original plan: 3-month engagement covering foundational SEO, Google Ads setup, and training.
- Revised plan: Complete lead-generation-ready website builds for both brands first. PPC and ongoing SEO content deferred to a future retainer.
- Rationale: Site architecture, copy, and page standardization work was more extensive than scoped. Driving paid traffic to an unready site would be wasteful.
2. Hosting Migration — A New Dawn Therapy
- Decision: Migrate A New Dawn Therapy from Bluehost to AAG hosting before the January 8 Bluehost renewal to avoid re-subscribing.
- Cost: AAG will host for free during the transition period; hosting fees will roll into the future retainer.
- Google Workspace concern: Katie's email and Google Workspace were purchased through Bluehost. Sebastian will confirm whether the Google Workspace subscription is independent of Bluehost before migrating. Katie will check her Google Workspace settings to see if billing is already tied directly to Google.
3. Specialty Page Templates — A New Dawn Therapy
- Problem: A single template felt visually restrictive and didn't suit all content types (e.g., FAQ placement varies by specialty).
- Solution: AAG will build 3 distinct specialty page templates (A, B, C). Katie will review Template A first, provide feedback, then B and C will follow. Templates will be assigned to specialties based on content fit.
- Katie's role: Focus on writing copy. Sebastian will add structured formatting (H1, H2, etc.) to the shared copy document so Katie can draft within a clear framework, optionally using ChatGPT to assist.
- AAG's role: Finalize SEO elements (title tags, meta descriptions, URL slugs) and formatting after Katie's draft.
4. Shine — On Pause
- Shine is deprioritized due to Katie's personal commitments (house build) and limited bandwidth.
- AAG will continue foundational work (blog section, area page standardization) but will not drive traffic until Katie is ready.
- Katie is less particular about Shine's design; Sebastian will standardize Madison and Milwaukee area pages using the Milwaukee template as the base.
Keyword Strategy Notes
| Page | Finding | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Social Anxiety | Low search volume for "social anxiety therapy" | Fold into main Anxiety page; add blog post for informational searches |
| LGBTQIA+ Therapy | Low volume for "LGBTQ therapy" but higher volume for intent-based terms (e.g., "gay therapists near me") | Page should address both service and identity-based searches |
| Who We Treat | Health workers, teachers, parents confirmed with volume | Sebastian to research additional high-volume groups |
| Approaches | Incomplete — to be finished | — |
Location Pages — A New Dawn Therapy
- Goal: SEO-friendly location pages (e.g., "Verona therapist," "Sun Prairie therapist").
- Navigation: Non-obtrusive "Madison area" dropdown in main nav linking to location pages; avoids cluttering the nav with 20+ entries while still providing crawlable links.
- Next step: AAG builds one location page template; pages will share the same structure with copy swapped per municipality.
Business Context
- A New Dawn Therapy: Katie is currently seeing clients. Hiring is blocked by pending lawyer review of contracts and insurance credentialing. Website leads are the primary trigger for hiring — once leads flow in, she'll feel confident to bring on a therapist.
- Shine: On hold. Katie expects to re-engage once the house project is complete and she has more bandwidth, likely aligning with when the Shine site is ready to generate traffic.
Action Items
Sebastian Gant (AAG)
- [ ] Confirm whether Google Workspace is independent of Bluehost; update Katie
- [ ] Initiate A New Dawn Therapy hosting migration from Bluehost to AAG (before Jan 8)
- [ ] Add H1/H2 structured format to the A New Dawn Therapy shared copy document
- [ ] Build Specialty Template A; share with Katie for feedback; then build B and C
- [ ] Add small descriptions and links to mid-nav items on A New Dawn Therapy site
- [ ] Research additional high-volume "Who We Treat" groups; share findings with Katie
- [ ] Build location page template for A New Dawn Therapy; standardize Madison/Milwaukee area pages for Shine
- [ ] Add blog section to Shine website
Katie Geiser (Client)
- [ ] Check Google Workspace settings to confirm subscription/billing status (independent of Bluehost?)
- [ ] Complete A New Dawn Therapy Google Business Profile video verification
- [ ] Draft copy for A New Dawn Therapy specialty pages using provided keywords and document structure
- [ ] Upload images to the shared drive for A New Dawn Therapy
Transcript Excerpts
Sebastian: "We kind of started with an original scope of let's set up some foundational SEO… What we bring into is that the foundational work was more extensive than initially anticipated… So kind of what we're delivering now is the site architecture, and then really the SEO-focused copy… getting the site in order before we do PPC."
Sebastian: "Maybe we look at this initial plan — projects, if they're both live and running and ready to move on to ongoing SEO and PPC, maybe that's kind of how this project wraps up, and then it turns into more of like a retainer and ongoing work."
Katie: "Insurance and then the website are going to be like my biggest referrals. So as soon as I feel like phone calls and emails are coming in, then I'll feel confident to hire somebody."
Sebastian (on templates): "Once he's kind of built out this specialty template page… I can then say, let's create a version B and a version C of it… we can assign them to what specialties make more sense."
Katie (on Shine): "I'm less particular about Shine than I am about A New Dawn Therapy. So whatever you think works best."