Founder & Lead Developer
Alison Iddings
Alison Iddings, the founder of City of Oaks Marketing, brings with her over 30 years of experience in development, specializing in SEO strategy, and a background in design from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts. Dedicated to innovation, she seamlessly blends design and functionality to create impactful digital solutions.
About Alison
Alison Iddings, the founder of City of Oaks Marketing, brings with her over 30 years of experience in development, specializing in SEO strategy, and a background in design from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts. Dedicated to innovation, she seamlessly blends design and functionality to create impactful digital solutions.
Articles by Alison
How Much Does a Website Cost in 2026? Web Design Pricing in Raleigh, Explained
What a business website costs in 2026 by approach, what drives the price, what a $10K to $30K custom WordPress...
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Local SEO Checklist for Raleigh Businesses (2026)
A 10-step local SEO checklist for Raleigh and Triangle businesses: Google Business Profile, reviews, NAP, location pages, schema and AI...
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How to Fix “There Has Been a Critical Error on This Website” in WordPress
Find the failing plugin or theme in minutes, fix it even when you cannot log in, and stop it coming...
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What Is AI Search Optimization? GEO, AEO, and LLM SEO Explained
AI search optimization (GEO, AEO, LLM SEO) is how sites get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews. What it...
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Lazy Loading Images in WordPress: How It Works and When to Turn It Off
WordPress lazy loads images by default. What it covers, how to exclude your hero image to protect LCP, how to...
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AI Visibility Monitoring: How to Track What AI Says About Your Brand
How to find out whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews mention your brand, get the facts right and cite...
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Building Websites for Everyone: What Cancer Survivors Teach Us About Inclusive Design
A study of cancer survivors shows how common vision, dexterity and focus barriers are online, and what inclusive design and...
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How to Track Custom Query Parameters and A/B Tests in GA4
Track custom query parameters and A/B test variants in GA4 using event parameters and custom dimensions. Full Google Tag Manager...
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UTM Parameters for Google, Meta, and TikTok Ads (and How to Capture Them in WordPress Forms)
UTM setup for Google, Meta and TikTok ads, then capturing them in Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms with a cookie...
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Microinteractions in Custom WordPress Themes: Drive Conversions with Code
How custom WordPress themes give you control over animations, hover states and feedback that lift conversions, with code examples you...
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Google Search Console Platform Properties: What Marketers Need to Know
What Google Search Console platform properties are, how they split your search data, and what marketers need to check after...
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Why Your 2026 Digital Marketing Strategy Needs a Major Upgrade
AI search, social SEO, privacy-first analytics and video are rewriting the playbook. What to drop, what to add, and how...
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Loop Engineering: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Changing AI Development
Loop engineering is how AI systems think, act and self-correct across steps. The core concepts, the architecture patterns, and how...
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WordPress Security Headers: What They Are, Why They Matter for SEO, and How to Set Them Up
What HTTP security headers do for a WordPress site and how to set every one on WP Engine, GoDaddy and...
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Open Knowledge Format (OKF): What It Is & Why It Matters
Google’s Open Knowledge Format (OKF) standardizes how teams share context for AI agents. Here’s what it is, why it matters,...
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The “Explain-It-Later” Spec: How Agency Owners Make AI Work Maintainable
A documentation practice that keeps AI-generated code maintainable for agency teams: what the Explain-It-Later spec is and how to adopt...
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Demand Gen vs Display: Google Retires Standalone Display Campaigns (Migration Plan for Marketing Teams)
Demand Gen vs Display: what Google retiring standalone Display campaigns means and a step-by-step migration plan for marketing teams.
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llms.txt for Websites: What It Is, How It Works, and Does It Actually Do Anything in 2026?
What llms.txt is, how AI crawlers use it, whether it does anything in 2026, and how to add one to...
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Why PHP Still Matters in 2026: The Real Threats (and Why It’s Still Winning)
Is PHP dead in 2026? Not even close. See why PHP still powers a huge share of the web and...
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Winning the consensus layer: the new SEO battleground
Ranking #1 isn’t enough. Learn how the “consensus layer” works and how to earn AI mentions with clarity, diversity and...
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Blog Content That Ranks: The System That Actually Work
Learn a repeatable system to create content that ranks long-term: pillars + clusters, E-E-A-T, internal linking, and AI-assisted drafting.
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AI Chatbot Setup Guide: Knowledge Base, Configuration & Optimization
How to set up an AI chatbot for your website: knowledge base prep, configuration, and optimization so it answers accurately...
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How to Build an Intent-First SEO & Google Ads Strategy for 2026
Get actionable steps to boost SEO and Google Ads in 2026. Understand and map keyword intent, optimize content, and drive...
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Lovable.dev vs. a Custom WordPress Theme: Why the AI Shortcut Could Hurt Your Business
Discover why AI website builders falls short for SEO, accessibility, and long-term growth. Client-side React SPAs vs. custom WordPress themes
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Custom WordPress Development vs. Page Builders: Which is Right for Your Business?
Custom WordPress or a page builder? Compare real costs, speed, SEO impact and AI readiness, and see which one your...
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How AI-Ready Architecture Delivered 200% Traffic Growth in 5 Months: TBG Homes Case Study
How AI-ready architecture, custom WordPress and technical SEO delivered 200% organic growth and 621+ keyword rankings for TBG Homes in...
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How to Optimize Content for AI Citation
How to write answer-first content that AI models cite: semantic HTML, speed, schema and structure, with the patterns that get...
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AI SEO Isn’t Replacing Traditional SEO—It’s Doubling Your Workload (And Here’s Why That’s Good News)
Why traditional SEO and AI optimization are one job, not two, plus 12 tactics to get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity...
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Why AI LLMs Prefer Fast, Well-Optimized Websites (And What That Means for Your Business)
AI systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity cite fast, well-optimized websites more often. Learn why website performance impacts AI visibility and...
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Core Web Vitals Case Study: How a Custom WordPress Rebuild Took Mobile PageSpeed From 56 to 90
A custom WordPress rebuild took Dragonboat's mobile PageSpeed from 56 to 90 and LCP from 15.7s to 2.3s. The exact...
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