From Record Stores to Rankings: How I Learned SEO the Real-World Way
By Andy Noble | Founder, Noble Local
I didn’t learn SEO from a class or YouTube video. I learned it by doing it—because I had to.
I own two vinyl record shops: one in Milwaukee and one in Chicago. A few years ago, I realized the biggest threat to our business wasn’t competitors down the block—it was invisibility online. If people didn’t find us when they searched "who buys vinyl records near me," we didn’t exist to them.
So I started learning everything I could about local SEO: optimizing our Google Business Profiles, refining the content on our sites, building location-specific landing pages, and tracking what search terms were converting into actual phone calls and emails. I didn’t always know what I was doing, but I paid attention to what worked.
Eventually, something shifted. People started saying things like:
"You were recommended to me." "You’re supposed to be the fairest record guy around."
But when I asked who recommended us, it became clear: their "source" was our website or Google listing. SEO was working—not because someone told them my store was great, but because Google did.
One of the best moments? When we landed a huge collection from a seller who lived right across the street from a competing shop. They found us first and never even knew the other store was there.
Now I run Noble Local to help other small businesses get that same visibility—without paying Google a dime in ads. Because here’s the truth:
Most business owners don’t understand SEO at all. They assume it means paying Google, and many of them don’t want to do that. What they don’t realize is that ranking organically (for free) builds trust. Most searchers skip the sponsored results and click on businesses that show up naturally. That can be you if you have the right setup.
I help businesses set that up—plain and simple.
If you’re a local business in Milwaukee (or anywhere else) and you want to:
Get found by real customers
Show up ahead of your competitors
Stop relying on word-of-mouth to carry the weight
…Let’s talk.