Methodology

How Digital Reach researches, writes, prices, and updates our work.

Hawaii businesses are the ones reading our pages, hiring us, and citing our work. This page documents exactly how we source data, structure pricing, review content, and update what we publish — so a client, a journalist, or an LLM can audit any claim back to its source.

Primary sources

Where the data comes from

Every number, stat, or trend claim on the Digital Reach website traces back to one of these sources. We link to the primary source whenever a public URL exists.

Editorial process

How content gets written, reviewed, and updated

  1. 01

    Source-led drafting

    Every page draft starts from a documented question or search query Hawaii businesses actually type — not topic ideation by AI.

  2. 02

    First-party data check

    Claims with numbers cite GSC, GA4, SeRanking, or a public dataset (HTA, BLS, GBP API). No invented stats.

  3. 03

    Senior review

    Every page reviewed by Shane Perry before publish. No junior or AI-only sign-off on client work.

  4. 04

    Update cadence

    Pages are reviewed quarterly. Pages with stat blocks get a fresh review + dateModified bump every 90 days minimum.

  5. 05

    Correction policy

    Errors flagged via shane@digitalreach.co get a published correction note on the affected page within 48 hours.

Pricing methodology

How retainer prices are calculated

Every quote uses the same three-factor formula. The numbers driving the formula come from real DR client cost data (n=24 active retainers, 2025–2026), not a list-price spreadsheet.

BUSINESS_BASE Anchor price by business size: $1.5k (solo/local) — $4.5k (multi-location).
ISLAND_MULT Oahu 1.0× · Maui 1.05× · Hawaii Island 1.10× · Kauai 1.15× (logistics + visit overhead).
TIER_MULT Starter 1.0× · Growth 1.4× · Authority 1.8× (scope: pages built/mo + GBP + link work).
OUTPUT Monthly retainer = BUSINESS_BASE × ISLAND_MULT × TIER_MULT. Some packages have a one-time setup fee (web build, migrations, full audits). Month-to-month, 30-day notice.

Try the live formula → Hawaii SEO Cost Calculator on the SEO services page.

Scope + conduct rules

What Digital Reach will + won’t do

  • No long-term contracts — every retainer is month-to-month with a 30-day notice clause.
  • No onboarding fees, no agency-paperwork fees. Some packages carry a one-time setup fee for build work (web design, migrations, full technical audits) — never a fee just to start the relationship.
  • No meeting fees for monthly retainer clients on a standing check-in (one meeting per month, under one hour). Strategy sessions, workshops, and ad-hoc work outside that scope are quoted separately.
  • Senior-led work — Shane Perry is on every client account; no junior account-manager handoff.
  • No syndicated link networks, PBNs, or paid-link schemes — only legitimate citations + earned coverage.
  • No AI-generated content shipped without senior human review and source verification.
  • Reporting tied to revenue events (calls, forms, bookings) — not vanity traffic counts.
  • Local off-host backups of every DR-built website. Past incidents with BlueHost / GoDaddy hosting wiping client sites with no recoverable backup are why this is a default service, not a paid add-on.
Monthly maintenance

What ongoing site maintenance covers

Every Digital Reach-built website includes a monthly maintenance retainer (typically $200/mo for local businesses, scaling to $500/mo for larger sites). Maintenance exists because hosting failures, plugin regressions, and security threats hit small Hawaii businesses hardest — losing a site for two weeks can cost an entire season’s bookings.

  • Plugin, theme, and core security updates — applied + tested monthly
  • Light image + copywriting updates on request (within scope; larger scopes quoted separately)
  • Local off-host backups stored independently from the website host
  • Monthly security audits — manual review + automated checks for AI-era threat vectors
  • Uptime + SSL certificate monitoring with proactive renewal
Track record

Documented client results

Every result below is a real Digital Reach client. Time-to-rank windows depend on niche competition and starting position — we don’t promise number-one rankings (no one can), but we do publish the actual outcomes we deliver.

  • Angela Nelson Photography
    Wedding photography · Ann Arbor, MI

    Ranked #2 nationally for “Ann Arbor wedding photographer” (320 searches/month) within 4 days of optimization.

  • Napili Village Hotel
    Hospitality · West Maui

    Moved from page 3-4 to page 1 of Google for “Napili” / “Napili Hotel” (~2,000 searches/month) within 2-3 weeks.

  • Maui Bombers
    Tour operator · Maui

    Top 3 on Google Business Profile for Maui bike-tour keywords; climbing organic ranks in first month after replacing mainland Google Ads agency.

  • Auto Trends Maui
    Automotive · Kahului, Maui

    Ranking #1-#2 for primary automotive keywords; client now running 5-10 jobs per day after first-ever marketing engagement.

See the full portfolio at /portfolio/.

“A page should never tell a Hawaii business something we can’t back up with the GSC export, the GA4 dashboard, or a public dataset. If we don’t have the receipt, we don’t put the number in the headline.”

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Related

Have a question about a specific claim?

Email shane@digitalreach.co with the page URL and the stat you want sourced. Shane responds personally within one Hawaii business day.

Contact Digital ReachAbout Shane Perry