Where things stand

The short version

Your brand is doing better than your website is. People love Milkcrate — the site just isn't telling Google that.

1 The reputation is real. Strong Google and Yelp ratings at both shops, nearly 10k Instagram followers, and repeat mentions in Philly "best coffee" roundups. That's earned, and it's an asset most cafes don't have.
2 The website isn't carrying its weight. It's essentially one page. There's no menu Google can read, no separate page for each location, and a leftover footer from the site template still lists a different company's name and address.
3 That gap costs you walk-ins. You show up when someone searches "Milkcrate." You mostly don't when they search "coffee shop near me," "breakfast sandwich Fishtown," or "record store Philly" — and that's the bigger crowd.

Division of labor

Who handles what

Simple rule: we handle everything on the website and behind the scenes. You handle everything that requires being the business owner — your Google and Yelp listings, your photos, your reviews, your hours. Those accounts are legally and practically yours, and Google treats owner-managed profiles better than agency-managed ones.

Modus Medium handles

The website & the technical side

You won't need to log into anything or learn Squarespace.

Website fixes & build-out

Remove the leftover "Falcon Express" footerReplace with your real name, addresses, and phone numbers for both shops.
Build a real menu pageTyped out as text so Google can read every item — not a photo or a PDF link.
Build a page for each locationFishtown and West Philly each get their own page with hours, map, parking and transit notes.
Add the pages you're missingCatering / private events, the Vinyl Bar, an About page, and an FAQ.
Rewrite page titles and descriptionsThese are the blue headline and gray text people see in Google results. Yours are currently blank.
Photo cleanupProper labels on images, right-sized files so the site loads faster on phones.

Behind-the-scenes technical

Install the "business card" codeHidden code that tells Google you're a cafe, where each shop is, when it's open, and what's on the menu.
Set up tracking & Search ConsoleSo we can actually prove what's working instead of guessing.
Fix broken links and site errorsFull site scan, then ongoing monthly checks.
Keep the site loading fastWithin what Squarespace allows — we'll flag anything the platform caps.

Ongoing every month

Website updatesMenu changes, seasonal items, hours, new photos — you text or email us, we handle it.
Blog / content posts1–2 per month: new vinyl arrivals, seasonal drinks, neighborhood guides. This is what pulls in "near me" searches.
Directory monitoringWe scan the dozens of sites that list you, catch the ones showing old hours or wrong numbers, and send you a short list of what to correct and where.
Local link buildingGetting Milkcrate listed and linked on Philly food, neighborhood, and record-collector sites.
Monthly reportOne page, plain English: what moved, what we did, what's next.

Adam handles

Your business profiles & day-to-day

Owner-only tasks. Most take a few minutes a week.

Google Business Profile — both locations

Claim & verify both listingsGoogle requires the owner to verify. We'll walk you through it, but it has to be you.
Keep hours accurateIncluding holidays and any early closes. Wrong hours on Google is the #1 driver of bad reviews.
Post updates 2–4× a monthVinyl Bar nights, new menu items, Record Store Day. Takes about 5 minutes from your phone.
Upload fresh photos monthlyEspecially West Philly — that listing is thin compared to Fishtown.
Answer questions in the Q&A sectionYou can post your own FAQs there too.

Reviews & reputation

Respond to reviewsAll of them if you can, negatives within 48 hours. Responses in the owner's voice carry more weight than an agency's.
Ask for reviews in-storeWe'll design a QR card for the register; you and the staff make the ask.
Claim the West Philly Yelp listingIt's currently unclaimed — 14 reviews vs. Fishtown's 290.
Submit directory correctionsWe find the errors and hand you the list; you submit the fix on each site. Most take under two minutes.

Feeding us the raw material

Send menu & price changesWhenever they happen, so the site never goes stale.
Send photos and event infoPhone photos are fine. Vinyl Bar lineups, new arrivals, seasonal drinks.
Flag anything happening in the shopsPress, collabs, pop-ups, milestones — these become content and links.

Why these can't be handed off: Google and Yelp tie profile ownership to the business owner's identity, and both platforms explicitly favor listings that owners actively manage. We'll set them up, give you a checklist, and remind you monthly — but the login stays yours.

The plan

What happens, and when

First month is a cleanup sprint. After that it settles into a steady monthly rhythm.

Month 1Cleanup

Stop the bleeding, build the foundation

Kill the Falcon Express footer. Fix the phone numbers so both shops list the right line. Write every page title and description. Build both location pages and the first menu page. Install tracking and Search Console. Full site scan for broken links.
Modus Medium Adam: verify both Google profiles, claim West Philly Yelp
Month 2Build out

Give Google something to rank

Catering and private events page. Vinyl Bar / events page. About page telling the coffee-and-records story. Full menu published for both locations. Install the local business code so you're eligible for the map results and rich listings.
Modus Medium Adam: send menus, photos, event details
Month 3Local push

Own the map results

Optimize both Google profiles — categories, attributes, services, photo strategy. Launch the review-request system with printed QR cards for both registers. Start the monthly Google Posts rhythm.
Modus Medium: setup & design Adam: posting & review asks begin
Month 4Authority

Get linked from the right places

Second pass on directory cleanup — Apple Maps, Bing, and the long tail of sites with your old hours. Outreach to Fishtown District, Baltimore Ave neighborhood groups, Philly food blogs, and record-collector communities. Pitch one story to local press.
Modus Medium
Month 5Content

Start pulling in "near me" traffic

Launch the blog at two posts a month — new vinyl arrivals, seasonal menu, "where to work with wifi in Fishtown," event recaps. Each one is aimed at a search someone is actually typing.
Modus Medium Adam: raw material & photos
Month 6Review

Look at six months of data and adjust

Full review against the month-one baseline. Double down on what's working, drop what isn't, and plan the next two quarters. This is also where we'd look at selling beans, gift cards, or records online if you want to go there.
Modus Medium Adam: strategy session

Findings — action needed

Your phone numbers on the web

We checked roughly 30 places that list Milkcrate. Two different numbers are circulating, and several sites have them attached to the wrong thing. Here's where it stands after your confirmation.

Fishtown — the cafe

(267) 909-8348

Confirmed. This is the number that should appear on every cafe listing for 400 E Girard.

Record appraisals

(267) 608-5835

Confirmed. This is a service line, not a cafe line — it should be clearly labeled as records/appraisals wherever it appears, and never listed as the shop's general number.

West Philly — the cafe

Not yet established

4435 Baltimore Ave currently has no correct phone number published anywhere on the web. See the question below.

Your website lists the wrong company entirely The footer still shows "Falcon Express" with a toll-free number and two addresses — one in New Jersey — left over from the site template. It's live right now. We fix this — week one
Your website doesn't show the cafe number at all Only the appraisal line appears on milkcratecafe.com, so it's become the de-facto general contact number by default. We fix this
joe.coffee lists the appraisal line as West Philly's number Anyone calling 4435 Baltimore Ave through that listing reaches the record desk. You handle this
The Fishtown District directory has the appraisal line on the Girard address Should be the cafe number. You handle this
One aggregator has the Fishtown number scrambled Wheree.com prints it as +126-790-98348 — unusable digits. You handle this
Google, Yelp and Facebook need owner sign-off We can't change these for you. Once you confirm the numbers in each dashboard, they propagate to dozens of smaller sites automatically. You handle this

One question we need answered

Does the West Philly shop have its own phone line?

Right now it has no correct number published anywhere — Yelp shows none, joe.coffee shows the appraisal line, and the rest are blank. That gap is holding West Philly back in local search more than anything else on the list. If there's no dedicated line yet, we'd recommend setting one up before we push corrected info out to the directories — reusing the Fishtown number across both locations can cause Google to flag the listings.

To get started

What we need from you

One short session and we're off. Nothing here requires you to learn anything technical.

01 Squarespace access

Add us as a contributor — you keep the owner account. Takes two minutes from your dashboard.

02 Google Business Profile

Add us as a Manager on both listings. You stay the Owner and can remove us anytime.

03 West Philly's phone line

Fishtown and the appraisal line are confirmed. We just need to know whether 4435 Baltimore Ave has its own number.

04 Current menus

Both locations, with prices — as text, a doc, or a spreadsheet. We need the actual wording so it can be typed onto the site.

05 Photos

Any good shots of the shops, food, records, and the Vinyl Bar. More is better.

06 Confirm the coffee

Site says Caffè Umbria; older press still says La Colombe. We'll correct the web once you confirm.

Accountability

How you'll know it's working

You get one page a month. No jargon, no 40-slide deck. These are the numbers that actually connect to people walking through the door.

What we track	What it actually tells you
Direction requests & calls from Google	How many people found you on the map and then tried to physically get to you. The closest thing to a foot-traffic number.
Google profile views — each location separately	Whether West Philly is closing the gap on Fishtown.
Website visits from search	Whether the new pages are pulling in people who weren't already looking for you by name.
Search terms you're showing up for	The shift from "milkcrate cafe" toward "coffee shop fishtown," "breakfast sandwich philly," "record store near me."
Review count & star rating	Both platforms, both shops. Directly affects where you land in map results.
Online orders & menu page views	Whether the website is sending people to Toast instead of dead-ending them.

Modus Medium — Web Design, Development & Marketing · Philadelphia Prepared for Milkcrate Cafe · milkcratecafe.com