Web design and local marketing in Houston

Houston is built in rings: the 610 Loop, then Beltway 8, then the Grand Parkway, with I-10, I-45, US-59/I-69, US-290 and SH-288 running out like spokes. Downtown sits on Buffalo Bayou, the Texas Medical Center lies just south, the Energy Corridor stretches west along I-10 and the Port of Houston works the Ship Channel to the east.

Energy is the old engine, from oil companies in the Energy Corridor to the refineries and chemical plants along the Ship Channel. The Medical Center, the port and NASA's Johnson Space Center add payrolls of their own. Underneath runs a huge small-business economy: machine shops and pipe suppliers selling to plants, contractors working a city with no zoning and constant construction, and restaurants run by families from all over the world.

Houstonians search by neighborhood and by freeway: 'Heights', 'Alief', 'EaDo', 'off 290', 'inside the Loop'. Many search in Spanish, Vietnamese or Chinese, especially along Bellaire Boulevard and in Gulfton and Alief. Industrial buyers search differently again, by part, certification or capability, usually from a desk at a plant office. And after every hurricane or derecho, the same few searches spike overnight: tree removal, roof tarps, generators.