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Questions

Ciao Bella Marketing FAQ: Websites, AI Search, Pricing and Process

Ciao Bella Marketing is an AI marketing agency founded in Miami in 2008, with a second team in Mexico City. We build websites, search and AI-search visibility, and lead systems — first for the companies we run ourselves, then for a small number of outside clients. The short answers are below.

What should you ask any marketing agency before you hire it?

Four questions sort most agencies quickly. Who will do the work? Ask for names, not a department. Who owns the site, the accounts and the data afterwards? The answer should be you. What are you promising? A promised ranking or AI citation is a red flag, because Google itself does not guarantee crawling, indexing or serving any page. Where is it working today? Ask for live sites and dated numbers, not logos. Our own answers are below, and our measured results are on our work.

Where the detailed answers live

This page answers the questions we hear most, in short. Each answer links to the page that covers the subject properly: real estate websites, website pricing, our IDX plugin, AI-search visibility (GEO), GoHighLevel systems, hosting, the free AI marketing audit and AI marketing training.

If your question is not here, send it to us. Josh or Phil reads every message.

Want your business found on Google and in ChatGPT? Ciao Bella plans start at $1,000 a month, no setup fee. See the three packages.

Verified 26 September 2026 against our own service pages

Building on the web since 1999 · South Florida and Mexico City · $1B+ in closed real estate sales

Frequently asked questions

What does Ciao Bella Marketing do?

We build and run the marketing systems a company depends on: websites, SEO and AI-search visibility, lead capture and follow-up (usually on GoHighLevel), content and paid media. We run the same systems on our own companies — RentaPóliza, Vive Polanco, Art of NOMA and Josh Stein Realtor — before we sell them. See capabilities.

Do you only work with real estate?

No. Real estate is where we started, and we also work in private aviation, yachts, hotels and resorts, private members clubs, destinations and technology companies.

Where are you based, and do you work in Spanish?

A South Florida-based team (Miami-Dade and Broward) and Mexico City, and we take clients well beyond both. The Mexico City team writes native Spanish for Mexico rather than translating English — see the Spanish site.

Who will I actually work with?

Josh Stein, the founder, or Phil Macdonald, the CMO. There is no account-management layer in between. See the studio.

How much does a website cost?

It depends on MLS coverage, design scope, the number of agents or subsites and the integrations you need, so we do not publish a price list. Tell us about the project and we come back with real numbers. See website pricing.

How long does a website take to build?

There is no fixed number we can quote without knowing the scope. What matters more is the order: brand and structure first, IDX and the technical foundation second, lead capture last. See real estate websites.

Which IDX do you use?

Our own IDX plugin, which runs inside your WordPress site instead of on a vendor’s domain. That keeps the listing pages and their URLs yours and readable by search engines and AI answer engines. We confirm your MLS board when we scope the project. See the IDX plugin.

Are MLS fees included in the website quote?

Usually not. MLS data-access fees are charged by the board itself and vary by board and market. We confirm your coverage and cost as part of scoping.

Is hosting included?

Yes. Hosting, security, backups and updates are handled as part of the build, not left for you to arrange after launch. We can also take over a site we did not build, starting with a review of what is there. See hosting.

Can I update my own website after launch?

Yes, for routine updates like listings, team bios and basic content. Larger structural changes still usually need a developer.

Can you guarantee a Google ranking or a ChatGPT citation?

No, and any agency that promises one is promising something Google itself says it cannot guarantee. We commit to the audit and the fixes; the decision to rank or cite belongs to the engine. See GEO services.

Is the AI marketing audit really free?

Yes. You send us your site through the form and we send back a priority list, reviewed by a person. There is no obligation to become a client. See the AI marketing audit.

Do you offer training so my team can run this themselves?

Yes. Josh teaches the AI marketing training himself, on your own funnel. No technical background is needed.

Who owns everything when we stop working together?

You do: the accounts, the stack and the documentation. We consider an engagement finished when it keeps working after we leave.

Sources

  1. Google Search Central: In-depth guide to how Google Search works Google does not guarantee that it will crawl, index or serve a page.

Tell us what you are building.

We take a small number of outside clients. Every enquiry is answered by Phil, a real OG, not a form robot.

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