Web development, local SEO, and AI integration for small businesses in Missoula and beyond. 264 GitHub repos. 26 years. One person who picks up the phone.
Years of Experience
Sites Built
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Three kinds of work, often overlapping: web presence for small businesses, product builds for people with an idea, and AI tools for both.
A site that loads fast, ranks for the searches that matter in your city, and doesn't require an agency to update. Flat-rate builds with a price you know upfront. SEO retainer plans for ongoing work.
You have an idea. We work through it together — research, prototype, test for real market interest before committing to a full build. No fixed-scope waterfall. Prototyping first.
Custom AI infrastructure that connects to your data and runs under your control. Local LLMs, agent pipelines, MCP tools. Also: open source projects and experiments that ship under the brucepro umbrella.
I'm Jurden Bruce. 26 years of web work — from lawyer sites and ISP pages in the tables-and-images era, to a JavaScript shopping cart for a leatherworker, to 17 years managing web infrastructure for Sam Houston State University — a 21,000-student institution where I oversaw the main university site and dozens of department and project sites. I left SHSU in 2023 when they moved to return to office.
On the client side: web builds and local SEO for small businesses who need a site that actually gets found. Flat-rate pricing — you know what it costs before we start. On the technical side: AI infrastructure, custom memory systems, local LLM deployments, MCP tools. 264 public GitHub repos — original projects, contributed forks, and tools I use daily.
I don't have a portfolio section. I've built hundreds of sites over 26 years and I stopped linking to them — clients do what they want after handoff, and I'd rather not have my name on someone else's decisions two weeks later. You deal directly with me. I answer my own email.
I answer my own email and pick up my own phone. The person who builds it is the person you talk to.
Your code, your domain, your hosting, your data. No proprietary platforms that hold you hostage.
If something I built isn't working, I'll tell you. If a cheaper tool does the job, I'll say so.
Practical advice on web presence, local SEO, and building things that work.
382 sales over two and a half years on Etsy, and the honest options were pay rent forever or be a page on someone else's website. So I built the thing I couldn't point her to — and charged for it once, because it was supposed to be about ownership, not rent.
$50 once. No subscription, no cut of your sales.
The agile vs. waterfall debate is for teams with project managers and backlogs. For a solo developer working with a small business: define scope, communicate early when things change, ship working previews. Here's what the process actually looks like.
Want to know what working together looks like?
Most SEO advice is written for e-commerce. Trades businesses operate differently — customers search when they have a problem right now. Here's what actually moves the needle for electricians, contractors, and service businesses trying to rank locally.
Need help with your local SEO?
Google's AI Overviews changed how people find local businesses. The February 2026 core update hammered generic content. Here's what small businesses in local markets actually need to do — and why local specificity is now your competitive advantage over content farms.
Wondering what this means for your business?
VC money is designed for businesses that need to grow extremely fast and operate at a loss for years. That's not most product ideas. An honest look at when bootstrapping is the right model — and what it actually looks like in practice.
Have an idea you're trying to figure out?
Most small business sites don't have a tech stack problem — they have a hosting problem or an unoptimized images problem. A practical guide to what actually needs upgrading vs. what's premature engineering.
Not sure if your stack is the problem?
Speed and a single clear CTA. That's what drives whether a small business site converts. The UX vocabulary — user flows, affordances, cognitive load — mostly doesn't apply to a 5-page service site.
Building a small business site?
Word of mouth is still primary. Reviews amplify it. GBP captures the search intent. Specific local content builds on top. "Growth hacking" is a startup concept — here's what actually works for local service businesses.
Working on your online presence?
Agencies have overhead that makes sense for enterprise projects. For most small business web work, that overhead consumes budget without adding value. What you actually get with each choice — and how to decide.
Trying to figure out what fits?
Every cloud AI query goes through someone else's server. For some businesses, that's fine. For others, it isn't. An honest look at local LLM deployment — what hardware it needs, what tasks it's good for, and where cloud models still win.
Evaluating local AI for your business?
Most early-stage product ideas don't need a native mobile app. The right platform follows from how the product is actually used — not from what feels more impressive. A practical guide to making the decision before you commit to a build.
Figuring out your platform?
Most analytics advice is for startups tracking activation funnels. Small businesses need different questions answered. Search Console, GBP insights, and asking customers how they found you — that's the stack that matters.
Not sure what your analytics mean?
The most common way to waste development money is to build something nobody wants, then find out after it's built. Sign-up pages, prototype tests, and 10 honest conversations with target customers cost a fraction of a build — and tell you whether to proceed.
Have an idea to pressure-test?
The AWS vs Azure comparison assumes you need a Kubernetes cluster. For small business sites and app prototypes, Cloudflare Workers handles most of it better and cheaper — and the free tier is genuinely free.
Not sure where to host your project?
Most developers bill hourly. I don't. Hourly aligns the incentive with time spent, not with your outcome. Here's how flat-rate builds and monthly retainers work in practice — and when hourly actually makes sense.
Want a quote?
Most "should I migrate" articles are written by people trying to sell you a migration. An honest look at when WordPress is the right tool and when a static site on Cloudflare actually makes sense — based on who updates the content and what the site actually needs to do.
Not sure what your site actually needs?
ChatGPT has 900 million weekly users. Google AI Overviews answer 22% of searches. When someone asks an AI "who's the best contractor in Missoula?" — does your name come up? Here's the mechanics of how it actually works, backed by current research.
Want to know where you stand?
If you're a local business trying to figure out what the current web landscape actually means for you, or you have a product idea you want to pressure-test — reach out. I'll tell you what I think. If I can help, I'll say so. If a cheaper tool does the job, I'll say that too.
Let's have a 30-minute conversation about your business goals. No sales pitch, no pressure—just honest advice about whether and how we can help.
sales@brucepro.com
Same business day
Free, no obligation