This is where playing the Local SEO cards right can make a big difference.
As we said, these are not "big numbers", but they did make the difference and build an order backlog through the end of 2022 for this solar installation company.
Starting point: a project with no visibility and no recognized brand
Let us briefly describe the situation we found before Marta, Arnau and Jorge took over the project.
The truth is that in October 2021, the client's website was stuck and its visibility was practically zero in the SERPs, as you can see in the following image:
On top of that, there was also the added difficulty of several weak points such as:
Still, we got to work, trying to make the most of the project's strengths:
And the opportunity to focus on Local SEO from the start, knowing that the client's margin on each installation service was high, and their offering was superior to the competition in price and performance given they had a small but highly professional team.
The challenge: ranking profitable local business keywords within a 30 km radius
The big problem we faced was how to gain visibility for a project with highly competitive keywords in a tough market niche with low search volume, as you can see in this screenshot:
But thanks to this, we had all the freedom in the world to start rolling out our "total SEO" where we knew we'd find the least resistance: Google's local pack
So we decided to partially step away from the blue links at first to focus on improving and creating new local-service pages on the site and boosting them with GMB listings.
The question: is it possible to grow transactions and revenue in such a tightly-scoped project?
So, although we decided to prioritize the entire local SEO setup, we didn't forget about other aspects such as:
And it allowed us to tackle the Local Pack while also working on the blue links, doubling the number of SERP results where we could appear.
The solution: boost the brand, landings oriented to local search, and build visibility via GMB listings
Step 1: Creating 14 new optimized Google My Business listings
The clear goal of this action was to tackle local-intent searches regardless of their volume, to appear in the SERPs in at least two results: one for the local pack and one for the blue links.
Since the client's products could only be transported within a 30 km range, we identified all the locations where searches for services related to the company were showing up in Google's Local Pack so we could start claiming and creating the Google My Business listings.
This way, we could compete with two organic results instead of one.
Step 2: Linking the GMB listings to a location page optimized for sales
The landings, or rather the local pages, must match users' local search intent.
In this case, the location page is optimized to rank using a local long-tail of the type service keyword + city: "Elderly care in Barcelona".
*Note: if you have several locations, we recommend writing customized copy for the different location pages to avoid having similar or duplicate content.
Step 3: Working informational blog content to boost transactional intent
The main goal here was identifying user queries close to the purchase-decision stage.
This analysis was rounded out with a selection of relevant terms from the Google suggest feature and Google Trends.
This way it was possible to present an opportunity-keyword report to the client, with which to propose a fast, focused and high-impact content strategy for the business.
Step 4: Implementing structured data
What we did was simple but important: adding schema markup to each page according to its content.
We leaned on the well-known Rank Math plugin, which made local data markup much easier on the client's WordPress.
Step 5: Link building to build brand entity and improve authority
Finally, once all the technical SEO and content issues were resolved, we kicked off link building with the goal of matching competitor authority with external links and "citations".
In this case, we first analysed the competitors' link profile to replicate the valuable links.
And secondly, we focused on improving the site's authority by earning links from specialized blogs and media in the sector that could drive referral traffic to our brand.
In conclusion: performance above expectations
The image above shows the significant increase in impressions, which translated into a flow of calls and quote requests that led the company to lock in an order backlog for the next 4 months and set up a waiting list for new clients.
For that reason, if you're in a market niche with local search intent and need a push, we recommend contacting us. We'll surely find a valid SEO strategy to help you rank in the SERPs.