SEO Case Study

Construction Industry

Developing your service-based company’s online authority is one of the best ways to attract new customers.

People searching for home repair companies, dental offices, or legal services want to know whether they’re hiring industry experts. Google’s search algorithm also boosts websites with high authority. Therefore, building authority should be one of your primary goals besides increased traffic and keywords.

This case study will show how a construction company working with us boosted its monthly traffic by over 1,000 visitors. And, more importantly, how they developed authority in the construction industry with a 400% increase in backlinks.

Keep reading below to find out how it was done.

Background

A painting/construction company based in Omaha Nebraska reached out to us wanting to increase their rankings and boost their online business. This family-owned and operated company has been providing specialized services to its service area since the early 2000s.

We knew a robust SEO strategy including content and link building would increase monthly website traffic, but the company’s other goal was to optimize their local SEO with Google My Business. Local SEO is as important as general SEO for service-based companies like this client.

Once we started having conversations with them, we knew our managed SEO service was the right product. 

The SEO Audit

Before we can devise a winning strategy, we need to conduct an audit of a client’s website to find out its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth.

First, we studied their monthly web traffic. Even though there had been some historic growth, the company’s number of visitors each month never surpassed 250. During the same period, its number of ranking keywords hovered around 100.

Earning backlinks is an effective and powerful way to boost a website’s traffic. A backlink is when an external website links to your website, which is typically done through content like blogs. The construction company had an average of 20 backlinks at any given time.

Finally, we determined that the value of its current traffic was a few hundred dollars each month. The client didn’t have pay-per-click or PPC ads, but if they did that’s how much it would cost to pay for the same amount of traffic.

“Easy Wins” Keyword Research

Our next step in the process is to search for “easy win” keywords. These are keywords ranking in positions No. 4-30 that we can easily add to a client’s website to gain immediate results.

These keywords are typically low to medium difficulty and have a lower cost-per-click or CPC value. They won’t require as much of an effort as those ranking in positions No. 1-3.

We found 150+ “easy win” keywords. Not only do these keywords give us topic ideas for new blogs, but they can be added throughout web pages to boost rankings.

Competitive Gap Analysis

There is a lot that can be learned from studying the competition. After identifying the “easy win” keywords, we also search for unique keywords that our competitors are ranking for. These are keywords we can add to our SEO strategy to stay competitive.

Thirty-seven domains are in direct competition with the construction company. Some of these domains are more similar to the client than others. Many of their services overlap, yet we understand that every business is different.

With one competitor, for example, we found 445 keywords that our client wasn’t ranking for. Our team could comb through this list looking for relevant keywords that would help our SEO strategy.

The SEO Strategy

Once we’ve completed an audit of the client’s site and a competitive gap analysis, we’re ready to design and implement an individualized SEO strategy. We enrolled the client in our managed SEO service so they had access to our full suite of products and a dedicated campaign manager to lead them through the process.

The first step was building up content on the website. Content is imperative to attracting new online visitors. They also help with developing a company’s authority in that field.

Our team researched trending topics and effective keywords for the client. We also managed internal and external links, and we ensured all content had a compelling call to action. 

Through our link-building service, we reached out to existing blogs in the client’s niche. These backlinks improve a client’s domain authority and signal to Google that the website is a valuable resource. Part of the link-building strategy was also to ensure a diversity of backlink sources and anchor texts.

This client also specifically requested that we optimize their local SEO to rank on Google My Business and appear in the top map pack positions. Google My Business is a great way for local businesses to appear in searches. They enter business data, verify hours of operation, respond to local reviews, and add media.

Local ranking is determined by Google according to how well the business matches the search, distance from the user, and local prominence. Learn more about local SEO in this blog we wrote last year!

Overall, this client took advantage of several products to boost their SEO. Rather than paying for each product separately, they had access to use whatever they needed by enrolling in our fully managed SEO service. Now let’s take a look at whether our strategy worked.

Results

After a few months with this new strategy, we were excited to report results to the client. Their traffic started to spike in the middle of 2020.

The client went from less than 250 monthly visitors to a record 1,500 this summer. One of the ways we achieved this was by ranking for more keywords across blogs and web copy. They also started ranking prominently in the Google map pack.

As you can see below, the client only ranked for approximately 330 keywords in the beginning. We increased their organic keywords to 750, which also included a significant increase in keywords at positions No. 4-10.

Link building was a large part of the SEO strategy as well. The construction company averaged around 20 backlinks when they first started working with us. Our new guest posts and link outreach resulted in the client maintaining close to 100 backlinks. That’s a 400% increase in backlinks!

Takeaway

An SEO strategy can make or break your business. The right strategy can earn you thousands of new monthly visitors. Not doing anything can leave your business trapped in the status quo.

Our mission is to get to know our clients. We want to understand their business model and what goals they have for the future. That way we can partner with them to create an effective SEO strategy that will grow their business. Many of our clients have been experiencing success thanks to our fully managed SEO service. It allows them to easily access all of our digital marketing services and put their marketing on autopilot. They can also be as hands-on or hands-off as they wish. Schedule a call with us if you’re interested in learning more.