Today, I will share how I helped a local tree management service business based in Los Angeles, California to grow and gain more than 120% new local traffic in just 12 months. The local SEO case study reveals an effective strategy to:
- Increase lead conversion by more than 12.7%
- 1150+ natural keyword indexing in 12 months
- 100% or more growth in leads and visitors
- CTR improved 1.4%
Case Overview
The site was more than 3 years old. It was a custom-built site in WordPress.
Service pages seemed okay. But the other content pages had some technical issues with a lack of info depth.
Also, we figured that local keyword research was missing when the existing content planning was made.
In this case, I found these issues that need our attention.
- Zero optimization in GMB profile
- No response to customer queries and reviews
- Lack of SEO-friendly articles
- Improper media (especially image)
- Multiple technical issues like missing meta, alt text, poor content structure, etc.
- The client was probably unaware of social media marketing, local citation, and listing
Our Precise Strategy to Boost Local SEO
After noting down all the deliverables and objectives of this project, we made a precise roadmap with true local SEO rank factors. I divided this project into 7 parts.
Competitor Research
I had to go through our competitors first.
Competitor research helped us know:
- Which type of content we should focus on,
- Which sites are eligible for backlinks,
- Where to list the website,
- Primary local keyword research,
- and Service benefits we should focus on in landing pages
Optimizing GMB Profile & Website NAP
The client didn’t give us the GMB access. So, I analyzed the profile and mailing feedback to him.
I told the owner to be more active in responding to the reviews given on the profile.
Also, I sent a list of local keywords that should be used in the Business profile bio.
Most importantly, the client was told to implement NAP (number, address, and phone number) on the profile.
Apart from that, I requested the client for these additional works:
- Ask for reviews from customers
- Adding FAQs to the list
Technical SEO
I had to fix the technical errors to avoid penalties and rank drops.
Our experts recreated meta tags for each page. They also went through alt texts to change the irrelevant ones.
Besides, the whole website got new content structures.
We made sure the URLs for the pages remain short and understandable to Search Engines.
Other technical works included title fixing, keyword density check on each page, etc.
Improving User Experience
In mobile optimization, the team worked on image resizing. Image GEO tagging was also a part of this phase.
Landing pages or service pages gained some clear visuals for sales generation.
Some changes in font sizes were made for a better experience.
I also tracked down user behaviors for further improvement.
Creating High-Value Content
The website was full of thin and irrelevant articles. They were not categorized properly.
First, the content team used Hotjar to get a clear website heatmap and user behaviors. Then, they collected a local SEO heatmap based on Google Maps.
My team did a thorough local keyword research following the materials we had. Based on it, new content was written.
| Page URL | Keyword | Current Position |
| https://atlas-tree.com/services/cabling-and-bracing/ | tree cabling services “Santa Rosa” | 2 |
| https://atlas-tree.com/services/utility-line-clearance/ | utility line clearing “Santa Rosa” | 2 |
| https://atlas-tree.com/services/large-tree-removal/ | large tree removal services “Santa Rosa” | 2 |
| https://atlas-tree.com/ | tree management services “Santa Rosa” | 2 |
| https://atlas-tree.com/services/certified-arborist/ | certified arborist report “Santa Rosa” | 2 |
In the existing articles, I fixed:
- Sentence length, paragraph length, etc.
- Headings and keyword placements
- Info gaps
Authority Link Building
The backlink job in this project was almost the same as on other occasions.
- I analyzed the competitors to know which sites are providing them with references or backlinks.
- All broken and spam links were removed from the website.
- The focus was on local citations most of the time.
- We enrolled the client’s site in Yelp, Bing Places, BBB, etc.
- A unique method was link-exchange offers with high-value domains.
It was understandable that quality backlinks wouldn’t be enough for quick growth. So, my shortcut was publishing links and posts on social media.
The Result
After 12 months:
- New Users: 18.27%
- Lead Conversion Increased: 12.7%
- Total Traffic Increased: 98%
- CTR Improved: 1.4%
- New Keywords Indexed: 1150
- Total Search Traffic: 1054
Not only that, but Performance Indicators in CallRail PP. The stats are:
- Conversion Rate: 36.25%
- Completion Increased to: 72.22%
Overall, I was able to increase phone calls to 95.24%, and the business got 64.67% more conversion than the previous year.
In Short
In case you missed something or skipped the whole content in shortage of time, here are the key points:
- Optimize the GMB profile with NAP, localized keywords, and updated information
- Respond to questions and reviews on the Business profile
- Conduct keyword research and heatmap analysis focused on the business location
- Content should fulfill user intent, including clear CTA parts for better credibility and conversion
- Exist on local listing sites and forums with official names
