Learn how a local business increased its online visibility and customer base through effective local SEO strategies in this Local SEO Case study.
This Local SEO case study focuses on 3 platforms, and how we optimized them:
- The Google Business Profile
- The website
- The Facebook page
Also, this is not only a case study. It’s a full-blown, step-by-step process for Local SEO, copywriting, and website success.
Here’s the pet service website this case study is based on.
Table of Contents
How we ranked a pet service business #1 on Google
Ranking a service business #1 is fairly simple, but it takes a lot of work and time.
Everything you do for local SEO basically revolves around these few things:
- Google My Business (GMB) Optimization: Claim and verify your Google My Business listing, ensuring all information (name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and categories) is accurate and up-to-date.
- Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords that potential customers might use to find your products or services in your local area.
- On-Page SEO: Optimize your website’s content for local keywords, including location-based terms, in titles, headers, and body content.
- Online Reviews & Reputation Management: Encourage customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google, Facebook, Yelp, and industry-specific review sites. Respond to reviews, both positive and negative, to show engagement.
- NAP Citations: Ensure your business’s Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) are consistent across all online directories and listings. Inaccurate or inconsistent NAP information can harm your local SEO efforts.
- Mobile Website Optimization: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly on mobile devices, as mobile search is crucial for local SEO.
- Social Media Presence: Maintain an active presence on relevant social media platforms and engage with your local audience.
All of these things lead to more organic visibility and a better experience for your potential customers.
From there, it’s up to you and your business to provide high-quality customer service, ultimately turning your prospect into a customer for life.
The 3 best Local SEO platforms
This is the holy trinity of local SEO:
- Ranking the website #1 (for your primary keyword)
- Ranking the Google Business Profile #1 in the “Map Pack”.
- Ranking the Facebook Page #2
You’ll always want your Facebook page to rank #2, because it’s better to have your website in position #1.
Primary tools used for our local SEO success
- Google Business Profile
- Carrd Website Builder
- Facebook Business Page
- Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
- Google’s PageSpeed Insights
The Facebook Page
The initial marketing and SEO strategy started with creating a Facebook page and sharing that page to local Facebook groups.
Facebook pages are often overlooked for local SEO, but they shouldn’t be, because they’re vital.
Here are a few reasons why Facebook is good for local SEO, and why we used it to promote this business.
Facebook pages rank well in search engines
When you search for a business in Google, assuming they implemented local SEO, it will show up in these 4 places:
- Their Google Business Profile
- Their website
- Their Facebook page
- Their Yelp page
This is free real estate on Google, so local businesses need to take advantage of it.
And, as you can see in the photo from earlier, the Doody Buddies Facebook page ranks higher than its competitor websites. That’s how powerful a Facebook page can be!
Lots of free traffic
Sharing our Facebook page in local Facebook groups is how we got free traffic and leads for our local business when it launched.
We also have supportive friends and family who like and share our business page + business page updates.
Lastly, being on Facebook shows that you’re a real person with a real business, which builds trust.
Facebook is a search engine
Facebook users don’t just search for friends on Facebook; they search for businesses, too!
Target demographic is middle-aged adults
Facebook is the most popular social media network for men and women aged 35-44.
This demographic has 2 things:
- Little time
- Generally, a good amount of money
This is great news for your local business!
Because what do people, especially busy people, purchase?
Convenience.
Always remember this.
Facebook customer reviews
Reviews on your Facebook page will go a long way in boosting your business credibility. Plus, this helps both your Facebook page and website rank higher in Google, and contributes to your overall brand.
Website pages
Since this is a single-page website built with the website builder “Carrd”, the extra website pages are “simulated pages”.
This means these “look” like other pages on the website, but they’re just another section of the homepage.
With that out of the way, here’s a breakdown of the home page and the simulated pages.
Home page
The Home page has a simple structure:
- A Logo
- An H1 tag, with the name of the business. This worked because the name of the business incorporates the service being offered.
- A single sentence explaining the service we offer, and where we offer it.
- A single sentence further explaining what we do, and how it makes our customer’s life better.
- 2 info buttons, and 1 CTA (call-to-action)
Contact page
Next, I want to show you the primary CTA (call-to-action), the Contact page.
As you can see, there are 3 ways the customer can contact the business:
- With a simple, to-the-point form
- They can send a message on Facebook
- They can use the click-to-call button. According to this in-depth study from aircall.io, 70% of mobile users use click-to-call, and 61% of searchers found click-to-call “Extremely/Very Important” in the purchase phase of decision making
Copywriting for the contact page
Now, let’s talk about the page’s simple copywriting.
The H2 reads: “Get a Quote“. This let’s customers know exactly what they’ll receive and learn by contacting the business.
Underneath the H2 is a single sentence reading “Send us a message and we could be scooping your yard as soon as tomorrow“.
“Send us a message” easily tells the customer what to do.
“We could be scooping your yard as soon as tomorrow” gives the customer a sense of urgency and a reason to message the business right away. After all, customers love getting serviced fast!
About page
Writing an about page was super simple.
To start, we used an H2 that says: “Pet Waste Removal in Pocatello, Idaho“.
This shows people and Google what the businesse’s primary service is, and where the service is offered.
From there, we put a message about the business that also shows the benefit for the customer:
“Doody Buddies gives you back your time by scooping your dog’s poop, so you never have to!”
The benefits: Gives you back your time, and you never have to scoop your dog’s poop.
The service: Scooping your dog’s poop
Using powerful words like “never” can make a big difference in the potential customer’s mind.
We also used the word “you”. This let’s the potential customer know that we are writing to them.
About page continued: The Team section
Here you’ll see the H3 tag titled: “The Team“.
Above “The Team“, we used a couple of simple, semi-professional photos of the business owners.
Underneath that is the team description.
The team description is simple:
- We wrote who runs the business: “Doody Buddies is ran by Miles and Makayla Halter“.
- We wrote where they provide services, and how long they’ve been servicing that area: “We have been serving the residents of Pocatello, Idaho, since January, 2021“.
- We wrote how much experience they have in their industry: “We have scooped well over 100 yards“.
- Customer persuasion: “We look forward to adding you to that list!“
The only thing that could make this “About” page better would be a CTA (call-to-action) after the description.
Pricing page
Be ultra-transparent with your pricing, and don’t promise or guarantee work that you cannot do confidently.
I don’t recommend having “discounts”. Use “packages” instead.
There isn’t much else to say about the pricing page.
Here’s the Doody Buddies pricing page:
Testing The Website for Local SEO
Testing a website nowadays is a piece of cake, thanks to modern tools provided to us by Google.
Mobile Optimization
We started by using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Website Test, which checks your website’s mobile usability.
As you can see, we got the green check-mark!
If you don’t get the green check, you’ll need to see what needs fixed.
Checking page-load speed
Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a life-saver.
Here are the Mobile PageSpeed Insights.
As you can see, I know what I’m talking about when it comes to SEO, at least according to Google.
But I can’t take all of the credit. I have exceptional tools available that make this a piece of cake to do.
Here are the Desktop PageSpeed Insights.
We can reduce the Largest Contentful Paint by reducing our image file sizes, but it’s not a big concern. It’s under 6 seconds on mobile, and for this website, that’s good enough!
Afterall, it blows our competitors’ websites out of the water.
Local SEO Keyword Optimization
I’ve discussed this briefly as it relates to each website page, but here’s a further breakdown and recap.
Local SEO keyword optimization has a simple formula:
Service + Location
For this local website, we said “Pet Waste Removal in Pocatello, Idaho“.
And guess what? It works!
- It let’s Google know where you’re located
- It helps potential customers know that you’re near them
- It shows both Google and potential customers what your core service/ product is
Stupidly simple, yet so underutilized by local businesses.
On-page SEO
With our keyword in mind, on-page SEO was a piece of cake for the Doody Buddies website.
And if you’re SEO-savvy, I do realize there’s more I could for the website. But the way it’s setup right now is more than okay.
This is backed up by the PageSpeed Insights score of 100 for: Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO!
Google Business Profile
Of course, we wanted to increase our website and our Google Business Profile rankings.
This is arguably just as important, if not more important, than the local website. Every local business needs a Google Business Profile.
Ranking our business profile at the top of the map pack boiled down to a few things:
- Reviews
- A simple, but optimized profile
- Having a website
From here, it’s all about answering calls from the profile and responding to reviews.
That’s the basics!
Here’s a further breakdown.
Basic recurring tasks
We managed these ongoing tasks for the Google Business Profile.
- Replied to all customer reviews
- Responded to customers
- Asked for reviews
What we could do better:
- Get more reviews. 5 is the minimum suggested; If you’re in a more competitive industry, you’ll generally need at least 30 reviews.
- Post more photos
- Post updates
The only reason we aren’t doing this is because we’re content with our position in the SERPs.
Lastly, we do 2 simple things related to customer service that will make or break your Google Business Profile:
- We always answer calls
- We have reasonable hours
Setting up the Google Business Profile
Google sends the most traffic to the businesses that provide the best customer experiences. That means:
- Accurate hours (even during holidays)
- Accurate location information
- Accurate contact information
- Clear description of what services are available
- Fast customer response times
- Good mobile experience on your website
We did this for our profile, then moved onto the most important step:
We got verified
Getting verified will make you shine in the eyes of Google, so don’t ignore it.
Also, we used the real business name, and didn’t use keyword stuffing. Report competitors that use keyword stuffing.
Lastly, we synchronized the website location with the Google Business Profile location.
We added service photos
The easiest photo to start with is the Logo.
From there, the best photos are related to your service or product.
Post images of your product or service in action, or before and after photos
Lastly, use an enticing cover photo!
Local SEO Case Study Takeaways
Single-Page Websites Are Good for Local SEO
A single-page website is not just good for local SEO, it’s great! The SEO score of 100, from Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, proves this.
They’re best for local businesses that offer a single product or service, though. It’s much harder to make them work if you offer a wide variety of services because each service needs its own website page.
However, if you have a single offer, a one-page website will rank well for you.
On top of this, customers appreciate the simple user experience and structure of single-page websites.
How do I know this? I’ve asked customers, that’s how.
Family and friends boost local SEO
If you’re providing a service or product that matters, and one that your friends and family can understand and proudly promote, you’ll easily get organic visibility with social media, especially Facebook.
Also, if your friends use your services, they can leave you a review! That’s a quick and easy win for you!
Reviews are everything
Getting reviews, then managing those reviews, is so important.
And to get these reviews, you’ll have to reach out to some customers and ask for the review. And if you want them to leave good reviews, you need to provide the best customer experience.
Provide the best user experience
Provide the best experience for your customers by:
- Having answers to all of your customer’s questions on your website
- Providing accurate information on your Google Business Profile
- Making it easy for customers to contact you
- Always replying to your customer’s messages
Leads become customers when the user experience is easy.
And at the end of the day, providing a good experience for the customer is what Local SEO is all about.
Boost your local SEO today
Now that you’ve read the case study, are you ready to improve your leads and revenue by using local SEO?
If so, get in touch! I love talking to business owners like you, and you have nothing to lose by scheduling this free call.
