The numbers
What Changed for the Equipment Hire Business
Where it sat before the new site went live, and where it sits one month on.
| Its main local search | 34th to 3rd |
|---|---|
| The map results | Not showing to 2nd |
| People finding it through search | 24 a month to 190 a month |
| Enquiries from search | 5 a month to 9 a month |
The first month
Three Weeks to Page One
The site went live on a new domain, so there were no old pages to untangle and no rankings to inherit. The search it needed was held by a handful of directory pages and by one competitor who has been on page one of it for years.
The directory pages are beatable, because they are thin and they answer the category rather than naming a business somebody can ring. The one competitor was the reason the job needed more than a new website.
It was on page one three weeks after the site went live, and the enquiries followed the map listing rather than the website, which is what happens in a trade where somebody who needs a scissor lift by Tuesday looks at the map and rings the first number that answers.
The work was the new site, the Google Business Profile filled out properly, and the local SEO behind both.
A second example
A Northern Rivers Plumbing Company
The website had been up for years and was not appearing for the trade, not for the town, and in some searches not even for the business's own name.
It now appears when somebody in that area searches for a commercial plumber. An established business starts from a different place from a brand new site, because the trading history, the reviews and the years of customers already exist. There is more on how that works across the trades on the SEO for trades page.
★★★★★
We'd been operating for a while but weren't getting the visibility we expected from Google. Dave went through the site and our Google presence, fixed the important things and made it much clearer what we actually do and where we work. We've seen a noticeable uptick in enquiries since the work started.
Commercial plumbing business · Ballina
A longer run
Sixteen Months of Search Console for a Wedding Business
A wedding and events business, across the sixteen months of history Search Console keeps. In that window the site was shown 114,000 times in Google results and picked up 1,290 clicks from them.
Over the whole period the click-through rate averages 1.1% and the average position 29.7. Both of those are sixteen month averages rather than where it sits today. The movement is in the graph: impressions and clicks both climb through the back half of the period, with the week to week noise organic search always has.
Why One Business Moves Faster Than Another
How fast a business moves depends mostly on how many others are chasing the same search. A category with three or four serious local competitors in it is a different job from a category with forty, where the businesses at the top have been collecting reviews the whole time.
The state of the Google listing is the other thing that sets the pace. A listing that was set up once and never finished can move inside a few weeks, because the category, the service areas, the hours and the photos are all things that can be corrected straight away.
The work runs from $199 a week, month to month, and the pricing page has the detail. If you want to know where your own business sits, send the site over for a free site check and I will tell you what I would do about it first.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Ring me on 0418 291 227 if there is something else you want to know. Email and the other ways to get hold of me are on the contact page.
Can I see the actual search data?
Yes. I can take you through the Search Console figures behind every number on this page. The business is not named here, but the data is real and I will show you where each figure comes from.
How long before I see results in Byron Bay?
The equipment hire business was on page one in three weeks, because that category is a thin category. Two to three months is the usual answer before anything is obvious in the search results, and longer again in a crowded category. The Google listing can move sooner.
Do you guarantee first page?
No, and nobody honestly can. What you get is a written plan of what I would do first and an update every month showing what has moved.
What happens if it does not work?
You stop. It is month to month, and the website, the Google listing and the ad account are all in your name.