The Timeframe
Goals
The Work
We built the site in early 2022 but did not engage with SEO and Paid Search efforts until December 2022. We used the landscaping “off-season” to build up internal content by rewriting service page content, creating a new blog, and optimizing the Google Business Profile.
SEO
At the start of this SEO engagement, this site had a Domain authority of 0, and they were only ranking for 1 keyword in the top 10 at the time.
We eliminated as many barriers to submitting a lead form as possible on the website, integrating clear CTA’s across the site header and on each service page. We also upgraded Google Analytics from Universal Analytics to GA4 and implemented tracking code via GTM to speed up and simplify any tracking changes while maintaining consistent tracking coverage.
Through our proven Keyword Research approach, we identified opportunities that Alpine Landscaping, LLC’s competitors were not capitalizing on.
Paid Media
We started paid media work on December 7th, beginning with low-funnel paid search efforts to capture highly-relevant searches with a good chance of converting to leads quickly.
Before long, we began to support these search efforts with Display and Discovery ads, which have a much larger reach than search ads and can generate significant lead volume at a comparable Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA).
- For some verticals, awareness campaigns can be much more effective because the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) for the searches you need are nauseatingly high, and you have no guarantees that those high CPC searches will provide anything in return.
- CPCs for services like roofing and landscaping can easily exceed $50 due to the competition for those searches.
- Another benefit of these types of ads is that they generate more brand awareness, so people are more likely to think of you when they need the services that you provide.
This combination of the low funnel (Search) & high funnel (Discovery + Display) campaign types was able to generate significant lead volume with an exceptionally high rate of return.
The Results
We are a business-oriented agency, and we understand that all the flowery, complicated metrics in the world won’t matter to business owners if they don’t see bottom-line results. The bottom line is this:
- 2x Revenue - Revenue was on-pace to double from 2022 to 2023
- Business Growth - Lead volume was healthy enough that Alpine Landscaping was considering adding another crew to take on more work.
From the period of 12/7/22 to 6/1/23, the number of unique visitors to the site increased by 250% and the Average Engagement Time Per User increased by 50%.
There are plenty of ways to increase visitors to a site, but they will often result in a significantly decreased engagement time - the fact that both increased substantially means that our campaigns were capturing the right users at the right time.
SEO performance improved significantly during this time thanks to consistent content creation, on-page optimization, and supporting awareness efforts. During this 7-month SEO campaign, we saw:
- A 930% increase in Organic Impressions
- A 131% increase in Organic Clicks
- A 141% increase in Branded searches
- Domain Authority increased from 0 to 8
- 4 keywords ranking in the top 3
- 6 keywords ranking in the top 10
The following chart breaks down lead submissions by source during this time:
During this engagement, we developed and implemented a marketing strategy that significantly impacted the bottom line of a relatively young business in a competitive landscape (no pun intended).
This case study also highlights the importance of combining paid and organic efforts - paid media campaigns allow success in the short term, but they can incur significant costs over the life of your business if you don’t find a way to increase the free traffic to your website.
- As you can see from the 2 charts above, the organic search conversions are disproportionately high compared to the number of users that it generated - a strong organic presence clearly pays big dividends.
If this situation sounds familiar and you’re interested in learning more about our services, contact us for a complimentary consultation!