How a Local Lawn Care Company Obtained a 1350% Increase in Phone Calls With SEO
Our SEO department ensures our clients understand that ranking in organic search is a progressive process requiring a calculated team of strategists, developers, and content writers following all recommended practices. It’s not usual to see results almost immediately after kickstarting an SEO campaign; however, sometimes, we encounter pleasant surprises.
Over the last five months, our SEO team, composed of a knowledgeable SEO strategist, content manager, and senior web developer, has led a content strategy for a local, small landscaping business called Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care.
In this case study, we will show you an exposé on the results of an SEO campaign developed by our hard-working team that has skyrocketed faster than expected. We’ve obtained a 440% boost in website clicks, 1,350% in phone call leads through organic search, and a 388% increase in online impressions through our multi-phased optimization campaign.
Here’s how we did it.
About Our Client
Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care is a lawn and tree care company located in Charleston, South Carolina. The local coastal climate makes it ideal for businesses focusing on landscaping and tree services to thrive in a growing industry. They focus on providing tree trimming, pruning, stump removal, maintenance, and lawn gardening services to locals 50 miles around the city.
With over seven years of industry experience, this Latino-owned company struggled to obtain organic search leads. They had hired Top Floor Marketing to develop a Google Business Profile campaign but weren’t obtaining the desired results.
Without the budget for Search Ads or other types of Pay-Per-Click services for immediate leads, our sales team advised the company owner about the impact of a Google Business Profile strategy in conjunction with local SEO services, and thus, our partnership began.
The SEO Team
Top Floor Marketing counts on a talented team of SEO strategists, content writers, and web developers who specifically manage and provide services for clients needing search engine optimization. Our services provide small to large businesses with on-page, off-page, and technical changes that boost online organic traffic with constant monitoring of changes in SERP rankings, keyword traffic, technical changes, and content management.
With this in mind, Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care was assigned to a three-person team, including a leading SEO strategist, a web developer, and a content writer. The squad addressed all challenges and advantages and developed solutions tailored specifically to our clients’ expectations.
Facing Challenges
The challenging limitations initially faced by our SEO team were website-related. The client didn’t have an SEO-ready web page. Pre-existing pages weren’t indexed and properly recognized by Google, meta tags and titles weren’t applied, and no Google Search Console or Analytics property was installed to compare and analyze the marketing funnel properly.
With this in mind, we ensured the client knew that the lead collection and traffic data might occur slowly, as brand-new websites with no previous online presence are harder to boost than websites with an already standing authority and traffic.
The Strategic Solution
Our SEO team developed a four-phase solution to solve the outstanding challenges and optimize Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care to increase organic traffic and boost phone call conversions. Our process involved the following:
Phase 1: Local SEO Optimization and Research
Phase 1: Local SEO Optimization and ResearchOur local SEO optimization starts with identifying technical issues and installing all tools necessary for tracking and keyword research.
Phase 2: Content Strategy Development
Phase 2: Content Strategy DevelopmentOur content strategy development focused on evaluating their services to devise a content plan and topic clusters relevant to their services.
Phase 3: Landing Page Development
Phase 3: Landing Page DevelopmentWe developed and designed informative landing pages and followed SEO best practices.
Phase 4: Directory Link Building Strategy
Phase 4: Directory Link Building StrategyWe focused on gathering high-quality backlinks from reputable directories related to their niche to increase website authority.
Phase 1
• Website audit
• Keyword research
• GBP listings
• Google tracking tools
Phase 2
• Target demographic
• Keyword mapping
• Content opportunities
• Content strategy
Phase 3
• Keyword integration
• Landing page creation
• Social proof
• Call to actions
Phase 4
• Backlinking gap analyzing
• Directory link building
• Niche local directories
Strategy Implementation
With all the necessary steps in mind, our SEO team devised a detailed strategy to tackle Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care with utmost care and consideration for the client’s goals and expectations. We expected a six-month minimum timeline to start seeing tangible and measurable changes in traffic and position. Still, as you’ll see, we started seeing results early in the process.
Phase 1: Local SEO Optimization and Research
Auditing the company’s website to identify technical SEO issues
With proper technical audits using our SE Ranking platform, Screaming Frog, and handy, free tools like Google Lighthouse and Google Mobile Usability Insights, we identified issues like broken internal links, 4XX and 5XX errors, loading speed issues, and problems with accessibility.
As mentioned before, Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care was not SEO-ready, so after fixing technical errors and ensuring the webpage was mobile-friendly and accessible to users, we indexed sitemaps and pages in Google Search Console.
Tools used:
Local keyword research and competition analysis
Once all technical fixes were in place and the site indexing process began, the SEO team proceeded with two of the most important steps in the SEO process: keyword research and competitor analysis.
How did this help?
- By identifying the top five local competitors on SERP results for Charleston Lawn Care and Tree Services, we extracted their keyword strategy to identify focus and LSI keyword opportunities for local searches.
- After identifying their competitor’s keywords, we conducted further keyword research in our SE Ranking platform, which allowed us to identify further opportunities for content and intent.
This allows us to map keywords to their services, developing a user-friendly site architecture that search engines can easily crawl. With the right keywords, we could create relevant content with a higher chance of ranking in search results.
Keywords like “tree services charleston” and “lawn care services charleston sc” were among the relevant phrases found in our research that we optimized landing pages for.
Tools Used:
Optimizing Google My Business Listings
Though Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care already had a Google Business Listing managed by Top Floor Marketing, the SEO team optimized their GBP profile.
- We ensured NAP (name, address, phone) was consistent across both platforms.
- We listed all service locations fifty miles around the city of Charleston, SC.
- We optimized business listings and posts to promote their services.
Tools Used:
Setting Up Google Tracking Tools
To track organic traffic and conversions, our team promptly set up a Google Analytics and Search Console property to analyze user behavior, phone link clicks, and contact format sent. This also allowed us to finish setting up the project in our SE Ranking platform for easier monitoring.
- We defined phone link clicks and contact forms on Google Analytics as a conversion to measure user interest in their services. The more phone calls and contact forms Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care obtained, the more we knew our content and keyword intent were what the target audience was looking for.
- With Google Search Console in place, we could track organic traffic for our desired queries and keywords and analyze what page was getting more traffic from organic searches.
Tools Used:
Organize local schemas
Accurately incorporating local schema codes in our client’s website search engines could properly track essential business details from the company. Marking up company names, addresses, phone numbers, and other details increases the chances that Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care will appear in local searches.
Tools Used:
Phase 2: Content Strategy Development
Defining a target demographic
Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care’s target demographic is homeowners over 30 looking for reliable landscaping for their residential properties. They target mid-income and high-income households with gardens and lawns that require more extensive lawn care.
They also cater to businesses needing commercial landscape maintenance and tree-cutting services. In an area like Charleston, humid and airy, proper tree and lawn care is required for any type of property.
We made sure to target our content and define intent specifically for this target demographic, keeping the tone professional but engaging.
Keyword mapping
By mapping keywords in an easily accessible and readable spreadsheet, we organized our keywords by focus, intent, search volume, and difficulty. It also allowed us to define the website’s architecture, which would be developed as we drafted landing pages.
Keyword mapping allowed us to define a specific focus keyword for every service (i.e: “tree removal charleston sc”) and develop a strategy for more local keywords with relevant locations around the Charleston area (Goose Creek, North Charleston, Summerville, and others). We also assigned 3-5 LSI keywords per page.
- Higher volume keywords with commercial and local intent were assigned to the existing home and service page.
- Later, we defined other relevant keywords for tree trimming, cutting, removal, and lawn care to take advantage of proper opportunities for content development.
Tools Used:
Identifying content opportunities
With SE Ranking’s content gap analysis tool, we compared existing content from local competitors to understand content opportunities, including further landing pages for their services and blog post ideas where we could create topic clusters.
It’s important to point out that despite having an already standing blog post strategy, our team decided that developing their services to find more potential customers was more paramount than developing blog posts for the time being.
Tools used:
Developing a content strategy
With content opportunities defined, landing pages mapped with keywords, and a proper idea of the future of the site’s architecture, our SEO team developed a content strategy for Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care.
- Landing pages for services were defined as primary targets in the content development stage.
- With proper keywords in place, meta titles, meta descriptions, headings, and internal linking strategies were mapped.
- Topic clusters concerning existing services, such as customer success stories and mega guides related to lawn and tree care, were also developed for future blog posts that could increase website authority.
Tools used:
Phase 3: Landing Page Development
Keyword integration
Integrating the mapped keywords into existing content and ensuring latent semantic keywords were also incorporated was essential.
- The home page was optimized for the chosen local and commercial keywords.
- The first four pages were developed in four months because the client paid for our SEO basic plan.
Landing page creation
In the landing page creation stage, we used SE Ranking’s Content Editor to compare our content with competitors. Using their recommendations, we surpassed competitors with quality content written for users, not search engines, while incorporating previously mapped keyword strategies.
- The tool gave us insights on keywords used by competitors, word count, image integrations, and other data relevant to creating engaging content that converts.
- The competitor’s maximum content score amounted to about 75%, but our content surpassed the competition to a whopping >90% quality score.
Tools used:
Social proof
With over 50 reviews on their GBP profile and Thumbtack, we provided users with social proof of the quality of our client’s services. With a 5-star rating on Google and a 4.9-star rating on Thumbtack, we could incorporate a review slider on existing landing pages and those under development to show users that their services were trustworthy.
- Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care has over 100 positive reviews on both platforms.
- When searching for tree services in Charleston on Google Maps, our client is well positioned in the first five local business profiles.
- We also incorporated their Thumbtack Top Pro badge on their profile.
Tools Used:
Incorporating calls-to-action
We developed call-to-action-oriented content to increase our conversion rate, gather more phone calls, and incite customers to fill out contact forms and contact our clients. This method reminds customers that accessing estimates, calling the company, and inquiring about services is easy.
- We knew using action buttons with “call now” or “contact us” or incorporating contact forms into existing landing pages would make contact easier.
- We made sure to measure all forms and phone calls in Google Analytics.
Phase 4: Directory Link Building
We developed quality directory backlinks online by identifying relevant online directories that are authoritative and credible within the industry. We also used our competitor’s backlinks to analyze any directories we missed in our search.
- We optimized directory listings with relevant keywords, business descriptions, and tags to enhance visibility and relevance.
- We focused on local directories, such as Google My Business, Yelp, and Bing Places, to improve local search visibility.
Tools used:
The Results Were Tangible
Through this strategy, we could see tangible and credible results within the first 4 MONTHS of service. Though unexpected, our SEO team was incredibly pleased with the results, and we expect further developments, especially during busier seasons in the spring and summer.
Here’s what we found:
• Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care went from receiving 2 phone calls in the first month to receiving 23 phone calls. 20 were relevant leads from the United States and the Charleston area. That’s a 1,350% increase in calls!
• Form submissions also skyrocketed. Our client received 23 form submissions in the four months, surpassing our expectations.
• Their website received 10 clicks and 469 impressions during their first month with us. However, last month, they received 44 clicks and over 1,800 impressions. That is a 440% increase in web clicks and a 388% increase in impressions!
• Total traffic from October 19, 2024, to February 19, 2024, amounts to 107 clicks and over 5,000 impressions, with an average positioning in relevant local keywords of 9. That means most targeted keywords are positioned in the first 10 SERP results.
It’s Still a Work In Progress
Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care still has a long way to go. The remaining landing pages must still be developed, and the topic cluster strategy for blogs and informational posts will be spearheaded soon.
However, the results are positive, with a positive tendency. We can expect an even future increase in traffic, clicks, and phone calls as we develop more pages that target more local and commercial keywords. Seasonality will help boost leads, and their social proof will help them establish their business as a reliable tree and lawn care service in Charleston.
In Conclusion…
Hernandez Trees & Lawn Care has been a pleasant and unexpected surprise for our SEO team. In five months, they have boosted their leads to over 1,350% and website clicks to an impressive 440% increase. The client’s interest in their business, their collaborative efforts with our SEO team, and all the best practices applied in the project will surely help our client’s business grow in the coming months.