From page four to within reach of the first page. 130% more keywords on page one.
A design-build firm creating patios, pools, planting and outdoor carpentry for homeowners and commercial clients was ranking, but so deep that almost nobody clicked. I took on the SEO just before Christmas 2025. The site was rebuilt and relaunched at the end of March 2026, and I followed it with town pages and homeowner guides. By August, the site held page-one rankings for 130% more searches than in January.
Results
Keywords on page one
Keywords in the top three
Ranking, technically. Being chosen, rarely.
In January 2026 the average position was about 39, which is page four of Google. Only a modest number of searches put the site on page one, and only a few dozen in the top three. Over the first three months, close to nine in every ten of the few clicks earned from page-one rankings came from people typing the company's own name.
Two more things shaped the plan. The existing website was in another firm's hands until a new one launched, so the site itself was not mine to change at first. And the business is strongly seasonal: the client describes spring into early summer as flat out and the winter months as slow. My January baseline falls in the slow stretch, so a share of the later growth in impressions is simply the season.
Relaunch, then towns, then answers
The work followed the client's onboarding answers, a strategy call in March and my June 2026 baseline report.
- 01
Brief the business properly
The onboarding questionnaire, completed two days before Christmas, set out the scope: designing, building and maintaining outdoor spaces, with exteriors as the speciality, for private homes and bespoke commercial projects. The four service pillars were hardscaping, planting and landscape design, pools, and carpentry.
- 02
Pick topics after the strategy call
A strategy call during March 2026 settled which subjects to cover first, and design-build topics moved to the top of the list. Even before the relaunch, average position had already climbed from about 39 to 22 between January and March.
- 03
Give each town its own page
Once the rebuilt site was live at the end of March, I added local landing pages for the suburbs the firm actually works in. A handful were live by the June report and about a dozen more were in progress, each one aimed at service-plus-town searches that a single homepage cannot win.
- 04
Answer what homeowners ask before they hire
Around twenty articles were written and about a dozen published by June, covering landscape design, hardscaping, pools and choosing who to hire. They include guides on what good design is worth to a property, choosing the right designer, and how a designer's fees compare with an architect's.
Closer to page one, and more often in the top three
By August 2026 the site held first-page positions for 130% more searches than in January, and top-three positions for 230% more. Average position moved from around 39 to 15, from page four to the middle of page two. Setting January to March against June to August, the page-one count grew 70% and the top-three count 110%. Among the top-three searches were service-plus-town phrases, each led by one of the new town pages.
Monthly impressions grew about 40% from January to August, and part of that is the busy season. Bing's Copilot cited the site about 60% more often in late July than in its first 28 days of data. All of this followed the relaunch and the new pages; I treat the timing as the signal rather than claiming a cause.
Other case studies
Want a result like this for your site?
A 30-minute call, no pitch deck. Tell me where you are stuck and I will tell you honestly whether I can help - and if I cannot, who can.