24 Years of Quiet Craftsmanship, Now Searchable: 4x Keyword Growth
1,370
Monthly Organic Visits
The Challenge
A 24-year-old MetroWest Boston landscape firm with $50K-$150K pool projects but under 100 organic visits per month and only ~117 ranking keywords.
Jose Gudiel started the business in 2000 in Bellingham, MA, and over 24 years built it into one of the more respected outdoor-construction operators in MetroWest -- 1,000+ completed projects, 94+ five-star reviews, Unilock Authorized Contractor status. But nobody under 45 with a $100K pool budget finds a contractor through referrals anymore. Going into March 2024, the site was a small WordPress build with thin service pages and zero topical depth. Semrush showed a flat baseline well under 100 organic visits a month.
$100K+ average pool-project ticket size with no surface area on Google to be found by the homeowners researching that decision.
Under 100 non-branded organic visits per month at engagement start
Only ~117 total ranking keywords, almost all branded variants
$100K+ average project ticket with no search visibility to premium-suburb buyers
Discovery
Stakeholders:
“I don't want to be the cheapest. I want to be the one the right homeowner finds and trusts before they call. The guy who's going to read the materials specs and care about base depth -- I want him finding us first.”
What We Uncovered
No buyer-education content for research-heavy high-intent searches in this vertical
Unilock Authorized Contractor status was a major trust signal not being merchandised
30+ Massachusetts towns existed as a list, not as 30+ ranked landing pages
Portfolio was visually strong but technically invisible -- no schema, no alt text, no captioning Google could parse
Our Approach
Own the high-intent education layer + premium-suburb local layer simultaneously, then let the Unilock + 24-year operator credentials do the conversion work.
Foundation, Schema & Service Architecture
Mar - Aug 20249 service-hub rebuilds (1,500-2,500 words each)
Schema implementation
GBP optimization
Core Web Vitals remediation
30+ Massachusetts Service-Area Pages
Sep 2024 - Apr 202530+ town landing pages
Permit/municipal copy
Local project showcases
Buyer-Education Content Engine
May - Dec 202520+ buyer-education posts
Cost calculators
Material education library
Featured-snippet targeting
Site Rebuild & Inflection
Jan - Apr 2026Full site redesign
Premium portfolio system
Consultation booking flow
Conversion-rate optimization
Outcomes
From ~117 ranking keywords to 457 active -- nearly 4x growth in long-tail visibility. In a vertical where one new pool client is six figures of revenue, the ROI math works in consultations, not clicks.
~117 (mostly branded)
457 active
<100/mo
1,370/mo
Minimal
859K
List of towns
30+ ranked pages
In a high-ticket vertical ($50K-$150K per pool project), one organic-sourced inquiry can be a six-figure project. 1,370 monthly visits at this margin profile changes the pipeline math entirely.
Time to first result: ~12 months (steady build), inflection at site rebuild in spring 2026
Client Voice
“For 24 years we built this business one neighbor at a time. Today the consultations on the calendar are coming from people across MetroWest who found the work online before they ever heard our name. They show up already knowing about the Unilock certification, the 8-inch base, the materials we use -- they're calling because they already trust the work. That's a different kind of customer to design for.”
Jose Gudiel
Founder, J. Gudiel Landscape Inc., Bellingham, MARelated Services
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