Improving Northern New Jersey Pet Care Services:
ESP Pet Specialists SEO Case Study
The Results
This is one of my favorite success stories because it’s founded on more than a year’s worth of data. ESP has been with us for a while, and it’s been incredible to watch their traffic continue increasing consistently.
Chris Raulf
Founder and President, BSM
At a Glance
As Northern New Jersey’s most trusted team for dog walking, pet sitting, and private boarding, ESP Pet Specialists has over a decade of experience caring for animals of all ages, dispositions, and temperaments. Fully bonded and insured, ESP’s staff of highly trained dog walkers and pet sitters has pet first aid training and is thoroughly educated on canine body language and fear aggression. ESP Pets also caters to feline and feathered friends.
Challenges
Back in 2021, ESP Pet Specialists wanted to improve their visibility online so they could attract more of the right kind of web traffic. After attending a webinar that Boulder SEO Marketing founder Chris Raulf gave through Six-Figure Pet Business Academy™, they decided to reach out and utilize our services. We signed them as a client in May of 2021. During their onboarding, they shared some of their most ambitious goals, which included:
- Climbing the rankings for relevant keyword phrases like “dog walking”, “pet sitting”, and “dog boarding” services
- Attracting more of the right kind of web traffic so they could increase their conversation rates
- Establishing themselves as a reliable pet care provider within the communities where they offer their services (more than a dozen locations)
One of the greatest challenges ESP faced was the sheer level of competition within the industry. There’s no shortage of pet care providers, so we had to ensure we made them stand out from the rest while emphasizing what they do best.
Solutions
The foundation of every successful local SEO strategy is a fully functional website—you can be sure Google notices things that aren’t working—so we started by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the client’s site. Once we made the necessary tech fixes, we knew we could proceed with more targeted tactics. With the client’s goals in mind, we then:
- Identified and removed outdated content that was no longer providing value in the eyes of Google
- Implemented an aggressive local SEO strategy so they could start ranking higher for all their locations
- Engaged on social media and published high-quality content on their behalf
- Optimized the pages across their site based on SEO best practices
- Optimized their Google Business Profile so it would rank predominantly in the Local Map Pack
Since Google’s algorithm changes daily, it’s important to note that we always tweak our approach along the way. While the tactics listed above made up the prongs of our strategy, we evaluated the client’s progress monthly and adjusted our methods as needed to achieve more impressive results faster.
Now that ESP Pet Specialists is consistently ranking on the top of the SERPs, we’ve also added a maintenance prong to our strategy. Google doesn’t give static sites the same attention as dynamic ones that always have a new reason to click, so we make sure to consistently produce high-quality content for them and to continue engaging with their communities on social media.
The Results
By using our SEO and web design strategies ESP Pet Specialists has successfully achieved their goals and more. Initial activities focused on foundational work and targeted on-page optimization efforts for the entire website, not specific locations. Success was measured by looking at overall growth for a six-month period.
Key Metrics
1,200
And Counting! The Number of Additional Visitors That ESP Saw in Organic Traffic After We Deployed Our Strategy
6
The Number of Months It Took to Notice a Dramatic Increase in Overall Growth
32
The Number of Positions the Site Increased by on Average for All Keywords Being Monitored
Following the foundational on-page work, strategy efforts shifted to more hyper-focused tactics targeting a specific location and keywords for both organic search and local map pack results. Our starting point focused on the location page for Livingston, NJ (the business headquarters) combined with associated keywords with high intent and conversion potential for the business. Keywords with relatively high search metrics, positioned between spots 3 and 15 in the search results, were targeted given their potential for improvement in the search results quicker. These included: dog walking, pet sitter, and dog boarding.
About Boulder SEO Marketing
BSM is a boutique SEO agency that helps small businesses increase organic traffic. Using our proprietary Micro-SEO Strategies℠, we can deliver real results in record time. Since 2009, we’ve been helping clients climb the rankings. Unlike some digital marketing agencies that overpromise and underdeliver by claiming to “do it all,” we focus solely on search engine optimization. A jack of all trades might get your site off the ground, but you’ll need specialized tools to get to the top of the search results!
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