For “Spring Cleanups Shoreline” and “Landscaping Shoreline”
Leads
Visitors
The Client:
Ballinger Landscaping is a newer company that provides friendly and reliable landscaping services north of Seattle. They specialize in mowing, trimming, seasonal cleanups, and tree care.
The Challenges:
- After spending heavily on advertising, the leads they generated weren’t converting into customers, leaving little budget left for SEO.
- Their website lacked a content marketing strategy and was burdened with toxic backlinks from a low-cost SEO agency.
- They faced stiff competition from older, established landscaping companies in the area, some with hundreds of 5-star Google reviews.
The Solution:
To help Ballinger Landscaping stand out, we positioned them as an enthusiastic, consistent, and trustworthy local service provider. Our strategy combined:
- Local SEO techniques to improve visibility in service areas
- Technical and On-page SEO improvements for stronger website performance
- Targeted content creation, focusing on their most valuable opportunities
We identified two priority keywords: “Landscaping Shoreline” and “Spring Cleanups Shoreline.”
Local SEO optimized articles were written around these services, giving the website a focused and competitive edge.
The Results:
- Within just two months, the website ranked #1 for both “Landscaping Shoreline” and “Spring Cleanups Shoreline.”
- Relevant search traffic grew significantly, with leads up 240% and clicks up 390%, strengthening their position in the local market.
- They’ve held these rankings for two years and even appear in Google’s AI Overview with our ongoing website maintenance and enhancements that keep them ahead of algorithm updates.
Background
In April 2023, Ballinger Landscaping faced a challenge. The Spring mowing season in the Pacific Northwest was already underway, but customer inquiries were lagging.
They had just invested $30,000 in winter advertising without seeing enough return to justify the expense. With a limited budget moving forward, they needed results, and fast.
Their website looked sleek but had major performance issues. It also wasn’t ranking for any relevant keywords with commercial intent.
The Green UP Strategy
Local SEO Techniques
We started by replacing their slow Wix template website with a complete redesign. To improve local search visibility, we optimized the website with zip codes, an area-of-service map, and accurate NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details.
Creating a Focused Content Strategy
Given their budget, we focused efforts on just two high-value keywords:
- General landscaping in Shoreline, Washington
- Spring Cleanups, a profitable service with low competition
We supported this with two targeted articles: one covering general landscaping and the other focused on Spring Cleanups. We optimized these for Local SEO by including outlinks to authoritative sites in the area and geographic modifiers such as local attractions and unique characteristics of the region.
Local Listings to Recover Authority
The client’s website was weighed down by spammy backlinks left behind by a previous SEO agency. These links hurt rankings, signaling low quality to Google. Since disavowing had recently lost effectiveness due to a Google update, we recommended building strong, trustworthy backlinks instead.
To maximize their budget, we guided them through creating local listings on key directories and provided a roadmap of the most valuable websites to target.
The Results
Quick Jump In the Rankings
Within just one month, every element of our SEO strategy came together to push Ballinger Landscaping to #2 for “Spring Cleanups”, right behind a major digital marketplace.
This early success quickly translated into more visits with strong commercial intent.
#1 Ranking for Two Keywords
By the second month, and with only a fraction of their advertising budget, Ballinger Landscaping secured the #1 spot for both “Landscaping Shoreline” and “Spring Cleanups Shoreline.” This included making the top 3 of the map pack.
They surpassed a massive crowd-sourced review platform, rising to the very top of the search results.
Outranking Service Platform Giants
Fast forward to 2025: Ballinger Landscaping has held the #1 ranking for two years on both target keywords, solidifying their reputation and visibility in the local market. They consistently rank in the top 3 of the map pack as well.
Featured in AI Overviews
Today, they’re also appearing by name in Google’s AI Overviews, a direct result of staying aligned with algorithm changes, including the Helpful Content Update (HCU).