Website design and SEO experts are all in a similar dilemma. How do you scale your business and reach #1 in Google when your competitors are also SEO experts? After all, we all follow best practices and similar SEO building strategies, yet we all see different results. The answer is in the work you do, the persistence, and the strategy.
Instead of looking at the fierce competition as a con, Digital Nomad Designs decided to leverage it as a way to focus on what we do best and stand out from the rest. Here’s how Digital Nomad Designs’ own strategy played out in this local SEO case study.
The Service
Digital Nomad Designs develops and designs websites built on WordPress and Shopify. Unlike many agencies that simply focus on design and getting everything working, we focus on an intuitive user-experience and conversion optimization. We love to work with clients on a long-term basis to help enhance their online presence. In addition to design and custom development services we also offer SEO management to grow our clients’ rankings on Google.
On a personal note, the Digital Nomad Designs team cares about the success of our clients and strives to change the reputation of the web design and development industry for the better. We love what we do, and we want everyone we work with to love the process, too.
The Problem
When a design company launches and hopes to attract SEO-hungry clients, it’s crucial to show social proof and a desirable Google ranking for your own business. We already had social proof from our raving clients who found us through word-of-mouth referrals. However, like everyone else who launches a business, Digital Nomad Designs had no presence on Google when we were getting up and running.
Our online presence was also complicated by the fact we were competing for the top spot with another business with nearly the same name: Digital Nomad Design. As Digital Nomad Designs, we needed more visibility online to establish our credibility with Google and rank higher on not only our business name, but relevant keywords.
The SEO Management Process
Digital Nomad Designs decided to focus on what we do best:
- Wow our customers
- Earn word of mouth referrals
- Create a winning SEO strategy customized for our business
Instead of competing with every company online that also offers SEO and website design for Shopify and WordPress, we focused on securing the top local results.
We’re fortunate that Digital Nomad Designs’ headquarters are in Santa Monica. The area is rapidly evolving into the new Silicone Valley, or Silicone Beach, with plenty of businesses in need of web design and SEO services. We knew we could rank higher on location-specific keywords to start, and then shift to more general, highly competitive keywords relating to SEO services.
Competition and working hard is also nothing new. Digital Nomad Designs was already adept at ranking businesses on the first page of Google in competitive industries and making our clients ridiculously happy. We knew our team would be up for the challenge and turn our local SEO case study goals into reality.
Content-Rich Landing Pages
Digital Nomad Designs loves creating content-rich landing pages and got to work creating at least one a week focused on a specific keyword. Not only do landing pages enhance a company’s website and overall presence, but they quickly build a keyword strategy that leads to more traffic and conversions.
Backlinks
Backlinks take time, but are crucial part of SEO success. We always strive for at least 70 per week for our SEO clients. Our team supercharged the approach to carefully build out a high volume of backlinks for our services at Digital Nomad Designs.
Regular Search Engine Submissions
We’re always focusing on getting to the front page of Google, but we also know that regular search engine submissions creates more roadmaps to our site. The influx of traffic also shows Google that we’re serious about building out a website with valuable content that people revisit again and again.
Strategic Goal Setting
We’re devoted to our clients’ SEO goals, and focused the same attention to our own aspirations. We set ambitious goals for Digital Nomad Designs based on evolving metrics in Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
SEO Performance Tracking and Reporting
Our clients always know what we’re doing and trust our process because we offer transparency and accountability. We treated ourselves just like a client and tracked our progress in Google Analytics and Google Search Console for regular reporting. Watching the campaign take shape also allowed us to make changes for optimal growth and momentum along the way.
The SEO Management Plan Results
We knew we would be facing an uphill challenge ranking as a reputable website design and SEO company in a crowded market, but also knew we would see results. We were already ranking our clients’ on the first page of Google and overdelivering on the results they wanted. Here’s how our results broke down for this local SEO case study:
Traffic Increase
Our four month average saw an uptick in organic traffic, with an increase from 32% to 42%. Digital Nomad Designs’ traffic is still taking a slow and steady climb, with continued projections for sustained rankings and growth.
Backlink Increase
In just five months of working on our SEO Management plan, Digital Nomad Designs accumulated 11,443 backlinks. We took an aggressive approach, after all, our competitors also understand the importance of SEO and how to achieve results.
Page One Rankings
Traffic can only grow and sustain for so long unless your ideal customers can find you. Our hard work paid off and we reached number one in Google for the following keywords:
- Storybrand Web Designer (local results)
- Shopify Conversion Specialist
- Shopify Designer Santa Monica
- WordPress Designer Santa Monica
- Shopify Plus Playa Del Rey
- Digital Nomad Agency
Final Thoughts
This local SEO case study is proof positive that SEO Management can help in even the most competitive marketplaces, but takes time and effort to see results. Ready to get started? Get in touch with the team at Digital Nomad Designs about your product and SEO goals. Book a free call here for questions or to discuss this SEO case study.
