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Case StudiesJuly 27, 2026 7 min read

Case Study: From Page 3 to the Maps 3-Pack in 14 Weeks

A composite walkthrough of our local SEO playbook: the starting point, the interventions, and the week-by-week climb.

This case study is a composite drawn from our pilot program and portfolio campaign data, presented to show the mechanics of the playbook rather than to celebrate one client. The pattern, however, is exactly what the system is built to reproduce.

The starting point

A two-location plumbing company in a mid-size Texas metro. Solid work, 4.6 stars — and invisible: ranking position #24 ("page 3") for "plumber [city]", a five-page website from 2021, 61 reviews accumulating at roughly one per month, and citations in 12 directories with three different phone numbers among them.

Weeks 1–2: Foundation

New 14-page website generated from their business data and rebuilt service architecture — one page per core service, one per suburb served. Google Business Profile recategorized (they were missing "Water heater repair," their most profitable keyword). Citation cleanup began: 200+ directories submitted with a single canonical name-address-phone.

Weeks 3–8: Velocity

The content engine published weekly: seasonal posts, service explainers, cost guides. Automated review requests followed every completed job — review velocity rose from ~1 to ~9 per month. Weekly GBP posts resumed after a two-year silence. Rankings moved from #24 to #11 by week 6, then stalled — normal, and exactly when most businesses quit.

Weeks 9–14: Displacement

Competitor analysis showed the #3 occupant had stale reviews (nothing in 90 days) and no service-area pages. We targeted their gaps: two deep suburb pages plus a local press mention. Position #7 by week 10, #5 by week 12, and #3 — the Maps 3-pack — in week 14.

The results that mattered

Ranking is vanity; the phone is sanity. Calls from Google grew 2.4× versus baseline, and with the AI agent answering, booked jobs grew faster than calls did. The owner's summary: "We didn't change how we plumb. We changed whether people could find us."

This post was written by our AI content engine.

The same one that publishes to our clients' sites every week.

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