TL;DR
A custom print marketing business in Onehunga, New Zealand came to Savvyards with a website that was, in SEO terms, starting from near zero — broken keyword mapping, poor URL structure, and almost no visibility. Over 15 months of technical SEO, local SEO, and organic social media optimization, monthly organic users more than doubled (+110%), keywords ranking in the top 3 grew from 16 to 54, and the site’s average position climbed from 45.5 to 18.3. Google Business Profile views rose 32.1%, all through organic work with no ad spend.
| Metric | Before | After (15 months) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly organic clicks | 200 | 438 | +119% |
| Monthly impressions | 18,400 | 33,900 | +84% |
| Average ranking position | 45.5 | 18.3 | ↑ 27 places |
| Keywords in Top 3 | 16 | 54 | +238% |
| Keywords in Top 10 | 40 | 103 | +158% |
| Organic sessions (monthly) | 371 | 590 | +59% |
| Organic users (monthly) | 221 | 463 | +110% |
| Engagement rate | 61.46% | 60.85% | ~steady |
| Google Business Profile views* | 1,367 | 1,806 | +32.1% |
*Note: Google Business Profile growth measured over the most recent ~5 months of the engagement.
Client & Project Background
The client is a custom print marketing business based in Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand. (The brand name is withheld at the client’s request.) They serve local and regional customers with bespoke print and marketing products — a business where being found by nearby buyers directly drives enquiries.
Like many small, product-and-service businesses, they had a functional website but almost no search presence to support it. They needed a partner who could take SEO from the ground up and turn a near-invisible site into a steady source of qualified local traffic.
Engagement: 15-month organic program. Services delivered: Full-service organic SEO, local SEO (Google Business Profile), and organic social media optimization (SMO).
The Challenge
The core problem was simple to state and hard to fix: the website was starting from essentially zero in SEO terms. Underneath that sat a stack of foundational issues:
- Broken keyword mapping. The right keywords weren’t assigned to the right pages, so nothing ranked reliably for the terms buyers actually searched.
- Poor URL mapping and site structure. A weak architecture made it hard for search engines to understand, crawl, and prioritize the site’s pages.
- Very low visibility. With only ~200 monthly clicks and an average ranking position of 45.5 (roughly page five of Google), the business was effectively unfindable in organic search.
For a local business, invisibility in search means missing the customers who are actively looking to buy — the most valuable audience there is.
The Strategy
Savvyards treated this as a foundation-and-visibility program: rebuild the technical base first, then map the site correctly to search demand, then amplify local and social signals so the business showed up where its customers actually look.
The strategy rested on three pillars:
- Rebuild the technical foundation — fix structure, URLs, and crawlability so the site could rank at all.
- Map keywords to the right pages so every page targeted clear, relevant, winnable search intent.
- Grow local and social visibility through Google Business Profile optimization and organic SMO, reinforcing the brand where local buyers discover it.
The Execution
The work rolled out in deliberate layers, each one making the next more effective.
1. Technical SEO overhaul. With the site starting near zero, Savvyards began by correcting the foundational technical issues holding it back — the base layer everything else would build on.
2. Keyword mapping. Keywords were re-mapped so each page targeted the specific terms it could realistically rank for, ending the situation where pages competed with each other or targeted nothing at all. This directly grew the number of ranking keywords over time.
3. URL mapping and site structure. URLs and site architecture were restructured so search engines could crawl the site logically and understand the relationship between pages — improving how efficiently ranking signals flowed through the site.
4. Google Business Profile optimization. As a local business, the client’s visibility in maps and local search mattered as much as classic organic rankings. Optimizing the Business Profile contributed to a 32.1% rise in profile views, putting the brand in front of nearby, high-intent searchers.
5. Organic social media optimization (SMO). Savvyards ran organic SMO alongside SEO to build brand reach and reinforce the signals that support long-term discoverability — without any paid amplification.
The Results
Fifteen months in, the site went from near-invisible to consistently competitive across local search.
Rankings
- Keywords ranking in the Top 3 grew from 16 to 54 (+238%).
- Keywords ranking in the Top 10 grew from 40 to 103 (+158%).
- Average ranking position improved from 45.5 to 18.3 — a climb of roughly 27 places, moving the site from around page five to page two and into contention for page one.
Traffic & visibility
- Monthly organic clicks grew from 200 to 438 (+119%).
- Monthly impressions grew from 18,400 to 33,900 (+84%).
- Monthly organic sessions grew from 371 to 590 (+59%).
- Monthly organic users grew from 221 to 463 (+110%) — more than doubling the audience finding the brand through search.
Local presence
- Google Business Profile views rose 32.1% (1,367 → 1,806) over the most recent months of the engagement.
Quality held as traffic scaled. Even as organic users more than doubled, engagement rate held steady at around 61% (61.46% → 60.85%) — a sign the new visitors were genuinely relevant, not low-quality clicks that inflate numbers but bounce.
And, as with all of Savvyards’ work here, this growth was entirely organic — no ad spend — making it durable and compounding rather than dependent on an ongoing budget.
Key Takeaways
- You can’t rank a broken foundation. With SEO starting near zero, fixing technical structure, URL mapping, and site architecture first is what made every later gain possible.
- Keyword mapping is where rankings are won or lost. Assigning the right keywords to the right pages is what grew Top-3 rankings from 16 to 54.
- Local businesses need local signals. Google Business Profile optimization put the brand in front of nearby, high-intent searchers — a 32.1% lift in profile views on top of classic organic gains.
- Scaling traffic without losing quality is the real win. Doubling organic users while keeping engagement steady at ~61% shows the growth was qualified, not vanity.
- Organic compounds. With no ad spend behind it, this visibility keeps working long after the campaign period — an asset, not a rented result.
Ready for Results Like These?
Savvyards helps small businesses, local service providers, and growing brands turn organic search into a dependable source of qualified traffic — working remotely from India with clients across multiple countries. If your site is underperforming in search, let’s find the opportunity.
