Growing SepticWorks’ local visibility and organic enquiries

When SepticWorks set out to expand their online presence in South Taranaki, they teamed up with authentic digital for a six-month SEO push.

Our specialists scaled up their service pages and strengthened their local Google Business Profile. Organic search is now the primary driver of new business, accounting for nearly 80% of all tracked customer actions.

Project overview

• SepticWorks had a strong reputation, but their website wasn't reaching enough customers through search.
• authentic digital created a focused SEO and content strategy designed to capture regional search demand across South Taranaki.
• SepticWorks saw an increased stream of site traffic, phone calls and online enquiries.
• So happy with results they extended into Google ads.

A family-owned Kiwi business with untapped potential

SepticWorks is a family-owned and operated business specialising in septic tanks, drain cleaning, and unblocking pipes for residential properties and farms across Taranaki.

Passionate about bringing a friendly, honest, and reliable approach to the trade, founders Thomas and Andrea Annabell transitioned from farming and carpentry into the industry to fill a genuine need in their local community.

While they had a great service offering and a positive reputation in their community, their online visibility hadn't yet caught up to the business they had built.

Our goal was to help them reach their full potential, helping more people across the region find SepticWorks when they needed an urgent job or routine service

Strategy and execution

Improving the website

The biggest opportunity was expanding the website to better reflect everything SepticWorks actually does. There was plenty of room to give their individual specialties more visibility and make it easier for locals to find exact services when they needed help.

We enhanced their site by:

• Creating dedicated pages for key services, giving each offering more useful, relevant content that captured the right customers.
• Improving existing pages with stronger content, structure and local search targeting.
• Strengthening the site’s SEO foundations, using keyword research and SEO health checks to guide on-page, technical and metadata improvements.

Expanding local Google Maps reach

We also had to make sure SepticWorks was showing up in the areas they actually serve. That started with improving their Google Business Profile (the business listing customers see in Google Search and Maps).

Our Google Business Profile optimisation work included:

• Better showcasing their services so customers could quickly understand what SepticWorks could help with.
• Strengthening their local presence across the areas they service.
• Building trust and credibility with a more complete, accurate and active profile.
• Improving consistency across their wider online presence to support local visibility.

Ongoing support

Over the course of the six months, we continued strengthening Septic Works’ search presence and authority, while regularly monitoring performance to see what was working and where we could make further improvements.

The outcome

The clearest measure of success was what happened once the right people found SepticWorks through search.

Over the latest 90-day period, organic traffic, engagement and conversions all increased, with the organic conversion rate reaching 13.58%. This showed that SEO work was bringing the right people to the site and encouraging more of them to get in touch.

That level of activity was backed by steady growth across overall site traffic compared to the prior 90 days:

• Organic search visits: +11.38%
• Organic users: +15.65%
• New visitors from search: +15.91%
• Engaged sessions: +16.42%
• Average engagement time: +9.32%

Organic Search now drives 52%+ of total website sessions.

Stronger local visibility

The Google Business Profile work also helped SepticWorks reach more customers across its service area.

After just three months of local optimization, the profile saw a noticeable uptick in activity.

• Calls were up 85%
• Searches were up 42%
• Average local ranking improved from 3.91 to 2.22
• 91% of tracked rankings were performing well

A stronger foundation to build on

This project is a great example of what a focused SEO and content strategy can do for a local service business.

It was a collaborative process throughout. We kept SepticWorks in the loop as new pages went live, listened to their feedback and made tweaks along the way to make sure the content accurately reflected their services and expertise.

The business is now in an ideal position to continue growing its organic presence, with the opportunity to build on that momentum in the future, whether through further SEO investment, paid ads, or a combination of both.

Want more customers finding your business through search?

If your business offers great services but isn’t getting found for them online, there could be more opportunity in search than you realise.

Whether you’re a local service business like SepticWorks or an enterprise competing across multiple markets, the right SEO and content strategy can help more of the right customers find you.

We support businesses with both fixed SEO projects and ongoing strategies. Reach out to the authentic team today for a chat about how we can help.

Get in touch.

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