279% Traffic Explosion in 90 Days For a Local Paving Service

Background 

A local paving and hardscaping service partnered with The HOTH to escape the ‘visibility trap’ of losing high-value jobs and leads to digitally dominant competitors. 

This was a frustrating spot to be in since they weren’t losing business due to superior work, just superior online visibility. 

Thus, they partnered with us to pivot from stagnation to scalable growth. 

In just 3 months, their organic traffic exploded by 279%, they started ranking for 59% more keywords, and they began earning citations from AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. 

These powerful early wins are paving the way for the brand to overtake stubborn competitors and become one of the dominant voices in their local answer space. 

How did we do it?

Keep reading to discover how we leveraged our link-building and content creation expertise to achieve a rapid, measurable ROI for our client. 

The Challenge 

All local businesses face intense competition online, and paving and hardscaping is no different. 

The harsh truth is that if your audience can’t find you by searching online, then you’re practically invisible. 

According to BrightLocal’s 2022 Local Consumer Review Survey, a whopping 99% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses. 

That means if you’re not visible on search engines like Google and AI platforms like ChatGPT, you’ll have a very hard time generating business from locals. 

As a result, outstanding pavers lose work to mediocre contractors with better map pack positions and more AI citations. 

Our client knew this all too well, as they were struggling to generate 40 organic visitors per month before reaching out to us. 

In particular, they had two major issues:

• No authority signals.

  The site lacked authoritative backlinks and third-party mentions, so they were having a hard time ranking for keywords and earning AI citations.

• Thin content.

  There wasn’t much content on the site, and they needed a way to target crucial local search keywords. Service pages existed, but they lacked the depth to target terms like ‘driveway pavers St. Petersburg’ and related terms.

Without strong backlinks and content, it’s virtually impossible for any website to gain search visibility. 

The good news was that we had our work cut out for us. We knew the client provided superior craftsmanship to the competition; we just needed their online presence to reflect that. 

The Strategy 

Our strategy aligned with the client’s two major SEO issues. Since they lacked authority signals, we engaged in targeted link outreach to earn high-quality placements on relevant, topically-aligned websites. 

We focused on building the types of backlinks that would pass authority to search algorithms and AI search systems for maximum impact. 

The links were embedded in helpful content about Florida hardscaping, and not hidden in footers or sidebars. This signals contextual relevance to search engines and LLMs, which is now paramount for building online authority. 

In terms of content, we began publishing regular high-quality blogs that targeted critical local keywords like ‘best hardscaping in St. Petersburg.’ 

These posts were not only optimized for important keywords, but they also built topical authority in the areas of paving and hardscaping. 

The goal was to position the client as a ‘voice of expertise’ in their areas of focus to drive rankings, links, and citations. 

Our blogs also spanned every stage of the buyer’s journey to generate leads and conversions. In other words, the client’s blog now has a little of something for everybody (informational, commercial, and transactional posts). 

The Results 

The one-two punch combination of backlinks and content delivered measurable wins on several fronts. 

For one, we were able to build numerous premium link placements on high-DR sites (70+). 

These are powerful authority endorsements that punched above the weight class for a local contracting site. This boost in authority helped drive the surge in traffic, keywords, and citations.

After 90 days, the client’s traffic shot up by 279%. Instead of struggling to generate 40 visitors, they were averaging 144 visitors, and that number is still climbing.  

Also, the client began ranking for 59% more keywords than before due to the successful blog posts. They also began earning AI citations where previously there were none. 

This is evidence that AI systems are beginning to surface the client as a local authority figure for queries related to paving and hardscaping in St. Petersburg. 

The client’s case proves the power of authoritative content and backlinks for local businesses struggling to gain visibility. 

Want to Improve Your Visibility on Google and AI Search Tools?

If you want to improve your online visibility across all platforms, book a free call with our team to develop a winning strategy that’s crafted for your specific needs.  

Also, don’t wait to try out HOTH X, which is the hands-off, fully managed service we used to generate the results mentioned above. 

Book a Call Now  

The Proof 

Here’s the client’s organic traffic over the last 3 months:

The improvement to backlinks and referring domains:

The upticks in traffic and keywords: