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How Sandy Hill Construction Got on the First page of Google in 3 months

How our team leveraged an existing website to secure quick SEO wins and first-page rankings in just 3 months.

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The SEO Problem

Sandy Hill Construction, a trusted design-build renovation and remodeling company in Ottawa, has been delivering exceptional craftsmanship and personalized service since 1995.

Known for their focus on open communication and client satisfaction, they’ve built a reputation for excellence and strong community ties.

Our goal was to generate consistent, high-quality leads to help Sandy Hill Construction grow predictably, maintain steady work year-round, and rely less on referrals.

Current homepage of Sandy Hill Construction

Although Sandy Hill Construction delivered exceptional services, their online presence was holding them back. They faced several critical challenges:

  • Poor Portfolio Presentation: Their website featured outdated and stock portfolio images, which failed to reflect the quality of their work.
  • Lead Generation Challenges: Their website wasn’t ranking on the first page of Google for key terms, making it difficult to generate consistent leads.
  • Risk of Financial Impact: The lack of leads made it difficult to predict growth and manage finances.
  • Confusing Navigation: Users struggled to find key information about their services due to an unintuitive website structure.
  • Keyword Cannibalization: Multiple pages targeted the same keywords, creating confusion for search engines and weakening their rankings. Learn more about keyword cannibalization.

Our Solution

1. Website Rebuild and Technical SEO

  • Full Website Overhaul: The website had several pages that didn’t render properly, and the simplistic design lacked key features like galleries to showcase their work. To address these issues, we completely rebuilt the site from the ground up, delivering a fast, modern, and visually engaging platform that effectively highlights their services and expertise.

Google PageSpeed results after the website overhaul, ensuring fast performance and perfect SEO scores.

  • Optimized Navigation: We reorganized the site to clearly display their services, improving usability for visitors and search engines.

Before: The navigation menu didn’t clearly list all of their services or include specific pages for each, making it harder for users to find the information they needed.

After: We simplified the navigation and added service pages for each offering, making it easier to use and more effective for SEO.

  • SEO Basics: We ensured every page had one H1 tag and a single, focused search intent to avoid cannibalization and improve rankings.

2. Keyword Research

  • Competitor and Intent Analysis: We analyzed competitors and had in-depth discussions with Sandy Hill to understand all the services they offer and the types of projects they aimed to secure. This allowed us to identify high-intent keywords like “Ottawa home renovation” and “kitchen renovation Barrhaven” that aligned with their goals.
  • Location-Specific Pages: We created specific service pages for sub-areas like Barrhaven, Kanata, and Orleans (e.g., “Kitchen Renovation Barrhaven”) to dominate local searches and increase visibility in smaller areas.

Our selected keyword list: Based on Sandy Hill’s goals and search intent, we targeted relevant keywords to drive leads.

3. Portfolio Section Revamp

  • Modern Portfolio Page: We completely redesigned the portfolio page to make it look far more modern and visually appealing, ensuring it effectively showcased their expertise.

Revamped Portfolio Section: A key part of their business, this updated gallery showcases real projects and helps potential clients judge the quality of their work.

  • Showcasing Updated Work: We replaced stock images with their most recent project photos, highlighting the quality of their work and building credibility with potential clients.

Sample Portfolio Page: A dedicated project page showcasing one of Sandy Hill’s completed renovations.

4. Content Creation and Optimization

  • Showcasing Updated Work: We replaced stock images with their most recent project photos, highlighting the quality of their work and building credibility with potential clients.

We used an SEO content editor to ensure all content is highly optimized, outperforming competitors and targeting key search terms.

  • Improved On-Page SEO: Metadata, internal linking, and optimized headers were implemented across all pages.

5. Backlink Acquisition

  • Strategic Local Backlinks: We used a combination of citation links for quantity and hyper-relevant local links for quality, significantly increasing the site’s authority and local relevance.

Significant spike in backlinks driven by our mix of citation links for volume and high-quality local links for authority.

Our Results

  • After just 3 months, they secured a first-page ranking, reaching 5th position for the main target keyword “Ottawa Home Renovation.”

Sandy Hill Construction now ranks on the first page for the main keyword “Ottawa Home Renovation.” Their older domain and existing website foundation allowed them to see results quickly after optimization.

  • Achieved #2 ranking for “Kitchen Renovation Barrhaven” within two months.

Sandy Hill Construction quickly ranked #2 for less competitive, high-intent keywords like “Kitchen Renovation Barrhaven,” capturing low-hanging opportunities for fast results.

  • Now ranking for 26 keywords with a total increase of 1,525 positions on Google.

Sandy Hill Construction now ranks for 26 keywords, with a total increase of 1,525 positions on Google.

  • Rankings improved across 26 target keywords, with significant jumps like +100 positions and +92 positions for key services.

Our significant improvements across tracked keywords in just three months.