Local Business’s Ranking Soars to 2nd With Vastify’s Strategic SEO & Blog Posts
Overview:
Average Local
Search Position
2nd
Average Daily
Clicks Up By
2-3x
Average Daily
Impressions Up By
4-5x
Background
In February 2024, Heritage Ranch Wedding Venue came to Vastify wanting to really shine as the premier wedding venue of choice for the Sedalia area. It was seeming unlikely and impossible then, because when locals searched for wedding venues they were ranking at the bottom of the page.
The graph shows the average SEO results for Heritage Ranch before and after working with Vastify, below we explain how we helped them achieve their dream of being the premier wedding venue by dominating search results.
The Problems. . .
Heritage Ranch had a gorgeous website, but there were multiple issues under the hood they didn’t know about that were holding them back from ranking higher.
Incorrect use of headings
Slow page load speeds
Un-optimized GMB Profile
Didn’t target industry keywords
Didn’t use location specific keywords
Missing key meta data and title details
These all negatively impact SEO, it made their website rank poorly for key search terms relevant to their industry and location.
Vastify’s 4 Step Solution
Our plan to save Heritage Ranch’s SEO involved taking care of all the previous issues mentioned and adding a content strategy designed to drive traffic through targeting valuable industry keywords.
Step 1. On-Page SEO
First order of cleanup work was to format pages with the best headings and subheading practices to favor search engines more.
<h1> Heritage Ranch Wedding Venue
<h2> Our Wedding Packages
<h1> All-Inclusive Package
<h3> Learn About Our Venue
<h2> Venue RulesAn example of their existing poor heading practice.
<h1> Heritage Ranch Wedding Venue
<h2> Our Wedding Packages
<h3> All-Inclusive Package
<h2> Learn About Our Venue
<h3> Venue RulesWhat proper heading usage looks like.
Then, we made sure to update page metadata to include content search engines look for.
We also made sure that all images had a proper “alt” attribute. This allows people with a bad internet connection to still receive a description of what purpose the image served.
Finally, we went through the rest of the website’s pages and incorporated relevant keywords to existing text.
Step 2. Technical SEO
As mentioned earlier, page speed is important to SEO, so to improve speed we set up proper site caching and optimized the size and order of code loading on the website.
Before
Increased user bounce rate.
After
Improved user experience.
We then went through and added schema markup to inform search engines about important information such as contact details, address, important pages, the logo, and more.
Step 3. Local SEO
We made sure that important directory websites in their industry (like weddingwire.com, eventective.com) showed the correct and up to date contact info and other venue information. If there were any inconsistencies, the business wouldn’t look as credible and search engines pick up on this.
Adding local keywords (shown in the previous image) like “Sedalia” also helped when people performed searches such as “wedding place in sedalia mo” or “wedding venue sedalia mo.”
Then, we made sure to focus on one of the most important parts of local SEO—their Google My Business Profile (GMB)
Fortunately, their GMB wasn’t bad but it could still use some work. We added some more nearby towns to their service area so the GMB would show up when people in those towns were searching for wedding venues.
Step 4. A New Content Strategy
Before we started working with Heritage Ranch, they did not have new content published regularly on their website and instead only published new content on their Facebook.
Something contributing to Heritage Ranch’s seemingly impossible goal was the lack of an effective content strategy. We knew a blog optimized for SEO would create more traffic and build themselves more brand authority.
After launching their blog, we researched what Heritage Ranch’s target audience was searching for and wrote blog posts that answered their questions. Some articles we wrote include “Top 5 Honeymoon Destinations for Couples in the USA,” “Unique Wedding Gifts Ideas: Top Picks For 2024 Newlyweds,” and “5 Tips to Turn Your Wedding Venue into a Green Wedding Venue.”
The best part of this was that they were not paying for any of these additional results after the blog post was written.
Results
Heritage Ranch now shows up as the first venue website for most wedding venue related search terms located in or specified to be in Sedalia, Missouri. The only websites that rank higher are high-traffic directory websites as shown.
More importantly, the owners were very happy with the results they were getting:
Vastify has done a great job with our business’s online presence. They added a blog to our website, helped establish Meta advertising, and managed all of these in partnership with our goals and vision. They are knowledgeable, professional, easy to work with, and their rates are at a fraction of the cost of other marketing companies. We highly recommend them!
Kim and Jeff Barnard
Owners of Heritage Ranch Special Event
& Wedding Venue