927% More Clicks - How a Website Rebuild Got More Clients for this Portland Business
A Portland massage therapist who built her practice on word of mouth and a loyal Portland client base was ready to grow.
She came to me wanting to expand her reach beyond who she was already working with and fill her calendar with clients.
While our initial engagement focused on updating and adding SEO to her existing site, once we started the project it was clear that patching an outdated, clunky WordPress site wasn’t the best path forward.
She needed a complete rebuild on a platform she could confidently manage and update herself as needed.
In addition to her website, our project also covered social media and short form video - something she was keen to experiment with, but wasn’t sure where to start.
Rebuilding the Website from the Ground Up
The first task was to migrate her existing site to a new platform.
While we worked on the new site, her old site stayed live and functional so there wasn’t any downtime.
We selected Squarespace for the new website and I migrated the entire site from WordPress. During this process we also discussed which pages should be archived or redirected since they were no longer needed/current.
Her previous website had a single page that listed all her services. This meant getting real traction for any one service was a challenge. It also made the page too long (especially on mobile) since every detail about every service had to be included on that one page.
On the new site, we built one “Services” page to act as a starting point to help potential clients find what they were looking for and also gave each massage modality its own robust, dedicated, and fully optimized page.
From page titles to meta descriptions to images to headers to layout and testimonials - every choice made throughout the site was made with both humans and SEO in mind. We worked together to refine the pages so the greatly expanded copy sounded like her while still meeting the needs of people searching for her services.
We also discussed which massage services she’d like to do more of and kept those target services in mind when planning the site’s layout, internal linking, and SEO.
Website Results
The numbers tell the story. Comparing the three months after launch to the three months before, via Google Search Console:
Total Clicks: 339 vs. 33 previously (+927%)
Impressions: 10,900 vs. 1,510 previously (+622%)
Click-Through Rate: 3.1% vs. 2.2% previously (+40%)
And it's translating into real business:
Her top-priority service: Now one of the site's best-performing pages, and visitors are booking.
Homepage ranking: Her homepage jumped from an average search position of 6 to 4, with impressions climbing nearly 600% - from 578 to 4,000 over the same period.
Building a Sustainable Social Media System
Since this client felt comfortable on camera and wanted to explore creating short form videos to educate and connect with new audiences, we also focused this part of the project on training, best practices, and building a system she could manage.
For this part of the project, we started by revamping and relaunching her dormant social media pages. Since she had video ideas in mind, I taught her how to record and edit short videos to use on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. I focused on long-term best practices, simple tools, and basic edits to keep it easy for her to manage on her own.
We also created and launched her YouTube channel. This gives her a second social platform to share her short videos and also gives to space to expand into longer videos when she is ready. Since launch, her channel has earned over 3,000 views on YouTube.
And to make consistency easier and give her content to share beyond just videos, I also built a 30-post evergreen content bank with captions and graphics. It is ready to publish (or schedule out) whenever she was short on time or inspiration.
Finally, we worked together to fully optimize her Google Business Profile. Profile interactions (calls, bookings, directions and clicks) have roughly doubled since we made those updates.
The Outcome: A Practice That Gets Found
She started with a loyal client base and a website that barely appeared in search.
She now has:
A site she can update herself, with a dedicated, optimized page for every service she offers
About 10x more search clicks (33 to 339)
Visibility for the services she most wants to book
A Google Business Profile with roughly double the interactions
A YouTube channel, a Reels workflow, and 30 ready-to-post pieces of content she can use whenever she has time
Why this marketing strategy works for this Portland business:
Rather than just relying on referrals and word of mouth, each marketing piece does a different job.
Search (SEO) brings in people actively looking for a massage therapist.
The Business Profile turns local searches into calls and bookings.
Video and social media builds the trust that makes someone want to work with her.
The website ties it together, with copy that sounds like her and a structure built around the services she wants to grow.
And, just as important, everything was built and planned so she could run it herself without having to rely on someone else. She can add to them when she’s ready. And because the plan is already created, she can outsource when the time is right.
Is your business running on referrals and word of mouth?
Let's talk about getting you found by the people who haven't met you yet. Book a consult here.
