What 60 Days of Doing Our Own SEO Actually Changed (A Case Study on Ourselves)

Most marketing case studies are about a client. This one is about us. In July we rebuilt mcmdigitalproducts.com on the same playbook we run for the contractors, plumbers, and HVAC companies we work with, and we tracked every keyword from day one. Sixty days later, here is exactly what moved, what did not, and what we would tell an owner who is deciding whether this kind of work is worth paying for.

Every number below comes from two sources you can check yourself: Google Search Console, which is Google’s own record of what searchers saw, and the rank tracker inside our local SEO system. Nothing here is estimated or rounded up.

If you would rather see the same approach on a client than on us, read what actually happens in the first 45 days of a local SEO engagement, a start-to-finish look at a veteran-owned HVAC company, including the one number that went down.

Progress so far

We pull the same numbers again about every 30 days and link every update here, including the ones where numbers went down.

• Day 85 (October 7, 2026): 310 searches showed our site in 30 days, up from 187; 81 on page one, up from 56; times shown fell from 3,263 to 2,967; tracked terms in the top three went from 10 to 15.

Where We Started

Before the rebuild, our old site ranked for a handful of terms and sat on the homepage for all of them. For the searches that actually bring an agency work, things like “digital marketing agency Manitowoc,” we were on page one but not at the top, and for most of the individual services we offer, there was no page at all. Google was ranking a general homepage for very specific questions, which is the most common thing we find when we audit a local business.

In the first full month on the new site, Google showed us in search results 1,884 times across 148 different search terms, and 75 of those terms were on page one.

What We Did

Nothing exotic. The same list we hand to every client:

• One page per service, one page per industry. Instead of a homepage that mentioned everything, we built a page for each thing we do and a page for each trade we serve: plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping, construction, restaurants, and more.
• Articles that answer the exact question someone typed. We pulled the searches Google was already showing us for, found the ones sitting just off the top spot, and wrote a plain-English article for each one.
• Google Business Profile kept current. Services listed, service area set, regular posts, and every review answered.
• Weekly measurement. Every Monday we compare where each keyword sits against the week before, so a slip gets fixed the same week instead of discovered in a quarterly report.

The full method is written up in our process. There is no secret step. The difference is doing all of it, every week, without skipping the boring parts.

What Changed in 60 Days

Comparing the first month on the new site to the most recent month, using Google Search Console:

• Search terms the site ranks for: 148 → 257, up 74 percent.
• Search terms on page one: 75 → 127, up 69 percent.
• Times shown in Google results: 1,884 → 3,266, up 73 percent.

On the hand-picked list of keywords we track, the ones an agency in a town our size actually competes for, the site now holds the number one spot for “digital marketing agency Manitowoc” and “digital marketing Manitowoc WI,” sits in the top three for ten terms, and is on page one for eighteen. “Digital advertising Manitowoc WI” moved from position 19 to position 3.

The part we care about most is this: ten keywords went from not ranking at all to ranking, and eight of them belong to the industry pages we built in August. The plumbing page reached position 2 and the restaurant page reached position 4 within three weeks of going live. That is the clearest proof in the whole study that a dedicated page for a specific trade in a specific town works, and works fast.

What Did Not Change, and Why We Are Telling You

Clicks stayed flat. Rankings nearly doubled the site’s visibility, but the number of people who actually clicked through in a month barely moved. That is not a failure of the work. It is the size of the market. Manitowoc is a small city, and the number of business owners searching for a marketing agency here in any given month is small. We won the search, and the prize turned out to be modest, because the pond is modest.

We tell every client the same thing, and it is why we never sell rankings as if they were phone calls. Rankings are the price of admission. What turns them into work is what happens after the click: a site that loads fast, a clear way to reach you, reviews that back you up, and a follow-up that happens in minutes instead of days. That is why our AI receptionist and reviews and follow-up services exist alongside the SEO, not as add-ons but as the other half of the job.

A few terms also slipped while dozens of new pages went live. “Website design Manitowoc WI” moved down on our tracker as newer pages competed for overlapping searches. Google’s own data still shows it averaging the top spot for real searchers, so the slip is partly a measurement artifact, but we are watching it and consolidating pages where two of ours compete. Publishing more is not always better. Publishing the right page, then linking it well, is.

What This Means for a Trades Business

If you run a plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping, or construction company, your version of this story is simpler than ours. You are not competing with every marketing agency in the state. You are competing with a few local companies for a few specific searches, most of which include your trade and your town. A dedicated page for each of those, kept current and backed by a healthy Google Business Profile, is usually enough to own them.

The honest timeline: pages for a specific trade in a specific town showed movement within three weeks for us. Broader terms without a town name take months and depend on the strength of your whole site. We would rather you hear that up front than be surprised in month two.

Everything we did to our own site over those sixty days is taught step by step in the free Local SEO course.

Common Questions

How long does it take for local SEO to show results?

For a specific trade in a specific town, we saw new pages ranking within three weeks and the biggest movement inside sixty days. Broader searches without a town name take three to six months and depend on how strong the rest of your site is. Anyone promising page one for a competitive term in a couple of weeks is guessing or measuring something that does not matter.

Why did rankings go up but clicks stay flat?

Because ranking well for a search only pays off in proportion to how many people make that search. In a small market, even the top spot for the right term produces a modest number of clicks. That is normal. The fix is not more ranking work; it is widening the map to nearby towns and making sure every click that does arrive turns into a conversation.

Where did these numbers come from?

Google Search Console, which is Google’s own free report of how often your site appeared in results and for which searches, and the rank tracker inside our local SEO system, which checks each keyword from a fixed location every week. We compared the first full month on the new site to the most recent month. Any business owner can pull the same report for their own site.

Does a trades business need a separate page for every service?

Yes, for the services people actually search for by name. A homepage that lists everything ranks weakly for each thing. A page about furnace repair in your town ranks for furnace repair in your town. Our industry pages went from not ranking to page one in weeks for exactly that reason. Skip pages for services nobody searches for.

Can rankings drop when you add more pages?

They can, temporarily, when two of your own pages compete for the same search. We saw it on one term during this study. The cure is to decide which page should own the term, link the other pages to it, and stop writing new pages on that exact phrase. Weekly tracking catches this within days instead of months.

Is the tracker or Google Search Console more accurate?

Google Search Console, when you want to know what real customers saw. A rank tracker checks from one fixed location and device, which is useful for spotting week-to-week movement but can read lower than what actual searchers in your area experience. When the two disagree, trust Google’s record and use the tracker as an early-warning system.

What should I do first if my site is in the shape ours was in?

Pull your Search Console report and look for searches where you already sit on page one without a dedicated page. Those are the cheapest wins you have. Build a real page for each, make sure your Google Business Profile lists the same services, and check the numbers again in thirty days. If you would rather have it done for you, that is the first thing we do in an audit.

Will you show me the same numbers for my business?

Yes. Every client gets a weekly report built from the same two sources used in this study, written in plain English, with the slips included alongside the wins. If a number cannot be verified in Google’s own data, it does not go in the report.

If you want to know where your own site stands today, book a free audit. We will pull your Search Console data, show you the searches you are already close to winning, and tell you plainly whether it is worth doing anything about. You can also call the office at (920) 383-3387.