SEO Case Studies

Doubled Enrollment in Two Years! 

Study Timeframe: 4 Years

Education requires a different approach from traditional businesses but is similar enough to use the same techniques to attract traffic, walk "leads" down a conversion path, and close the "sale" on the school. This is called the admissions process, and we are able to implement a system that brings in more potential family information for the school to help sell. By bringing in more qualified traffic to the website, offering as many answers as possible about the school, and offering an easy way to book a school tour, families have an easier onramp into a school's admissions process.

From the Client:
"The team at Cube Creative transformed our online admissions system, created a website that is found online by potential parents, and helped us retain and sign up more families than ever before with traditional marketing like TV ads, billboards, and costly postcards that are hard to track. Thank you for a well-thought-out marketing strategy that changes with us as our admissions needs change."

10-Month Extreme Growth

Study Timeframe: 10 Months

2-year Long-Term Growth

Study Timeframe: 2 years

Fully filled the appointment schedule in 3 months!

Study Timeframe: 3 Months - 2 Years

This moving company sought us out after working with an international SEO company that provided a badly converting website and no traffic or leads. Within one one week we started delivering leads using digital advertising and within three months we website started delivering leads naturally with SEO, reducing the needs for paid PPC advertising.

From the client after the first 3 Months: "We are now booked every day this month. I am so glad we started working with you!"

Increased estimate appointments three-fold in first year!

Study Timeframe: 3 Years

This fence contracting company left Cube Creative for another company. After one year and little results, they came back. We were able to not only increase their lead base online, but change their sales process through using HubSpot CRM Sales and Marketing. We created a website that not only showed up with web searches for thousands of keywords, but also converted that traffic into sales calls and estimate appointments.

From the client: "We left Cube Creative once. We are back to never leave again! This team never tries to sell me things I don't need. They have increased the traffic to our website. They respond within minutes of my questions. Highly recommend!"

Doubled leads in six months

Study Timeframe: 1.5 Years

Local pressure washing business wanted to leave the Yellow Pages and yard signs. Using Google PPC ads, we started bringing in leads within 24 hours while working on a website designed to convert visitors to leads. After over a year, we no longer need to run paid Google ads and the website brings in enough organic leads to keep the business busy.

Powerful Statement

Study Timeframe: 2+ Years

Word of mouth is the best referral source, especially for a family photographer. This photographer wanted to be found by others, nit just family and friends. Adding content each month helped consistently rank for more keywords each month and help the photographer be found online in the local area, increasing leads and photo session bookings.

From the client: "Being a photographer in multiple industries with the workflow I had, it was hard to keep my website up to snuff. I sought out Cube Creative for expertise with design and functionality so my current and potential clients could experience the 'wow' factor when they browsed my site. The staff was phenomenal to collaborate with! Very responsive and accommodating to my needs and ideas as well as wowing me with their own. I came to Cube Creative with the hopes that they’d take over my website! I got not only that, but also the technical savvy to increase my Google presence and overall traffic to my site, as well as a blog, which was new to me! I highly recommend these folks for any website/marketing needs you and your small business may have."

Brought in more auto service customers and sold business

Study Timeframe: 2 Years

When it comes to auto service, most shops do little advertising outside of the Yellow Pages and word of mouth. This company took a chance on digital marketing and saw results within the first two months. Since starting, they continually come up above their local competition and get the chance to speak with customers before their competitors. Digital marketing completely changed this client's automotive service business.

Increased new patients by 291 in first year.

Study Timeframe: 3 Years

Local chiropractic business wanted to increase business and take make a big impact in their bottom line. Within one year our efforts helped bring in 291 new patients vs the previous year, not including new word of mouth patients. We used a combination of website content, social media posting, and increased Google Reviews using reputation management software to gather 5-star reviews every month.

From the client: "Cube Creative has done a fantastic job on our website, marketing, online reviews and reputation and as a result have increased our new patient flow significantly. I highly recommend them for improving your business and reputation."

Tripled Guided Tours in First Year.

Study Timeframe: 4 Years

Local fly fishing guide came to us with an established web presence but the website was not converting visitors into booked fly fishing guided trips. We completely overhauled the site and added local landing pages to target certain areas where leads would be generated. We then added pillar pages for the different rivers that the guide fishes with clients. After one year, these pages are the top ranking pages for each river and brings in natural leads each week for the guide.

Using a combination of targeted and well-written content, Google PPC advertising, Social Media Posts, and lead converting paths on the website, we increased the tours enough for the owner to hire multiple guides to take care of the influx in new booked tours.

Exceeded ROI vs all other advertising methods

Study Timeframe: 4 Years

In 2017, Cube Creative built a custom real estate website for RealStar Homes, a regional home contractor that built communities in Myrtle Beach, SC and 13 other locations. They used traditional marketing methods to advertise homes but were't happy with the results. They came to us for lead generation and digital marketing methods to compare the "old ways" to the "newer ways" of real estate marketing, including SEO. At the end of 2021, the business was so successful is was purchased by a top 4 national building brand. Our SEO marketing campaign produced more leads that closed than the traditional out of home advertising and PPC campaigns run by the client. Our campaign ended September, 2021 and the site was disabled once all properties were transferred to the new parent company.

Using HubSpot CRM, we built lead forms at each step of the process so salespeople could follow up immediately and answer questions before a customer asked them, using inbound methods.

Each month, we produced four blogs and four location pages that all linked to pillar pages linked to each individual community. We also produced social media content each week to showcase each community's amenities and location benefits, along with happy customer testimonials.

SEO accounted for 49% of all closings

In September, 2021, SEO Traffic from Cube Creative’s SEO and social campaigns attracted more qualified and targeted leads, resulting in more closings vs. appointments
made compared to other lead sources! (SEO: 49%, Zillow: 16%, Out of Home: 21%, Direct: 13%)

How a Western NC Pest Control Company Built a Local Digital Presence in 14 Months

Services: Website strategy, local SEO, location page development, Google Business Profile optimization, review generation
Engagement start: January 2025

The Challenge

When this Western North Carolina pest control company came to Cube Creative, their service quality far outpaced their online visibility. In a market dominated by larger regional competitors, they were functionally invisible to homeowners searching for pest control in their area.

Their Google Business Profile was sparse. Their website had little to no content targeting the specific communities they served. Their review count was minimal. Organic search traffic was almost entirely branded; the people already finding them already knew them. That's not growth. That's maintenance.

The goal was clear: build a foundation that generated new customers, not just satisfied existing ones.

The Strategy

We approached this as a local authority problem. The Asheville market isn't one city; it's a constellation of communities, each with its own search behavior. A homeowner in Hendersonville isn't searching "Asheville pest control." They're searching "pest control Hendersonville NC."

What we built:

Location-specific pages targeting each primary service community: Black Mountain, Weaverville, Hendersonville, Fletcher, Arden, Brevard, Mills River, and Asheville proper.

Each page was written to match how real homeowners in that area search.

Google Business Profile optimization with consistent updates, category refinement, and a systematic approach to review generation, building the credibility signals Google uses to rank local results.

Content targeting high-intent local terms tied to the specific pest pressures in Western NC: carpenter bees, moisture issues, termites, wildlife exclusion, all common concerns in the region's older housing stock and wooded terrain.

The Results (14 months)

The local page strategy is working. Location pages are ranking in the top 10 for their target communities:

• Weaverville #6.1 avg. position
• Black Mountain #6.2 avg. position
• Contact page #8.5 avg. position
• Arden #8.8 avg. position

That means homeowners in these communities are finding this company near the top of Google — not on page two, not in a directory listing. Their own website.

The reviews page ranks at an average position of 18.5 and converts at a 1.45% CTR, notably above site average — signaling that review-curious searchers find their way there organically.

A Triangle-Area Pest Control Company's Two-Phase Growth Story

Services: Website strategy, content marketing, organic SEO, HubSpot CRM integration, reputation management, Google Ads management (Phase 2)
Engagement start: March 2024

The Challenge

This established termite and general pest control company serving the greater Raleigh-Durham metro had something a lot of pest control businesses lack: a real reputation and a long service history. The problem was that their digital presence didn't reflect either.

When Cube Creative came on board in early 2024, significant untapped potential sat dormant. Their service area spanned dozens of Triangle-area communities: Clayton, Wendell, Zebulon, Benson, Sanford, Hillsborough, and more.

But their content and web architecture didn't capture that geography. The blog content was minimal. Location pages were underdeveloped. Lead tracking was fragmented enough that they couldn't connect marketing spend to actual customer acquisition.

Most marketing agencies would have started with paid ads. We didn't.

The Strategy — Phase 1: Build What Earns

The first instinct when a pest control company needs more leads is to buy them. Run ads, get calls, pay forever. We took the opposite approach: build the organic infrastructure first, so the business wouldn't be perpetually renting its own audience.

Content that earns organic traffic: Homeowners research before they buy;  they want to know what a termite warranty covers, how to spot moisture issues, what wood-destroying insects look like. We built long-form content targeting those questions, capturing traffic at the research stage and guiding visitors toward conversion. The termite warranty guide alone generated 447 organic clicks from 108,150 impressions at an avg. position of 8.1.

Location page architecture: Serving a multi-community geography requires more than one service page. We built a geo-targeted content structure matching search behavior community by community across the Triangle region.

HubSpot CRM integration: Lead tracking was connected to a HubSpot build capturing contacts by source. This lets the company see not just that they got a lead, but which channel generated it.

Reputation management: A coordinated review generation process systematically grew their Google review count, building the social proof that converts searchers into callers.

The Strategy — Phase 2: Amplify What's Working

Once the organic foundation was established, content indexed, rankings climbing, HubSpot tracking leads. We layered in paid search. Not as a replacement for organic, but as an amplifier targeting demand that the organic channel couldn't reach fast enough.

The paid campaign launched in 2026 and scaled aggressively, now running 418 paid keywords at an estimated 17,200 monthly clicks. The organic foundation means the paid campaigns aren't carrying the full load — they're capturing incremental demand on top of a traffic base that doesn't disappear when the ad budget pauses.

This sequencing matters. Companies that start with paid ads and never build organic end up entirely dependent on spend. This company built the asset first.

The Results

Phase 1 — Organic & Foundation Results

What This Means for Your Business

The sequencing here is the lesson. Organic first, paid second, not because paid doesn't work, but because organic changes what paid costs. When your landing pages already rank, your Quality Scores are higher. When your brand already has authority, your ad CTRs improve. When your content already converts, your paid spend goes further.

Most agencies sell you ads on day one because ads generate invoices immediately. We prefer to build the asset first because that's what generates compounding returns.

How a Regional NC Pest Control Company Built a Content Engine That Runs Itself

Services: Website strategy, content marketing, organic SEO, blog content development, Google Business Profile management
Engagement start: July 2019

The Challenge

Most pest control companies think about marketing in terms of ads. Run the ad, get the call, pause the ad, lose the call. It's a treadmill with a monthly fee attached.

This company was ready to get off the treadmill.

The goal wasn't quick-hit lead volume. It was sustainable, long-term visibility that didn't evaporate the moment an ad budget paused. That meant a fundamentally different approach: build content that earns traffic, not content that chases it.

The Strategy

We built the content strategy around a core insight: pest control customers don't search the way pest control companies think they do.

Most companies optimize for "pest control near me" and call it done. But a homeowner who just found a snake doesn't search "pest control." They search "signs of snakes around your house." A homeowner worried about treatments searches "does ozone kill bugs." Someone trying to figure out what they're looking at searches "carpenter bee vs bumble bee."

We built content for those questions.

Over six-plus years, we developed a deep library of educational, locally-relevant blog content targeting the specific pest and wildlife concerns of homeowners in the target market. Not generic filler — content that matched exactly what real people were actually searching.

Paired with location-specific service pages for each market served, Google Business Profile management to capture high-intent "near me" searches, and technical SEO to ensure the content infrastructure was built to rank, not just exist.

The Results

Notice what's on that list: blog content answering real homeowner questions drives more traffic than the homepage itself. These aren't just vanity metrics; they're the top of a funnel that converts curious homeowners into pest control customers.

The organic channel dominates at 86.2% of all sessions, meaning the vast majority of web traffic costs nothing in ad spend.

The Long Game Includes Adjustments

After peaking at nearly 13,800 ranked keywords in late 2024, this site's visibility pulled back. Two factors drove the shift: Google's mid-2024 core algorithm updates reshuffled rankings across the pest control industry, and content that had ranked reliably for years needed to be re-evaluated against Google's evolving quality signals. Initially, the decline tracked like a normal seasonal dip; pest control search volume always softens in the fall. But when spring 2025 didn't bounce back at the same rate, the data pointed to something deeper.

We went back into the content library, audited performance post by post, and began systematically refreshing underperforming pages, updating outdated information, realigning content with current search intent, and strengthening the pieces that still had ranking potential. The organic share held at 86% through this period, which tells you the foundation is intact. The content engine isn't broken. It needed a tune-up, the same way any asset does after six years of heavy use.

What This Means for Your Business

This case represents the ceiling of what a content-forward SEO strategy produces over time. Each piece compounds on the last, and articles ranking today will continue driving traffic for years.

The tradeoff is time. This isn't a 90-day campaign. It's a long-term asset that most competitors are too impatient to build.

How a Southern California Pest Control Company Built a High-ROI Paid Search Engine

Services: Google Ads management (Search + Local Services Ads), website strategy, organic SEO foundation, GBP optimization
Engagement start: October 2024

The Challenge

Southern California pest control is a competitive paid search market. Every major national operator runs aggressive campaigns in the Temecula corridor. Digital ad costs are high. For an independent competing against nationals, the temptation is to either overspend (a losing battle) or underspend and accept poor visibility. Neither works.

This company needed smarter PPC management: every dollar in ad spend returning the most possible in actual customer acquisition, not just clicks.

The Strategy

We built and managed a multi-campaign structure combining two complementary channels:

Local Services Ads (LSA): Google's pay-per-lead product for local service businesses. When managed correctly, LSAs appear above traditional search results with a "Google Guaranteed" badge, one of the strongest trust signals in paid local search. We optimized the LSA profile for budget efficiency and lead quality.

Traditional Search Campaigns: Layered beneath LSA, conventional Google Ads targeted high-intent search terms across the service geography. Campaign structure was built around service type and city to maximize Quality Score and minimize wasted spend.

Geographic precision: Rather than broad regional campaigns, we structured by individual city, allocating budget to follow actual conversion performance. Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Hemet, and Oceanside each got dedicated attention.

Organic SEO as a long-term complement: While paid drove immediate volume, we built an organic foundation, local pest content (SoCal spiders, rodent control, ant identification), to reduce long-term PPC dependency.

The Results

Campaign performance (full engagement period)

Top keyword performance:

• "pest control near me", 218 clicks 19.12% CTR
• "exterminator", 594 clicks 6.05% CTR
• "pest control", 528 clicks 4.17% CTR

For context: the average Google Ads click-through rate in the home services industry sits around 5%. A 19.12% CTR on "pest control near me" reflects a well-matched ad unit, the ad is relevant, the intent is exact, and the conversion path is short.

The organic foundation is building (GSC)

What This Means for Your Business

The pest control industry's dirty secret in paid search: most companies are paying far too much per lead, not because PPC doesn't work, but because their campaigns aren't structured to convert efficiently.

Campaign architecture, Quality Score management, bid strategy, and landing page alignment determine whether your cost per conversion is $67 or $200+. In a market like Southern California, where the nationals are spending aggressively, the difference between a well-structured campaign and a sloppy one isn't marginal; it's the difference between growing profitably and bleeding money.

Want to see how your campaigns compare? We'll pull the numbers and show you where the waste is.

How a Coastal NC Pest Control Company Turned Its Google Profile Into a Lead Engine

Services: Website strategy, local SEO, location page development, Google Business Profile optimization, review generation, content marketing
Engagement start: January 2025

The Challenge

Coastal NC is a growth market. Retirees moving in, vacation properties, and new construction, all creating consistent pest control demand. But high demand doesn't automatically mean easy leads. It means more competition, too.

This company came to Cube Creative with solid operations and a strong reputation among existing customers. What they didn't have was a digital infrastructure that matched. In a market where homeowners choose a pest control company from their phone before ever making a call, being invisible online is a real revenue problem.

The Strategy

For a new engagement, we focus on channels that produce results fastest without sacrificing the long-term foundation. For this company, that meant a two-track approach: build the GBP into a lead generator immediately, while the SEO and content strategy matured in parallel.

Google Business Profile as the primary lead channel: The GBP is the single most underutilized asset in most pest control companies' digital strategy, often incomplete, rarely updated, and almost never systematically optimized. We treated this company's profile as a direct lead source: category optimization, service area configuration, photo strategy, review velocity, and consistent posting.

Location page architecture: Serving Brunswick County means serving a geography, not just a city. We built pages targeting the specific communities this company services: Oak Island, Southport, Bolivia, Shallotte, Wilmington — with content written for how homeowners in each area actually search.

Review generation: A systematic review asks process turned a thin review profile into a growing asset that reinforces trust for every prospective customer who looks them up.

Content supporting long-term organic: Termite content, mole control, mosquito guides: service-relevant content targeting the pest pressures most common to the coastal NC market, building ranking authority for the next 12–24 months.

The Results