SEO
Case Study
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Google Business Profile calls in year one (up 123% year-over-year)
+138%
increase in organic sessions from users physically located in Wilmington, NC (conversions up 150%)
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core service keywords moved from unranked to top-3 organic positions in the home market
+136%
increase in organic clicks (2,073 total for the year) and +199% increase in impressions
The Challenge
New Estuary Home Care, based in Hampstead, NC and serving Pender County, came to us with two related but distinct visibility goals. First, win the home market: establish clear rankings for the core home care and elderly care terms that drive most of the category’s search volume. Second, and harder, extend that visibility into the Wilmington, NC market, a larger, more competitive area where the business has no physical address to anchor local SEO signals. Home care is a trust-driven, local-intent category: families searching for care for an aging parent typically choose from whoever shows up first in their immediate area, which meant unranked core terms in Pender County and effectively no organic footprint in Wilmington were both direct constraints on lead volume, not just visibility metrics.
The Strategy
Local SEO & Google Business Profile Optimization
Focused GBP management drove GBP calls up 123% and overall profile interactions up 78%, with website clicks from the profile up 54%.
Core Keyword &
On-Page SEO
Targeted the service terms that matter most in the home market: "home care agency," "elderly home care," "in-home care," "dementia care," and "senior care," each moved from unranked to top-3 organic positions over the year.
Geo-Targeted Content for Market Expansion
Built out content and technical signals aimed at earning visibility with Wilmington-based searchers specifically, a market the business serves but doesn't have a physical address in, the primary strategic goal of the engagement.
Technical SEO & Site Performance
Improved Google Lighthouse Performance score from 61 to 90 and cut load time from 5.27 to 3.27 seconds, strengthening the technical foundation behind the rankings and traffic gains.
The Results
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GBP calls in year one, up 123% year-over-year; overall GBP interactions up 78%, website clicks from profile up 54%
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increase in organic sessions from users physically located in Wilmington, NC, with conversions from those sessions up 150%
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core keywords went from unranked to top-3 organic positions in the home market
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organic clicks (up 136%) and nearly 43,000 impressions (up 199% year-over-year)
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Pender County organic sessions, with local market conversions up 50%
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non-branded keyword clicks and non-branded impressions up 63.4% quarter-over-quarter
Worth calling out on the page: the Wilmington numbers are the headline here on purpose. Ranking #1 in a client's own backyard (Pender County) is the expected outcome of strong local SEO. Growing organic sessions and conversions in a market where the business has no physical address is the harder, more differentiated result, and it's the one prospects evaluating an SEO partner for multi-market growth should pay closest attention to.
Dominating the Home Base: Pender County
Winning a home market and expanding into a new one require different playbooks, and New Estuary Home Care’s first year shows both working at once. In Pender County, five core service keywords climbed from unranked to top-3 positions, giving the agency the local pack and organic real estate that home care searches convert on. In Wilmington, a market with no physical location to anchor local signals, organic sessions grew 138% and conversions from those sessions grew 150%, real residents finding the site and reaching out.
For home care and other location-dependent service businesses looking to grow beyond their home base, this is the model: build unimpeachable local authority where you have a presence, then use that authority, content, and technical performance (Lighthouse jumped from 61 to 90 this year) to earn visibility in markets you don’t yet have an address in.
Ready to Grow Into a Market You Don't Have an Address In?
Expanding your visibility beyond your home base takes more than hope, it takes local SEO that works in your backyard and content and technical strategy that earns trust where you don't have a storefront. We build SEO strategies around real market expansion, not just rankings.
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