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Case Study / Cleaning Services SEO
From 3 keywords to 26, and a 94% category match rate
A local cleaning company came to us with only 3 keywords ranking on page one of major search engines. They wanted more local visibility and more booked jobs.
Over four years of local SEO work, that number grew to 26. Here is what we did, and what it produced.
Page-one keywords
Measured over four years
Growth
Increase in first-page rankings
Discovery
Of Google Business Profile finds came from category, product or service searches
The context
The starting point
A local cleaning company with real capacity to take on work, but almost none of it reachable through search.
Three page-one keywords is close to invisible. Anyone searching for the service rather than the company by name was finding somebody else.
Google Business Profile
of the people who found the listing did so by searching a category, product, or service, not the business name directly. That is discovery, not brand search.
The problem
Three keywords on page one
Across the major search engines, only three search terms placed the company on the first page. Anyone searching for house cleaning, office cleaning, or a cleaning service nearby was finding competitors instead.
The goal
More visibility, more booked jobs
The company wanted to show up in local search results and map listings across its service area, and turn that visibility into booked jobs rather than just clicks.
What we did
Four workstreams, run together
Nothing was siloed. Every task pointed at the same researched keywords, which is why the gains held rather than plateauing.
Keyword research
Extensive research into how customers actually search for cleaning services, then the plan was built around those real phrases rather than the terms the business assumed people used.
On-page and off-page SEO
On-page work covers what sits on the site: page titles, headings, service pages, internal links. Off-page covers signals from other websites, such as links and mentions. Both pointed at the same targeted terms.
NAP consistency audit
NAP means name, address, and phone number. We audited and corrected those details across Google Business Profile and Bing Local so the listings agreed with each other and with the site.
SEO-friendly content
We developed and distributed content built around the target keywords, so every service the company offered had a clear reason to rank.
The timeline
Page-one keyword growth
The gain held over four years rather than spiking and fading, because every task in the campaign pointed at the same researched terms. Bar heights are proportional to the keyword counts.
The signal that mattered most
Almost everyone arrived by searching for the service
Of the people who found the company's Google Business Profile, 94.38% did so by searching a category, product, or service, not the business name directly.
That is the difference between being found and being looked up. A high category match rate means the listing was pulling in customers who did not already know the company existed.
The month measured
Traffic in the month measured
Site performance in the month measured, compared with the previous period.
The takeaway
Why this worked
Research came first
The campaign was built around how customers actually search for cleaning services. Nothing was built on a guess.
Listings had to match
Google Business Profile and Bing Local both carry the company name, address, and phone number. When those records disagree, search engines lose confidence. Cleaning them up supported the local rankings, and the profile went on to draw 94.38% of its discovery from category, product, and service searches.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long does SEO take for a cleaning company?
Was any of this paid advertising?
Why does NAP cleanup matter for a cleaning business?
What does the 94.38% figure mean?
Will my company get the same results?
Next step
Ready for results like this?
Contact Polaris Marketing Solutions to talk about your SEO strategy. We will look at where you rank now and what it would take to move.