Case Study
Local Church: Building Local Search Visibility & Turning Weekly Content Into Organic Growth
This church was already thriving offline—three packed Sunday services and a strong reputation built over 20+ years. The goal was to add a digital engine: show up for local church searches and make their weekly content discoverable online.
We started by fixing the site’s technical foundation, then layered in keyword research, local optimization, and authority signals— all while creating a plan to repurpose existing sermons, study guides, and podcasts into SEO-friendly content.
- 12,373% increase in total organic clicks
- 233% increase in total impressions
- 305% increase in organic CTR
- Major improvements to site speed, structure, and local keyword targeting
Local foundations first—then growth compounds.
Results Snapshot
KPI improvements from the engagement—driven by technical fixes, local optimization, and better keyword alignment across web properties.
Increase in organic clicks
Increase in impressions
Increase in organic CTR
Background
Our client was a local church. The organization was successful in their local community, filling their building each Sunday with three services. With over 20 years of history, they were a known and well-reputed organization in the community.
They wanted to add a digital component to their weekly services and content—embracing technology to reach an online generation.
The church was producing great content every week, but none of it was being harnessed through the website or optimized for discovery. The site also suffered from years of disorganization, slow performance, and weak architecture—so it didn’t rank for local searches beyond the brand name.
Beginnings
The state of the website when we began work:
Each and every week, the organization was creating rich and unique content through their array of Sunday services, weekly study guides, and podcast. The content was very well done and well received by the congregation.
None of the weekly content was being leveraged on the website or optimized for search. The website had very little content and none of it was built for discovery.
The site also had years of messy structure—different departments and leaders had access over time, leading to random pages, disorganized navigation, and poor architecture.
It was extremely slow, and the church didn’t rank for local queries other than its brand name.
Strategy
The Plan of Action to Achieve the Goal
- Fix technical issues first so the site could be crawled, understood, and used.
- Perform keyword research and naturally infuse key terms across core pages and supporting properties.
- Build authority signals with a foundation of citations and backlinks.
- Develop a content plan to turn weekly sermons, guides, and podcasts into discoverable website content.
Phase 1
Our first project was to improve the website and other online properties. We focused on site speed and usability, fixing broken links, thin pages, and navigational issues.
After running a site audit, we moved quickly through fixes (the site was relatively small), including:
- Reducing and optimizing image sizes
- Removing custom fonts for better load times
- Fixing broken pages and links (404 errors)
- Setting up proper canonicalization
With these problems solved and the site in good shape, we moved on to Phase Two.
Phase 2
We performed in-depth keyword research to determine what terms people used to search for local churches. Once the keyword list was approved, we incorporated them into key website pages in a natural way.
We also noticed the organization’s Google Business profile needed updating and lacked keyword use. We updated and optimized the listing and saw immediate, dramatic results.
Through the combination of keyword alignment on both the website and the Google Business profile, the organization experienced immediate and sustained increases in search visibility and traffic.
Phase 3
In process.
Results
End results from the project, based on KPIs
Organic traffic grew almost immediately and continued to increase throughout the project. The gains were astronomical:
- 12,373% increase in Total Organic Clicks
- 233% increase in Total Impressions
- 305% increase in organic Click Through Rate (CTR)
Schedule a Complimentary Consultation
Tell us what you’re trying to rank for—and we’ll map out the fastest path to sustainable growth.
