Real Life SEO Fixes for 3 Small Businesses

Case Studies That Overcame Major SEO Challenges

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), small businesses often find themselves making common mistakes that can hinder their growth online.

In this blog, we’re diving into three real-life case studies where small businesses faced significant SEO challenges and how we tackled these obstacles. Our goal is to help you learn from their experiences, provide actionable solutions, and clear up any common misconceptions.

Whether you’re redesigning a website, improving local SEO, or balancing keyword strategies, this post will offer valuable insights to help your business thrive online.

The Bakery That Lost Its Dough

A local bakery was famous for its sourdough. When the owners decided to launch a sleek new website, they thought the redesign would boost business. Instead, their website traffic plummeted. What went wrong?

They didn’t realize the importance of properly redirecting their old URLs to the new ones. Their most popular pages—product listings, blog posts, and contact information—were lost to search engines. To Google, it was like those pages had vanished. As a result, customers searching for their products were directed elsewhere.

The Fix: Once we identified the problem, we implemented 301 redirects for their old URLs, fixed broken internal links, and optimized the site structure. With those tweaks, their website quickly recovered its rankings, and within a month, they were welcoming more customers than ever.

Takeaway: When redesigning a website, always plan your redirects carefully. It’s the difference between staying visible and disappearing from search results altogether.

The Home Cleaning Service and the Local SEO Jungle

Let’s take another small business—this time, a home cleaning service. Their website was professional, and their service was impeccable, but they were nowhere to be found in local searches. They hadn’t claimed their Google My Business (GMB) profile, didn’t optimize for “near me” searches, and ignored crucial local SEO strategies.

This business depended on clients in its local area, but potential customers were missing them in search results.

The Fix: First, we helped them claim and optimize their GMB listing, ensuring consistent Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) information across all platforms. Then, we targeted local keywords, like “home cleaning service in Mumbai” and encouraged their happy clients to leave reviews.

Within weeks, the cleaning service saw a dramatic rise in phone calls and inquiries, finally appearing in relevant local searches.

Takeaway: If you rely on local customers, optimizing for local SEO is non-negotiable. Claim your Google My Business profile and use local keywords to get noticed.

More Keywords, Less Success for a Skincare brand

Finally, let’s talk about a small skincare e-commerce brand. They heard that the key to getting ranked on Google was packing as many keywords as possible into every page. From product descriptions to blog posts, they overloaded their content with keywords, thinking it would push them to the top.

What happened? Google penalized their site, considering the excessive keywords as spammy, and users found their content hard to read. The result? Their traffic dropped significantly, and conversions tanked.

The Fix: We shifted their focus from keyword stuffing to writing high-quality, user-friendly content. We still used relevant keywords, but naturally. Instead of “best organic skincare buy organic skincare natural skincare” plastered all over the page, we created informative, engaging product descriptions that resonated with their target audience. Soon enough, their rankings improved, and sales followed.

Takeaway: Quality over quantity. Keywords are important, but if your content doesn’t provide value, Google—and your audience—won’t care.

Whether it's a bakery losing customers to faulty redirects, a cleaning service struggling to be found locally, or a skincare brand buried in keyword overload, each business had a challenge. The good news is, with the right approach, these problems can be solved. The key to successful SEO lies in understanding the nuances, learning from mistakes, and applying the right solutions.

Ready to avoid these pitfalls and take your SEO to the next level?

Let’s discuss how we can help your business succeed. Book a free consultation today!