From invisible to in demand: The impact of local SEO

By Ben Levesque, Webrunner. 

A targeted SEO strategy by Webrunner helped transform a landscaping company’s online presence into a steady source of new leads. 

For many contractors, a strong reputation in the field does not always translate to visibility online. That gap can limit growth, especially in competitive service markets where homeowners increasingly turn to search engines first. Webrunner highlights this challenge in a recent case study, showing how a targeted SEO strategy can transform a local contractor’s digital presence into a consistent source of qualified leads. 

Working with a growing landscaping company in the Greater Toronto Area, Webrunner demonstrated how technical optimization, local SEO and content development can work together to drive measurable results. By focusing on high-intent search visibility and neighborhood-level targeting, the campaign shifted the business from relying on referrals to building a scalable, organic lead generation engine. The outcome underscores a broader trend in the trades: contractors who invest in structured digital strategies are better positioned to capture demand, expand market reach and compete in crowded regional markets. 

Luke’s story: Partnering with a growing landscaping operation 

Luke’s Landscaping is a residential landscaping company serving some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the Greater Toronto Area, including Scarborough, East York, North York and beyond. Built on hands-on craftsmanship and a strong local reputation, the company had steadily grown through referrals and word-of-mouth, delivering everything from seasonal maintenance and hedge trimming to interlocking patios and snow removal. 

The challenge wasn’t the quality of the work. It was that almost none of it was being found online. 

Despite operating in one of Canada’s largest urban markets, Luke’s Landscaping had a digital footprint that barely existed. Their website was technically live, but it wasn’t generating many leads, wasn’t ranking for all the services they offered and wasn’t showing up prominently when homeowners in their own neighborhoods searched for landscaping help. 

That’s when they partnered with Webrunner. 

Hear it directly from Luke: 

The challenge: A strong local reputation with poor online visibility 

When Luke’s Landscaping came to Webrunner in early 2024, the gap between their on-the-ground reputation and their digital presence was stark. A website that existed in name only, a search footprint dominated almost entirely by branded queries and no clear strategy to change any of it. 

The core issues were clear: 

• Brand dependency: The vast majority of their organic visibility came from people who already knew the business and searched for it by name. They were essentially invisible to anyone who hadn’t already heard of them. 

• Buried in search results: For high-intent terms like “landscaping company Scarborough” or “snow removal East York,” Luke’s Landscaping wasn’t anywhere close to Page 1. 

• No content or local SEO infrastructure: The site lacked optimized metadata, internal linking, service-area pages and any form of local-focused content targeting the GTA neighborhoods they served. 

• Weak backlink profile: With only 20 to 25 referring domains, the site lacked the authority signals Google needed to trust it. 

• Minimal organic traffic: Monthly organic visits sat below 50, far too low to generate a meaningful volume of new inbound leads. 

The solution: Building a local authority engine 

Webrunner executed a targeted 16-month SEO strategy designed to move Luke’s Landscaping from digital obscurity to Page 1 dominance across their core service areas. The strategy was built on three core pillars: 

1 - Technical & on-page SEO foundation 

Before any content or link-building efforts could take hold, the site needed a structural overhaul. 

• Complete rebuild of service pages with optimized titles, H-tags, metadata and schema markup to ensure Google could properly interpret and rank the site’s core offerings. 

• Internal linking architecture to connect service pages, location pages and blog content into a cohesive authority structure. 

• Image alt tag optimization and site speed improvements to reduce friction and improve crawlability. 

2 - Local SEO & geo-targeted content 

To capture the high-intent, location-based searches that drive real leads, we built out a comprehensive local presence across the GTA. 

• 15+ new service and location pages targeting specific neighborhoods and suburbs, enabling rankings for terms like “landscaping company Scarborough” and “interlocking patios North York.” 

• Google Business Profile (GBP) optimization, including Q&A additions, regular posts and geotagged project photos to strengthen Google’s proximity and trust signals. 

• Citation cleanup and NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency across directories to reinforce local legitimacy. 

3 - Content strategy & authority building 

We built a content engine designed to answer the questions homeowners in the GTA are actively searching for. 

• 1,000 to 2,000 word blog posts targeting seasonal services, maintenance tips and high-intent informational queries, funneling top-of-funnel traffic into core service pages. 

• FAQ blocks and structured info boxes designed for AI-driven and featured-snippet discoverability. 

• Manual link-building outreach to relevant directories, local blogs and regional publications, growing the referring domain count from 20 to 25 up to 50+, doubling the site’s backlink profile. 

Transformative results: From invisible to 1.2 million impressions 

The shift in organic performance between April 2024 and August 2025 was dramatic. 

Here is how the numbers break down: 

1 - Keyword explosion: From 80 to 700+ 

The most foundational shift was in keyword coverage. Starting from roughly 80 ranking keywords, the majority of which were branded, the site now ranks for over 700 terms across the GTA. More importantly, 83.45% of all keyword traffic now comes from non-branded searches. That means Luke’s Landscaping is being discovered by homeowners who have never heard of them, which is exactly the net-new lead flow the business needed. 

The site now ranks for competitive, intent-driven terms including: 

• “Landscaping company Scarborough” 
• “Snow removal East York” 
• “Hedge trimming North York” 
• 300+ keywords now holding positions in the Top 20 

2 - Traffic velocity: From 50 visits to 600+ per month 

Monthly organic visits scaled from fewer than 50 to over 600, an increase of more than 1,100%. Growth began in earnest in early 2025 as newly created pages gained traction, accelerating sharply through Q2 and Q3 2025 as blog content and location pages began accumulating authority. 

This traffic is also higher quality. With 83% of visits driven by non-branded, commercially oriented queries, the people landing on the site are actively searching for the services Luke’s Landscaping offers. 

3 - Search impressions & click growth 

Google Search Console tells the full story of the site’s growing footprint. Between the campaign’s start and August 2025: 

• Total impressions grew from approximately 30,000 to 40,000 up to 1.2 million, representing a massive expansion in the site’s reach across Google’s results pages. 
• Clicks climbed from fewer than 100 to 7,960, a 7,860% increase, reflecting not just visibility but genuine user engagement and search intent alignment. 
• The site now appears across 1,000+ queries, with steady improvements in average position as authority compounds month over month. 

4 - Backlink profile & domain authority 

The link-building program doubled Luke’s Landscaping’s referring domain count, growing from 20 to 25 domains up to 50+. By prioritizing niche-relevant, locally trusted sources over generic directories, the backlink growth sent clear topical authority signals to Google, directly supporting the ranking gains seen across service and location pages. 

Beyond the numbers 

The numbers tell a compelling story, but the operational shift matters just as much. Luke’s Landscaping has gone from a business that relied almost entirely on referrals and word-of-mouth to one that now has a dependable, organic pipeline of inbound leads, without factoring in paid advertising. 

• GTA neighborhood authority: By ranking across multiple cities and suburbs, including Scarborough, East York, North York and beyond, the brand has established a regional digital presence that mirrors the geographic footprint of the actual business. 
• Commercial intent: With 83% of keyword traffic categorized as non-branded and commercially oriented, the site is attracting homeowners who are ready to hire, not just browse. 
• Future-proofed for AI search: Structured FAQ blocks, info boxes and intent-aligned content ensure the site is positioned for discoverability in AI-powered search environments, beyond just traditional Google rankings. 

Conclusion: Scaling with precision in Canada’s most competitive urban market 

The GTA is one of the most competitive landscaping markets in Canada. Long-established operators with mature profiles and thousands of reviews don’t give up ground easily. But by building a technically sound foundation, creating hyperlocal content that speaks directly to neighborhood-level search intent and consistently compounding authority through link-building and GBP optimization, Webrunner helped Luke’s Landscaping do something remarkable: carve out a dominant organic presence in a market where most competitors have a years-long head start. 

Today, Luke’s Landscaping doesn’t just have a website. They have a lead-generation engine that generates over 600 organic visits per month, ranks for 700+ keywords and reaches homeowners at the exact moment they’re searching for help. 

The next phase of the strategy focuses on deepening Map Pack visibility across key service areas, accelerating review generation to strengthen GBP authority and expanding hyperlocal content into additional GTA neighborhoods to widen the lead funnel even further. The momentum is there, and the ceiling is still high. 

Original article and image source: Webrunner