Background:
Our client is a well-known limousine and party bus company based in Chicago. They have a large fleet of limousines, party buses, and charter buses, serving weddings, proms, corporate events, and everyday transportation needs across the city.
Even though the business was strong offline, their online presence started to struggle. A major Google algorithm change hit their website hard, causing rankings to drop and online visibility to shrink. This meant fewer calls, fewer bookings, and more customers going to competitors.
When the client reached out, they were frustrated. They knew they had one of the best services in Chicago, but their website and Google profile no longer reflected that. They needed someone to step in, identify what went wrong, and bring their online visibility back on track.
The Challenge
Before we started working together, the client’s online visibility was dropping fast. Their website was losing rankings, traffic was falling, and even their Google Business Profile wasn’t bringing in as many calls as before. Competitors were showing up higher in searches, which meant the client was missing out on valuable leads.
After digging deeper, we found a few major problems:
Outdated content – The service pages weren’t matching what people were actually searching for.
Bad backlinks – Spammy links were hurting the website’s trust in Google’s eyes.
Weak local visibility – Their Google Business Profile and local listings weren’t fully optimized, so they weren’t showing up in the local map pack.
Confusing site structure – The website wasn’t easy to navigate, making it harder for both users and search engines to understand their services.
The Strategy
To fix the problems and bring the business back, we built a step-by-step local SEO recovery plan. The idea was simple: clean up what was hurting the website, rebuild its trust, and give it the right content to rank again.
Here’s what we focused on:
Content Re-Optimization – We studied the actual search queries from Google Search Console and rewrote the service pages with better, more relevant keywords. We also added new pages for specific events like weddings, proms, and corporate bookings.
Backlink Cleanup & New Links – We removed harmful backlinks that were dragging the site down, then started building fresh, high-quality local links to improve authority.
Website Fixes – We improved the site’s structure and navigation so both users and Google could easily find and understand each service.
Local SEO Boost – The Google Business Profile was fully optimized with the right categories, photos, posts, and updates. We also built local citations to strengthen the company’s presence across Chicago.
Content Expansion – To capture more searches, we started publishing blog posts around trending Chicago events and transportation topics, making the brand more visible for new opportunities.
Execution:
Once the strategy was set, we started putting everything into action. Our focus was on making steady improvements each week instead of rushing. Over the next 4 months, we worked on:
Page-by-Page Optimization – We re-optimized one service page at a time using real search data from Google Search Console to target the exact keywords people were using.
Local Landing Pages – We created targeted pages for different Chicago neighborhoods and event types to capture local search demand.
Google Business Profile Updates – We kept the profile active with weekly posts, photos, and updates to boost visibility and engagement.
Backlink Building – We built over 50 high-quality, relevant backlinks to rebuild trust and authority.
Technical Improvements – We added local schema markup, improved navigation, and cleaned up technical issues to make the site easier for Google to crawl.
Search Performance Snapshot
Results
The changes quickly started to pay off. Within just 4 months, the business went from losing traffic to seeing steady growth across both their website and Google Business Profile.
Here’s what we achieved:
Website Growth
Traffic doubled (2x growth) in just 4 months.
Over 76,000 clicks and 1.8 million impressions recorded in Google Search Console.
Click-through rate (CTR) improved to 4.2% with better-optimized keywords.
Google Business Profile Growth
2,021 interactions in just 6 months.
295 direct calls from customers.
Significant rise in map pack visibility, bringing in more calls and direction requests.
Overall Impact
The website recovered from continuous drops and started ranking higher again.
Online leads and calls doubled, giving the business a strong flow of new bookings
GMB Performance Snapshot:
Key Takeaways
This project showed that with the right local SEO strategy, even a business that was heavily impacted by Google updates can make a strong comeback. By focusing on re-optimizing content with relevant keywords, cleaning up harmful backlinks, and strengthening local visibility through Google Business Profile updates and citations, we were able to turn things around quickly. Consistent effort over just a few months not only recovered the client’s rankings but also doubled their traffic, calls, and leads proving that steady, well-planned SEO work delivers long-term results.