Blue Heron Cottages
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Blue Heron Cottages is a boutique vacation rental business offering cozy, pet-friendly cottages near the San Diego coast. Their charming accommodations provide guests with a relaxed, home-like experience just steps away from the beach."
Introduction: Blue Heron Cottages is a boutique vacation rental business offering cozy, pet-friendly cottages near the San Diego coast. Their charming accommodations provide guests with a relaxed, home-like experience just steps away from the beach.
Challenge: Blue Heron Cottages struggled with low visibility on search engines. With no prior SEO strategy in place, they faced difficulty attracting new guests organically and competing with larger vacation rental platforms.
Due-Process: We began with in-depth keyword research and mapping to align the website with relevant search intent. Each page underwent comprehensive on-page optimization to improve both visibility and user experience. To enhance domain authority, we implemented a strategic backlinking plan focused on high DA websites.
A structured 3-month roadmap was created to ensure consistent progress and measurable results. Additionally, social media engagement was managed to extend the brand’s reach and support overall visibility.
Result:
Blue Heron Cottages recorded a strong upward trajectory across its search ecosystem, with 8 of the top 20 tracked keywords showing clear, measurable improvement throughout the campaign. High-intent phrases such as “Affordable pet-friendly cottages in San Diego” climbed from the low 50s in March to around Position 12 by October, while “San Diego cottage rentals” advanced from roughly Position 45 to the 14–16 range. Even previously underperforming terms like “Pet-friendly vacation homes in San Diego” surged from Position 90+ to the 20s–30s, reinforcing the campaign’s ability to move competitive queries. By October, the majority of these eight priority keywords were consistently ranking between Positions 8 and 20, firmly capturing Page 1 real estate.
CTR and average position metrics reflected this momentum. Average position, which initially fluctuated between 35 and 45, tightened and rose steadily—with a notable improvement occurring right after the August rollouts—before stabilizing at 10.81, marking a decisive shift toward first-page consistency. CTR, volatile in the early months and often dipping below 1%, strengthened to 2.01%, supported by improved metadata, better intent alignment, and clearer snippet structures. The significant position jump observed around September triggered the first sustained period where CTR consistently held above the 1.5–2% band.
Traffic trends reinforced the campaign’s impact, with daily impressions rising from 80–120 in the early months to consistent peaks of 350–500 through late summer, demonstrating expanded keyword visibility. Click volume followed this momentum, climbing from 1–3 clicks per day initially to a campaign high of 199, indicating strong conversion of visibility into real engagement. While the August rollout introduced fluctuations that temporarily reduced impressions, the click data told a different story—clicks remained consistently stronger than earlier months, holding in the 2–6 per day range even after impressions normalized.
Across all metrics—rankings, CTR, impressions, and clicks—Blue Heron Cottages transitioned from sporadic organic presence to a highly competitive performer in San Diego’s vacation rental landscape, backed by tangible numerical growth at every stage.
- SEO
- SMO