North County Spa — 8-Month SEO Case Study

Location: Carlsbad, California

Timeline: 8 months (from zero)

Executive summary

Starting from scratch, we built and scaled North County Spa’s organic presence to a healthy, lead-ready channel.

Highlights (last 8 months):

• 8.2K organic sessions with 5.8K engaged sessions and 70.36% engagement rate; avg. time 58s.
• 7.7K Google clicks from 408K impressions (Search Console), avg. position ~18.8; 15 tracked keywords now sit in the top 10 (1 in #1, 3 in #2–3, 9 in #4–5, 2 in #6–10).
• Google = 7.9K sessions (70%+ engagement). Bing, Yahoo & DuckDuckGo add incremental traffic with longer dwell times (1m18s–1m44s).
• Sitewide landing pages generated 13.6K sessions, 9.1K engaged sessions and 66.8% engagement rate.
• High-intent pages now perform strongly:
• /spa-menu/ (7.8K sessions, 79% engagement)
• /special-offers/ (3.5K sessions, 90.7% engagement)
• /contact/ (1.1K sessions, 77.9% engagement)
• /gallery/ (94.7% engagement)
• /asian-massage-carlsbad/, /deep-tissue-massage-san-diego/, /couples-massage/ (80–89% engagement)

Goals

1. Launch a clean, crawlable website for a new spa brand in Carlsbad.
2. Rank for local, high-intent services (e.g., Asian massage Carlsbad, deep tissue massage, couples massage, gift cards).
3. Turn visitors into calls, contact requests, and offer redemptions.

What we started with

• No prior organic footprint or tracking.
• No information architecture, local signals, or content clusters.
• Limited brand awareness in North County / Carlsbad.

Strategy & work delivered

1) Technical foundation (Month 1–2)

• GA4 + GSC setup, events for call, contact, offer, gallery views.
• Fast, indexable theme; XML sitemaps; robots & canonical rules.
• Core Web Vitals fixes; image compression & lazy load for gallery.
• LocalBusiness/Service schema, FAQ schema on key service pages.

2) Local SEO & trust (Month 2–4)

• Google Business Profile build-out: categories, services, Q&A, UTM tracking.
• NAP consistency across top citations (Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, niche spa/wellness directories).
• Location signals: Carlsbad & North County references, driving directions, neighborhood FAQs.

3) Content & search demand capture (Month 3–6)

• Service pages: Asian Massage (Carlsbad), Deep Tissue, Couples, Foot Massage, Benefits of Massage, etc.
• Commercial pages: /spa-menu/, /special-offers/, /gift-card/, /grab-offer/, /gallery/, /contact/.
• Education/Topical blogs to widen keyword net (e.g., cultural/technique guides and comparisons).
• Internal linking hub → spoke structure to push equity to money pages.

4) On-page conversion & UX (Month 5–7)

• Sticky “Call Now” and fast-load offer CTAs on high-traffic pages.
• Short, scannable sections; price visibility via /spa-menu/; social proof blocks.
• Offer pages (/special-offers/, /grab-offer/) tuned for skim readers → 90%+ engagement.

5) Authority building (Month 5–8)

• Local PR mentions (community calendars, wellness roundups).
• Supplier/partner links and neighborhood guides.
• Image search optimization for “spa in Carlsbad” (EXIF, alt, captions).

Results in detail

Channel & quality

• Organic Search: 8.2K sessions → 5.8K engaged (70.36% engagement, 58s avg time).
• Organic Social & Referral supplement discovery (951 and 451 sessions respectively).
• Direct: 3.9K sessions—brand demand rising alongside SEO.

Search engines

• Google: 7.9K sessions, 70.16% engagement, 57s avg time.
• Bing / Yahoo / DuckDuckGo: Smaller volume but longer dwell (1:18–1:44)—good ROI for easy wins.

Search Console (8-month window)

• 7.7K clicks | 408K impressions | 1.9% CTR | Avg pos ~18.8.
• Keyword distribution: 15 keywords in the top 10 (1 in #1; 3 in #2–3; 9 in #4–5; 2 in #6–10).
• Search visibility: 86.6% (steady uptrend).

Landing pages & intent signals

• 13.6K sessions on landing pages; 9.1K engaged; 66.8% engagement; 51s avg time.
• Pages that correlate with bookings:
• /spa-menu/ — visitors compare options & prices (7.8K sessions, 79% engagement).
• /special-offers/ & /grab-offer/ — promotion traffic with 90%+ and 92% engagement.
• /contact/ — 1.1K sessions (proximity to conversion).
• /gift-card/ — strong seasonal intent (86.6% engagement).
• Service pages — Asian Massage Carlsbad, Deep Tissue, Couples all at ~80–89% engagement.

What this tells us: we’re capturing both discovery (blog, gallery) and transactional intent (menu, offers, contact). Engagement on money pages suggests visitors find what they need quickly—exactly what we designed for.

What made the difference

1. Local authority + precise service targeting (Carlsbad/North County modifiers, FAQs, and schema).
2. Offer-driven CRO (clear pricing/menu + limited-time offers).
3. Clean site architecture that funnels link equity to money pages.
4. Consistent technical hygiene so pages stay fast and indexable.
5. Steady citation/link velocity from relevant, local sources.

Lessons & opportunities (next 90 days)

Lift CTR from 1.9% → 3%+

• Rewrite titles/meta with benefit-led angles & price cues (e.g., “Same-Day Couples Massage in Carlsbad | Menu & Offers”).
• Add rich-result triggers (FAQ, HowTo snippets) to top 20 landing pages.

Win more “near me” & map pack

• Keep weekly GBP posts (offers & events), add service-area pages for Encinitas, Oceanside, Vista.
• Collect 2–3 new reviews/week; respond within 24h with keyword-rich replies.

Scale content to long-tail

• 2 posts/week around scenarios: first-time massage tips, prenatal safety, gift ideas, recovery for runners, stress relief after work.
• Short explainer videos for gallery/GBP.

Authority & referrals

• Partner with local yoga/fitness studios, hotels and corporate wellness—swap links & package offers.
• Add “first-time guest” promo for Bing/Yahoo audiences (they dwell longer).

Technical

• Continue CWV optimization on gallery & blog templates.
• Add internal-search tracking and scroll-depth to refine UX.

Conclusion

In 8 months, North County Spa grew from a new site to a high-engagement, search-visible brand in Carlsbad. Organic traffic is now a reliable acquisition channel, with strong performance on high-intent pages and a broadening keyword footprint. The playbook above focuses next on CTR gains, map-pack dominance, and regional expansion, turning today’s attention into even more bookings.