The Challenge
Most of what we do is for chiropractors, but the same local-search playbook applies to any business that wins customers within a few miles of its door. The business serves customers in and around its home town. Tree work is an urgent, high-value purchase. When a limb comes down or a quote is needed, people search on their phone and call one of the first businesses they see.
In July 2026 the company's website recorded 382 sessions. The business needed to be one of the first names on the map for searches such as "tree removal," "tree trimming" and "stump grinding," and it needed paid campaigns that put the company in front of nearby homeowners without wasting budget on people outside the service area.
The Approach
Google Maps visibility. Local searches for services are dominated by the three-business map pack. We tracked the company's positions in the map pack and organic results for its core searches each month, and fed what we found back into the Google Business Profile and website work. This is the kind of local search work our system does for practices, applied here to a different trade.
Paid campaigns that match the service area. Google Ads search and display campaigns had been largely paused through the summer, with just $286 of spend in August. In September they were brought back, and spend rose to $1,067 for the month. Google Local Services Ads also ran for the business as a separate paid channel.
A monthly channel-by-channel report. Each month we compared where visitors came from, so the effect of each channel could be seen on its own and not blended together.
The Results
| Measure | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly website sessions | 382 in July, 763 in August, 2,707 in September | Google Analytics 4 |
| Website sessions, October 1-25 | 2,181 | Google Analytics 4 |
| New visitors in September | 2,520, up from 675 in August | Google Analytics 4 |
| Map pack #1 | "stump grinding," its main city searches | Local rank check, October 1, 2026 |
| Map pack #2 | "tree service," "tree removal" and "tree trimming" | Local rank check, October 1, 2026 |
| Map pack #3 | "arborist" | Local rank check, October 1, 2026 |
Sessions grew about seven times between July and September. It is important to be clear about where that traffic came from. According to our September report, display and paid search campaigns drove most of the lift, and direct visits roughly doubled alongside them. That lines up with the campaigns being brought back in September. Organic search traffic grew more modestly, reaching 120 sessions, so the map pack positions and the paid campaigns worked together rather than one doing all the work.
Across the market, the site appears in Google for 65 keywords that bring an estimated 53 visits a month, traffic that would cost about $464 a month to buy through ads.
We do not publish job counts or income for this business, because we have not documented them from start to finish.
What Made It Work
A local service business does not need to be famous. It needs to be visible in the handful of results that people actually tap. Holding map positions for the core searches while running paid campaigns gave the business several chances to be seen on each search, and the monthly report kept it clear which channel was doing what.
Results are specific to this business, market and time period. Rankings change daily and individual results vary. This case study does not promise any outcome for other businesses. The image above is an AI-generated illustration.