Chris Cathey runs EternaTurf, a grass turf installation company in Louisville, KY. EternaTurf also has locations in Sarasota, Lexington, South Carolina, and Tucson – making this a national company with many locations all across the country.
We audited Chris’ website to show him what he’s missing and offer a blueprint to lay the groundwork for SEO success.
To conduct a proper audit we have to use a single GMB.
Most local service businesses have one location in their GMB and serve only one area.
But Eternaturf has several locations. And so we want to focus our efforts for his home base in Louisville before we use the same tactics for his other locations.
EternaTurf has 30 reviews and the good news is that they do great work.
However, Google values how recent these reviews are more than the overall score. Just like how if you eat at one restaurant that has great reviews but they go out of business, Google doesn’t want to continue promoting it.
Unfortunately, in the case of Eternaturf, the most recent review was 3 months ago.
To increase their relevance, Eternaturf should prioritize getting more reviews on their GMB for their Louisville location.
Eternaturf should also optimize their GMB with a better description of what they do as well as add more relevant photos. The more we add proving that EternaTurf does a great job in their local area, the better.
For example, EternaTurf has a service truck with their logo on it and hundreds of images and videos of works being completed. All of this is well documented and readily available to include now.
Why not add this?
Then there’s the issue of their location for this GMB being in Louisville.
Because they have many service areas around the country, they should change their GMB headline to say “EternaTurf – Louisville” similar to how their Sarasota location’s GMB did.
By adding “Louisville” to their GMB Eternaturf can increase their relevance in the Louisville area and begin ranking higher where it matters. Again – we want to demonstrate that we’re a real company in the area we claim to operate out of.
Their organic keyword relevance isn’t the best.
EternaTurf is only ranking on a single keyword.
Eternaturf is only ranked on the keyword “sports turf company” and they are in position 46. What this means is that almost no traffic is coming from their organic keyword searches.
Almost all traffic is coming through their GMB or referrals.
All local service businesses should rank at least #1 for their name so there’s much to improve on here.
A big reason for this is their lack of authoritative backlinks.
EternaTurf effectively has only 1 backlink, and that’s from the owner Chris Cathey’s website listing his businesses. While it’s good that there’s a link, Chris’ own site has a DR score of 0 so almost no link juice is being passed.
Because Google promotes authoritative websites, this means that they need websites with more relevancy to begin linking to them.
The good news?
Chris Cathey also owns Agape Built Pools – a pool installation and maintenance company also located in Louisville, KY.
While Agape Pools is still just getting off the ground with their own SEO, this represents an opportunity to speed the process up.
These two companies naturally fall into a geo-grid category since both are located in the same local service area. Them being owned by the same person is simply a bonus.
Agape Built Pools should be ethically linking to EternaTurf and vice-versa.
This is done ethically by sharing valuable content in the form of blogs or relevant info.
For example, Agape should include EternaTurf on blogs and in their website saying how they do a great job with installing turf for in-ground pools around Louisville.
EternaTurf should do the same – saying how Agape Built Pools works great with grass turf and how “no backyard is complete without both”.
This is different than linking for the same of it as we’re demonstrating real value that both companies offer.
Just like how linking to EternaTurf in this article is ethical since we’re using them as an example to demonstrate expertise.
A side-effect of that is they also benefit from our link juice.
EternaTurf’s LocalFalcon Report Is Surprisingly Decent.
For the keywords related to “turf installation” they rank #1 or close to #1 in most of Louisville.
This is especially true by the location their GMB is located in Prospect, KY.
This shows that there’s a massive lack of competition as well as areas to improve with the right touches.
It also demonstrates how a GMB can do most of the work when it’s relevant enough.
How EternaTurf’s Website Can Be Improved:
Let’s start with the images they use.
While they do include many examples of the work they’ve done, half of the site still includes stock images which can be easily identifiable.
The reason it’s so important to use real images is because we want to prove to Google that EternaTurf is a real business doing great work in the area they say they do it in.
We do this by following Google’s E-E-A-T standards.
This stands for experience, expertise, authority, and trust. If we want to rank higher for any website, following E-E-A-T isn’t a suggestion – it’s a prescription.
EternaTurf only has their national locations – nothing local.
There’s nothing wrong with linking to national locations.
The issue is when you’re operating out of one location (Louisville) and not also including local service pages (LSPs) for that area.
Ideally, each of EternaTurf’s locations should have their own website which links back to Eternaturf.com and vice-versa.
But right now there’s one website and 5 GMBs, which isn’t helpful to anyone.
EternaTurf should keep their national locations menu and add a local service one.
This is an easy fix as they can simply copy the existing locations from Agape Pools, who already is operating in the same area.
EternaTurf should also include real examples of turf installs in these locations – especially since they already have a treasure trove of images at their fingertips.
EternaTurf should make use of PAA questions and link to their Louisville GMB.
PAA questions stand for “People Also Ask” and they demonstrate relevance.
For example, if EternaTurf can answer questions about turf people are already searching for, this demonstrates a expertise in E-E-A-T that Google wants to see.
This is as easy as asking ChatGPT “My friend owns a turf installation company. What are some good PAA related questions he can add to his website home page to boost SEO?”
These are examples of the answers it generates:
It would take less than 5 minutes to simply copy and paste these into pages for EternaTurf and signal to Google that the website contains expertise.
At the bottom of their home page is a contact button with no GMB linking.
Since it’s especially crucial for EternaTurd to begin generating more reviews, they should include a link to their Louisville GMB on all pages.
The good news is that EternaTurf is great at what they do.
This stands as a reminder that you don’t “do” SEO.
You simply document experience, expertise, authority, and trust.
This can be done in small ways (like having relevant PAA questions being answered) or in a big way (like having more reviews in a GMB).
Running Dollar a Day ads for EternaTurf on Facebook to generate traffic and obtain a clear ROI is a solid recommendation.
This would only be possible if they do great work, which they clearly do.
Chris isn’t a beginner either – he’s a veteran business owner with over a decade of experience.
Now we simply need to document it.
If you’re a local service business and want an audit like this one, click here and get a complete audit of your SEO for only $200.