A David vs. Goliath story
- From the 8th page of Google to top 2 rankings for all target keywords within 12 months
- 24% member registration growth
Oct. 2018 - present
Gather around children as I tell you the story of David versus Goliath.
The story takes place in Houston, the land of Goliaths. 37 Goliaths to be precise. Houston is the megachurch capital of the world with a whopping 37 megachurches. Pastors like Joel Osteen, armed with a plentiful marketing budget and unparalleled name recognition, dominate the landscape.
One church dared to defy the order of things: Grace Church. They were no stranger to Houston. They’d been around since 1983, but found themselves being out-marketed online by the hordes of larger churches.
Rebranding and Link Building
As part of their initiative to take on the Goliaths, Grace Church rebranded and changed domains. We helped them avoid losing any organic rankings with the domain change, and began work on their SEO.
We here at Paper Box know the importance of backlinks, and decided for Grace Church that this would be the perfect time to flex those muscles. Sometimes your website doesn’t actually need backlinks from the New York Times. What may be more effective are backlinks from relevant sites such as Houston blogs and Christianity-related sites. That combined with meticulous on-page keyword optimization... changed everything.
Glorious Results
The hubris of the Goliaths allowed Grace Church to rise through the rankings virtually unseen. Before anyone knew what was happening, it was too late.
- 3 month mark: They went from being on the 7th and 8th page of Google results for all of their keywords to the first page for keywords like churches in Houston and nondenominational church Houston.
- 6 month mark: They were in the top five results for those keywords.
- 12 month mark: They were #1 for Houston Church and #2 for the rest of their target keywords.
David Becomes King
It wasn’t easy, but we welcome a challenge. It took patience, but with faith and diligence, we bested the Goliaths and proved anything is possible.
The best part is our friends at Grace Church didn’t have to lift a finger. With their blessing, we worked independently so they could sit back and focus on other aspects of the church.
Today, their registration growth is 24% higher than normal and they continue to rapidly expand. While Goliaths still roam the land of Houston, there’s now a newly minted Goliath that rules above them all - at least on search engines.
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