Client Results · Signs East

Website built to be found by people who've never heard of them.

When Signs East came to us in December 2025, a great-looking website wasn't bringing in the work it should. We rebuilt the foundation underneath it and turned search visibility into a steady stream of calls and quote requests - nine times the search clicks and a third straight month of rising inquiries by spring.

Website Foundation Local SEO Content & Authority AI Search Lead Automation

Five Months of Momentum

Monthly visits from organic search, climbing every month since we rebuilt the foundation - up 168% between February and May.

Dec 2025 Starting point May: 217 monthly visits
The Results

Real, Measurable Growth - In Five Months

From a site with good looks but no foundation to a steady, compounding source of phone calls and quote requests across Southern NH and the North Shore.

0x
More Search Clicks

From 13 Google clicks in December to 120 in May as rankings recovered.

0
Monthly Search Impressions

A new high in May, the fourth straight month of search-visibility growth.

0
Tracked Inquiries in May

Third straight monthly increase - 11 in March, 15 in April, 18 in May.

0
Phone Calls in May

82 answered. The phone stays a primary booking channel on top of web leads.

The Challenge

A Good-Looking Site That Wasn't Built to Be Found

Signs East had real credibility - more than a decade in business, premium materials, the owner answering his own phone. The website looked the part. Underneath, it wasn't built in a way that search engines or customers could find and trust.

Signs East has built its name the hard way since opening more than a decade ago, one customer at a time. By late 2025, the shop had a modern-looking website. The problem wasn't the design. It was everything holding the design up.

The pages had good bones but no real foundation. Thin content gave search engines almost nothing to rank. Pages sat with no internal links pointing to them. URL and tracking issues meant nobody could tell where leads were coming from. Most inquiries that did arrive were spam. The site looked finished, but it wasn't built to be found or to convert.

Tor needed a partner to fix the structure underneath the site, not just give it another fresh coat of paint. So that's where we started.

  • Thin page content with nothing for search engines to rank
  • Pages with no internal linking structure
  • URL and conversion-tracking issues
  • Mostly spam inquiries coming through the forms
  • No authority signals and zero top-3 rankings
  • Low search visibility with no local pages to capture nearby demand

Where We Started

A site that looked finished on the surface, with no foundation underneath to bring in work.
45.8/100
SEO health score at takeover (Dec 2025)
13
Google Search clicks in the first month

Good bones aren't the same as a good foundation.

A site can look polished and still be invisible. Real infrastructure - clean URLs, working tracking, content with depth, internal links that pass strength to the pages that win jobs, and authority built over time - is what turns a nice-looking website into one that actually brings in work. That's where we went first.

The Strategy

Fix the Foundation First, Then Build the Visibility

A new coat of paint wouldn't have fixed it. We rebuilt the structure underneath the site, then layered on the content, local pages, and authority that build on each other month over month.

1
Month 1December 2025 · Foundation

Rebuild the Structure and Start Tracking

We took over a site that looked fine and was failing quietly. We rebuilt the page structure, fixed broken URLs and tracking, cleaned up orphaned pages, and set up proper lead and call tracking so every inquiry could finally be measured. The goal of month one wasn't growth - it was giving every later play a foundation it could stand on.

2
Months 2-3Jan-Feb 2026 · Conversion

Make the Pages Earn Their Traffic

We rewrote and restructured 13 core pages for conversion, published new blog content, and deployed the first authority-building push. We added the 3M Preferred Installer story to the site as a trust signal and put a dedicated tracking number in place. Google Business Profile call activity hit a record. The first AI-generated leads started showing up.

3
Months 3-4Mar-Apr 2026 · Local Reach

Own the Map, Town by Town

We built location pages for the Seacoast and Southern NH markets - Dover, Exeter, Portsmouth, and more - each one a targeted net for businesses searching in their own town. Organic sessions climbed past 120, search clicks hit a new record, and Google Business Profile website clicks reached their highest point in over a year. Word-of-mouth referrals more than doubled as the brand gained momentum.

4
Month 5+May 2026 · Authority & AI

Build Authority and Show Up in AI Answers

With the foundation proven, we shifted to depth: a trophy guide on New Hampshire sign permitting, seasonal flagpole and fleet content, and authority links pointed at the money pages. Search impressions hit a new high of 14,896 and visibility inside AI search tools nearly doubled. The new location pages started earning their first clicks and climbing the rankings.

The Data

Visibility That Compounds, Month Over Month

Search recovery isn't a switch you flip. It's a foundation that accelerates. Organic sessions more than doubled between February and May as the structure took hold.

Monthly Organic Sessions

Google Analytics · hover any point for the detail

+168%FEB → MAY
240 160 80 0 Feb Mar Apr May
MonthSearch ClicksOrganic SessionsTracked Inquiries
Dec 2025 (Start)13-Baseline
Feb 2026-~81-
Mar 20269212211
Apr 202612121015
May 202612021718

Sources: Google Search Console, Google Analytics (GA4), and AM Connect CRM. Figures recomputed from raw two-period counts; April search impressions later finalized at 11,637.

What Changed

From Hard to Find to Easy to Book

Once the foundation was set, the results stopped being about traffic charts and started being about the phone ringing.

Lead Flow Keeps Climbing

Tracked inquiries rose three months straight - 11 in March, 15 in April, 18 in May - with Google Search the single biggest source. On top of that, 93 calls came in during May. Visibility is turning into real conversations.

Found Beyond the Brand Name

Branded searches dipped while total clicks held steady - meaning new customers who'd never heard of Signs East are finding the shop through searches like boat signs, monument signs, and custom outdoor business signs.

Showing Up in AI Search

Visibility inside AI search tools nearly doubled and sentiment climbed to 73.9%, driven by monument-sign and local NH signage topics - a channel most local competitors haven't even started on.

Location Pages Breaking Out

The new Dover, Exeter, and Portsmouth pages earned their first clicks and climbed 4 to 9 positions in a single month, each one catching businesses searching for a sign company in their own town.

In Their Words
★★★★★
“Jon and his team turned our site around in a matter of days and started getting us quotes again. He's also helped multiple friends of ours, and our site is booming. Highly recommend Jon and his team.”
Tor LarsonOwner, Signs East · Google Review
4.9★
Average rating
94
Google reviews
9x
Search clicks since Dec
What They Make

A Full-Service Sign Shop, Built In-House

Designed, fabricated, and installed in Kingston, NH - storefront signs, monument signs, vehicle wraps, boat lettering, and more. Our job is making sure the right customers find each one.

Storefront & Channel Letters

Dimensional storefront and channel-letter signs that make a building easy to spot.

Monument Signs

Freestanding monument signs that anchor a business right at the street.

Vehicle Wraps & Fleet

Full wraps and fleet lettering that turn every truck into a moving sign.

Boat & Marine Lettering

Hull lettering and marine graphics built to hold up out on the water.

LED & Illuminated Signs

Lit signs and LED retrofits that keep a business visible after dark.

Install & Permitting

In-house installation, permitting help, and 3M Preferred Installer expertise.

What We Delivered

One Integrated System, Not a Pile of Tactics

Signs East's recovery came from every piece working together - foundation, content, local reach, and lead capture reinforcing each other.

01 Website Foundation

Rebuilt the structure under a good-looking site: clean URLs, working conversion and call tracking, fixed orphaned pages, and 13 core pages rewritten to actually convert. The foundation every later result was built on.

Learn about our web design

02 SEO & Local Search

From a 45.8 health score and zero top-3 rankings to a recovering, climbing profile. Location pages across the Seacoast and Southern NH, Google Business Profile optimization, and authority links pointed at the pages that win jobs.

Learn about our SEO services

03 AI Search Visibility

Early, deliberate work to show up inside AI search answers. Visibility nearly doubled in a single month on monument-sign and local signage topics - a head start on a channel most local competitors are ignoring.

04 Content & Authority

A trophy guide to New Hampshire sign permitting, seasonal flagpole and fleet content, comparison and material guides, and ongoing authority building that turns the site into a resource search engines reward.

05 Lead Automation

AM Connect CRM with call tracking and automated follow-up so no inquiry slips through. Every lead and call is captured and measured - a complete reversal from the no-tracking, spam-only setup we inherited.

Learn about local marketing

06 Local Market Expansion

Started in Kingston and expanded town by town across Rockingham County and the Seacoast - Dover, Exeter, Portsmouth, Hampton, Nashua, Salem, and into North Shore MA - turning one shop into a regional presence.

Common Questions

Questions Business Owners Ask Us

Straight answers about what it takes to turn a website into booked work.

Usually, yes. A site can look polished and still be close to invisible in search, with thin content, broken tracking, and no pages built around what people actually type in. We fix the structure underneath first, then add the content and local pages that match real searches. That's the work that moved Signs East from 13 search clicks in December to a steady climb by spring.

It builds in stages, not overnight. The first month is usually foundation work, fixing tracking and structure so everything after it has something solid to stand on. Real movement in visits and rankings tends to show over the next few months and compounds from there. For Signs East, organic visits more than doubled between February and May as the foundation took hold. You can see more about how we approach SEO on our services page.

We build one connected system instead of a pile of separate tactics. Your website, local SEO, content, and lead follow-up run together and report to one place, so nothing slips through the cracks and you can see what's actually working. There are no long contracts either. Clients stay because the phone is ringing, not because they're locked in.

Every market and budget is different, so we don't promise a specific number. What we work toward is steady, measurable growth: more of the right people finding you in search, more inquiries coming in, and a clear view of where each lead came from. The goal is booked jobs, not a stack of numbers that look nice and mean nothing.

Ready to Grow?

Your Reputation Deserves Marketing That Actually Works

If a past agency left you with a pretty website that doesn't bring in work, let's talk about building the foundation that does - the same way we did for Signs East.

Results are specific to this client's market, services, and execution. Individual outcomes vary based on market conditions, competition, budget, and commitment to the marketing process. Figures reflect Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile, and AM Connect data from December 2025 through May 2026.