Case Study
J. Gilberts
The Results
Increase in SEO Traffic
Increase in Conversions
Reduction in Cost/Conversion
Increase in Organic Rankings
Important highlights include:
- Reservation campaigns became more profitable.
- We worked with OLO to get revenue data working in Google Analytics.
- We fixed tagging and conversion issues that were creating self-referral conversions.
- Boosted the site’s organic keyword footprint to 3,581 rankings across 6 DMAs.
- Imported live inventory and product feed for seamless supply chain integration.
The Challenge
Restaurant SEO & Google Ads Management
J. Gilbert’s is an upscale steakhouse and seafood restaurant based in the Midwest. In 2018, the restaurant’s in-house marketing team approached Rank Fuse for SEO and Google Ads management support.
Organic traffic was dropping rapidly for a number of reasons. The website had significant technical coding issues, along with outdated content and no off-page SEO strategy to boost local rankings.
Our main challenges for this project included addressing technical SEO issues and developing a Google Ads strategy to bring more reservations without the high cost-per-conversion (CPC) that J. Gilbert’s had experienced in the past. Our goal was to reduce CPC and help the restaurant maintain the same budget without sacrificing its customer base.
The Solution
Phase 1: Technical SEO
In late 2017, we worked closely with J. Gilbert’s in-house marketing team to ensure a successful launch of the restaurant’s new website. Once the website had been completed, our SEO team took over to provide a full audit and analysis of all technical SEO elements.
The site’s main issues stemmed from duplicate meta data, duplicate content, broken images, an unoptimized robots.txt file, and slow site speed. Our team was able to optimize and address these issues based on priority.
Almost immediately, we saw dramatic improvements in organic traffic. If we compare the five months before the site launched to the five months following, there was a 50.5% increase in organic traffic to the website.
Phase 2: Google Ads Management
After rebuilding J. Gilbert’s Google Ads account, the Rank Fuse team officially started the ad campaigns. We created ads that targeted people in specific locations with the right messaging for deals, reservations, and private event dining.
Our team fine-tuned the campaigns on a monthly basis to find the right balance of cost-per-click and ROI. In just one month, we increased conversions by 381.5%.
Additionally, we achieved a 93.75% decrease in cost-per-conversion from January 2018 to August 2018. This was a $45 difference when we compare the cost-per-conversion in January ($48) to the cost-per-conversion in August ($3). By doing so, J. Gilbert’s was able to maintain the same budget and obtain significantly more customers.
Rank Fuse has delivered actionable SEO support for our developers and profitable ad management
performance. They are one agency I don’t have to worry about getting the job done right.
– Leah Godfrey, Director of Digital Marketing, Houlihan’s Restaurants Inc.
Rank Fuse has delivered actionable SEO support for our developers and profitable ad management
performance. They are one agency I don’t have to worry about getting the job done right.
– Leah Godfrey, Director of Digital Marketing, Houlihan’s Restaurants Inc.
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