Property Services SEO Case Study, Keyword Refocusing
Quality over quantity: 46% fewer keywords, 24% more first page rankings, and leads that actually convert
Not every SEO success story is about more keywords. Sometimes the winning strategy is fewer keywords, better focused. This Melbourne property services business had an existing website ranking for hundreds of search terms, but the keywords weren’t driving business. They were attracting information seekers, not buyers.
We took over in July 2025 and launched a completely rebuilt website at the end of August. The old site had 773 keywords in Google Search Console, but when we analysed them, most were informational queries with zero commercial intent. People searching for general property information, not people looking to hire a property services company. The result was traffic that didn’t convert.
Intentional Keyword Pruning
The new website was designed with commercial intent as the priority. We stripped out content that was attracting the wrong audience and rebuilt around service pages that speak directly to buyers. The goal wasn’t to rank for everything, it was to rank for searches that lead to enquiries.
This meant helping Google relearn what the site was about. The domain stayed the same, but the content focus shifted dramatically. We added strong commercial signals, clear service descriptions, and calls to action that made sense for someone ready to hire. The informational content that was diluting the site’s focus was either removed or redirected.
Where They Are Now
The numbers tell a different kind of success story. Before the rebuild, the site had 773 ranking keywords, but only 84 on the first page, and an average position of 35.6. Six months later: 420 ranking keywords (46% fewer), but 104 on the first page (24% more), and an average position of 29.8 (nearly 6 places better). The keyword count went down, but the quality went up. By the end of October 2025, commercial leads started flowing in. Not just more enquiries, but better enquiries: people with genuine buying intent rather than browsers looking for free information. The spam dropped, the time-wasters disappeared, and the business started receiving strong intent signals from real customers.
| Metric | Before Rebuild | Current 90 Days | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking keywords | 773 | 420 | -46% (intentional) |
| First page keywords | 84 | 104 | +24% |
| 90-day clicks | 562 | 459 | -18% (focused traffic) |
| 90-day impressions | 12,335 | 10,100+ | -18% (focused visibility) |
| Average position | 35.6 | 29.8 | +5.8 places |
| 6-month total clicks | — | 818 | |
| 6-month total impressions | — | 17,800+ | |
Before Rebuild = May to July 2025, the 90 days before the new site launched.
Current = the most recent 90-day period as of January 2026.
Clicks = the number of times someone clicked through to the website from Google search results.
Impressions = the number of times the website appeared in someone’s Google search results. An impression counts every time the listing shows up, whether or not someone clicks on it.
Average position = the average Google ranking across ALL tracked keywords, not a hand-picked selection.
Ranking keywords = the number of different search terms Google shows the website for in search results.
First page keywords = keywords ranking in positions 1-10, meaning they appear on the first page of Google search results where most clicks happen.
All data filtered to Australian searches via Google Search Console. Data current as of January 2026.
The headline is fewer keywords but better business outcomes. First page rankings increased by 24% while total keywords dropped by 46%. That’s not a failure, that’s focus. The site now ranks for searches that matter. Since late October, lead quality has dramatically improved while spam and time-wasting enquiries have dropped. The business now receives strong commercial intent signals from customers who are ready to buy.
If your website is ranking for keywords that don’t convert, get in touch. Sometimes the path to more leads isn’t more traffic, it’s better traffic.
Frequently Asked Questions
How We Report These Results
Australian data only. Every number on this page comes from Google Search Console filtered to Australia. Unless specifically stated otherwise, we report on Australian search performance because that’s where our clients’ customers are. Worldwide numbers would inflate the results, and inflated numbers help nobody make good decisions.
Average position means ALL keywords. When we say average position improved from 42 to 27, that’s the average across every single keyword that site ranks for. Hundreds of them. Sometimes thousands. We don’t cherry-pick the best performers and ignore the rest. You’re only as good as your lowest-ranking keyword, and everything moves together. If we’re doing our job properly, Google expands the keywords, the synonyms, and the search terms you appear for as it recognises your site deserves to be there.
This is a process of proving to Google that your website should be the one people see when they search for what you offer. That proof builds over months, not days. It’s why consistency matters more than any single tactic.
Why SEO and Google Ads Work Better Together
We don’t recommend running Google Ads without SEO. The two have a symbiotic relationship that most businesses miss.
Google Ads fills the gaps where your SEO hasn’t reached yet. You’re paying to appear for the searches you haven’t earned organically. But those paid visits do more than generate leads directly. When someone clicks your ad and completes their search on your site, that signals to Google that your site satisfied the searcher. We call this a completed search session, and it’s one of the strongest signals you can send. That signal helps your organic rankings.
So Google Ads doesn’t just fill gaps… it actively helps your SEO by proving to Google that your site deserves to rank for those terms.
As your SEO builds and you start ranking organically for more terms, you can pull back your ad spend on those keywords and redirect it to the terms where you still need coverage. The result: your total cost per lead drops over time while your visibility keeps growing. Running only one is leaving results on the table. Both together compound each other’s effectiveness.
Want to understand how SEO and Google Ads would work together for your business? Talk to us and we’ll map it out for you.
