Nothing on Google. Page one in two months.
Backcountry Excavation is an owner-run outfit out of Chelan. Site prep, grading, driveways and drainage, from Chelan out to the Methow Valley. Good work, great word of mouth, and almost nothing on Google. Here's what changed, with the screenshots to back it up.
Google search for "excavation contractor Chelan WA" · logged out · one business, not a promise
Don't take my word for it. Here are the screens.
These are straight from Google, Google Business Profile and Google Search Console. Nothing mocked up. One business, not a promise. The one panel I left out is the list of searches, because it has a customer's name in it.
From their Google Business Profile
From Google search · first six weeks
About two months, start to finish.
- Start
Nothing to find
No website. A Google profile that hadn't had a single interaction since at least May. If you searched for an excavator in Chelan, you found somebody else.
- Late August
Google sees them for the first time
Their first site goes up and Google starts showing it in searches.
- Mid September
The website goes on their Google profile
From here, anyone who finds them on Google can click straight through to the site. The clicks started that same month.
- Late September
The full site goes live
37 pages on their own domain. A page for each of their 12 services and each of the 11 towns they work in, with before and after photos from their jobs and an estimate form that drops straight into their app.
- Early October
The first estimate request from the website
It came in at 2:13 in the morning. Nobody was awake to answer the phone, and it didn't matter.
- Early October
The review engine turns on
Now when the owner marks a job done, the customer gets a text about fifteen minutes later with a one-tap link to their Google page.
- Two months in
Page one
Second on the map, first in Google's AI answer and third in the regular results for "excavation contractor Chelan WA".
Four things, all in the one plan.
The website
37 pages on backcountryexcavationwa.com. Tap to call and tap to text on every screen, before and after photos from real jobs, and an estimate form on every page.
Google SEO
A page for every service and every town, a sitemap, Search Console and analytics connected, and the code that tells Google who they are and where they work.
Google Business Profile
Kinvy as a manager, the website and phone number on it, a clean description, and their profile connected to their app so reviews show up there.
The review engine
A text fifteen minutes after every finished job, one reminder the next day if they forget, and a heads up to the owners every time a review lands.
What hasn't happened yet. They still have one Google review. The review engine only just went live, so that's what the next few months are for, and I'll update this page as it moves. Google also moves rankings around, so these numbers will shift. This is one business in one town, not a promise of where yours will land.