Above Board Interiors: Plasterer Website and SEO Case Study
An Auckland plasterer's website rebuilt and its SEO taken over from another agency. Twelve months later, organic traffic had grown from 66 to 378 visits a month.
This plasterer website case study shows what happens when a trade business gets a properly built website and SEO that is planned around how homeowners actually search. Above Board Interiors, an Auckland plasterer, came to us with a site that was barely being found. Twelve months after we rebuilt it and took over their SEO, organic traffic had grown from 66 to 378 visits a month.
The result in one line: 66 to 378 organic visits a month in 12 months, roughly 5.7 times the starting traffic (about a 473% increase). Their best keywords now bring in enquiries daily.
The client
Above Board Interiors is a plastering business working across Auckland. Like most tradies, their work comes from homeowners and builders who need a job done well and want someone local they can trust. Their services include plastering, GIB stopping, ceiling repairs and painting.
For a business like this, Google is often the first place a new customer looks. Someone notices a crack in the ceiling or is finishing a renovation, searches for help, and calls one of the first few businesses they find.
The challenge
Before working with us, Above Board Interiors had been with another agency. Despite that, the website was attracting just 66 organic visits a month. For a trade business in a city the size of Auckland, that is very low. It meant the site was missing almost all of the people searching for the services they offer.
When a tradie website gets this little traffic, the cause is usually a mix of the same few things, and those were the areas we set out to fix:
- Technical issues holding the site back in search
- Pages that did not clearly target the services and locations customers search for
- Little content answering the questions homeowners ask before they hire
- Weak internal linking, so Google could not easily see how the pages related
What we did
We approached the project as one job: rebuild the website on solid foundations and run SEO from the start, rather than design first and patch SEO in later.
Rebuilt the website
We rebuilt the site with a clear structure, fast pages and an easy path to get in touch. Each core service got a page of its own so it could rank on its own terms.
Fixed the technical SEO
We sorted out the technical issues that stop Google crawling and understanding a site properly, so every important page could be found and indexed.
Targeted local keywords
We researched how Auckland homeowners search for plastering work and mapped those searches to specific pages, combining services with location so the site matched real local queries.
Wrote blog content for long-tail questions
We created informational articles answering the specific questions NZ homeowners search before hiring a plasterer. These long-tail searches are less competitive and bring in people who are actively planning a job.
Optimised every page
Titles, meta descriptions, headings and on-page copy were all tuned so each page clearly signalled what it was about.
Built content clusters and internal links
We grouped content around four topics: plastering, GIB stopping, ceiling repairs and painting in Auckland. Articles link to the relevant service pages and back again, so each topic builds authority as a group.
The results
Over 12 months, organic traffic grew from 66 visits a month to 378 visits a month. That is about 5.7 times the starting point, or roughly a 473% increase.
| Measure | Before | After 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Organic visits per month | 66 | 378 |
| Growth | About 5.7 times, roughly +473% | |
More importantly for the business, the traffic is the right kind. Their best keywords now bring in enquiries daily. Visitors arriving from searches about plastering, GIB stopping and ceiling repairs are people with a job that needs doing.
Lessons for other tradies
Every business is different, but the approach that worked here applies to most trade websites. If your site is not bringing in work, these are the places to look first.
Fix the foundations first
Content cannot rank if Google struggles to crawl the site. Technical SEO is not glamorous, but it comes first.
One service, one page
A single page listing everything you do rarely ranks for any of it. Give each main service a page of its own.
Answer real questions
Homeowners search with specific questions before they hire. Helpful articles catch them early and lead them to your services.
Link it all together
Grouping related pages and linking between them shows Google you cover a topic in depth.
If you are not sure why your current site is quiet, our article on why your website is not generating leads is a good place to start. You can also see how we approach websites for tradies, or read more about our local SEO in Auckland.
Already have a site with some rankings and worried about losing them? Our website redesign service uses redirects and a full SEO migration checklist to protect what you have. For budgets, see our website pricing, or head back to our Auckland web design team to see everything we do.
Frequently asked questions
How long does SEO take to work for a tradie website?
It varies with your competition, your starting point and how much work goes in. For Above Board Interiors, organic traffic grew from 66 to 378 visits a month over 12 months. Technical fixes can help sooner, but content and local rankings usually build steadily over several months rather than overnight.
Do tradies really need a blog?
Not a diary-style blog, but helpful articles answering the questions homeowners search for can make a real difference. They attract people early in their research, show you know your trade and link through to your service pages. For Above Board Interiors, this content was a core part of the growth.
Can you take over SEO from another agency?
Yes. We start by auditing what is already in place, keep anything that works and fix what is holding the site back. If we are rebuilding the website too, we handle redirects carefully so existing rankings are protected during the switch.
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