When Husek Brothers Fencing launched in Wilmington, NC, they had a truck, a crew, and zero online visibility. Eight months later, they were ranking on page one for over 15 high-intent keywords, generating four times the monthly leads, and turning down jobs because the schedule was full. This is the story of how a focused digital strategy turned a brand new fencing company into one of the most visible contractors in the Cape Fear region.
The Challenge: Starting from Zero in a Crowded Market
Matt Husek and his brother Danny had been building fences for other companies around Southeastern North Carolina for nearly a decade. In early 2025, they decided it was time to go out on their own. They had the skills, the reputation among past customers, and a small but loyal referral network. What they did not have was a website, a Google Business Profile, or any digital footprint whatsoever.
The Wilmington fencing market is more competitive than most people realize. Established companies with years of reviews, aged domains, and deep content libraries dominate the first page of Google. For a search like “fence company Wilmington NC,” the top results were occupied by businesses that had been investing in their online presence for five or more years.
“We knew we were good at what we do,” Matt told us during our initial consultation. “But when I searched for fencing companies in Wilmington, we didn’t exist. Our competitors had dozens of reviews, beautiful websites, and they were showing up everywhere. I didn’t even know where to start.”
Matt had tried running a few Facebook ads on his own and even paid for a basic template website through a national website builder. The results were underwhelming. The site looked generic, loaded slowly on mobile, and ranked for absolutely nothing. The Facebook ads generated a handful of clicks but almost no real inquiries. He was spending money without seeing a return.
That is when Husek Brothers Fencing reached out to our team. As a Wilmington SEO agency that has worked with dozens of local service businesses, we understood exactly what Matt was facing. We also knew that with the right strategy, a new business can compete with established players faster than most people think.
Our Strategy: Building Visibility from the Ground Up
We started with a comprehensive audit of the competitive landscape, the target market, and the opportunities available in the fencing niche across the Wilmington metro area. What we found was encouraging. While the top competitors had strong profiles, many of them were coasting on their age and reviews without actively optimizing their content or technical SEO. That meant there were gaps we could exploit.
Our approach combined five core pillars: a custom website build, local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization, a targeted content strategy, technical SEO foundations, and ongoing performance tracking.
1. Custom Website Design Built for Conversions
The first thing we tackled was the website. Matt’s template site was doing more harm than good. It was slow, had no unique content, and offered no clear path for a visitor to request a quote. We designed and built a custom site from scratch, focused entirely on converting visitors into leads.
Our web design team in Wilmington, NC created a clean, professional layout that showcased Husek Brothers’ work through high quality project photos, detailed service pages for each fence type (wood, vinyl, aluminum, chain link, and custom), and prominent calls to action on every page. We made sure the site loaded in under two seconds on mobile, because over 70% of local service searches happen on phones.
Every service page was built with both the customer and search engines in mind. Instead of a single generic “Services” page, we created individual pages for each offering, each one optimized for the specific terms people actually search when they need that type of fence installed.
“The difference was night and day,” Matt said. “Our old site looked like every other contractor website out there. The new one actually looked like us. Customers started telling us they chose us because the website made us look professional and trustworthy.”
2. Google Business Profile Optimization
For a local service business, the Google Business Profile is arguably the single most important asset. It drives visibility in the map pack, builds trust through reviews, and generates direct calls and direction requests. Husek Brothers had claimed their profile but had done almost nothing with it.
We fully optimized the profile with accurate service categories, a keyword-rich business description, high resolution photos of completed projects, and a consistent posting schedule. We also implemented a review generation system that made it easy for happy customers to leave feedback after each project was completed.
Within four months, Husek Brothers went from 3 reviews to over 45, with an average rating of 4.9 stars. That review velocity, combined with the optimized profile, started pushing them into the local map pack for competitive terms like “fence installation Wilmington NC” and “fencing contractor near me.”
3. Content Strategy Targeting Real Customer Questions
One of the biggest advantages a new business can leverage is content that actually answers the questions potential customers are asking. We conducted keyword research specific to the Wilmington and surrounding areas, including Leland, Hampstead, Carolina Beach, and Wrightsville Beach, and built a content calendar around high-intent topics.
We published two blog posts per month, each one targeting a specific cluster of keywords. Topics included cost guides for different fence types in North Carolina, comparisons between materials (wood vs. vinyl in coastal climates, for example), permit requirements for fencing in New Hanover County, and seasonal maintenance tips for fences in the salt air environment unique to Wilmington.
This content did two things. First, it attracted organic traffic from people actively researching fencing decisions. Second, it established Husek Brothers as a knowledgeable, trustworthy authority in their space. Several of these posts now rank on page one and consistently generate quote requests.
4. Technical SEO Foundations
Great content and a beautiful website mean nothing if search engines cannot properly crawl, index, and understand your site. We built the technical foundation right from the start, including proper schema markup for local business and service types, an XML sitemap, optimized page speed, mobile responsiveness, clean URL structures, and internal linking that helped search engines understand the relationship between service pages and supporting content.
We also set up proper tracking from day one. Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, and call tracking were all configured before launch so we could measure everything and make data-driven adjustments as the campaign progressed.
5. Ongoing Optimization and Reporting
SEO is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing process of analysis, adjustment, and improvement. Every month, we reviewed performance data, identified new keyword opportunities, refreshed underperforming content, built local citations, and adjusted the strategy based on what the data was telling us.
Matt received a clear, easy to understand monthly report that showed exactly where his traffic was coming from, which keywords were climbing, how many leads the website generated, and what the cost per lead looked like compared to his previous advertising efforts.
The Results: 8 Months of Consistent Growth
The results speak for themselves. Over the first eight months of our partnership, Husek Brothers Fencing experienced transformative growth across every metric that matters.
340% Increase in Organic Traffic
Starting from a baseline of nearly zero organic visitors, the site grew to over 2,400 monthly organic sessions by month eight. The growth curve was steady and compounding. Each new piece of content, each new review, and each technical improvement built on the last. By month five, organic search had overtaken all other channels as the primary source of website traffic.
15+ Page One Rankings
Husek Brothers now ranks on page one of Google for more than 15 high value keywords, including “fence company Wilmington NC,” “vinyl fence installation Wilmington,” “wood fence contractor Leland NC,” and several long-tail terms that consistently drive qualified traffic. Several of these keywords moved from not ranking at all to top five positions within six months.
4x Increase in Monthly Leads
The most important metric for any service business is leads. In month one, the site generated roughly 8 quote requests. By month eight, that number had grown to over 35 per month, a fourfold increase. These were not tire-kickers either. Because the content and site structure pre-qualified visitors by providing pricing context and detailed service information, the leads that came through were ready to buy.
60% Reduction in Cost Per Lead
Matt had been spending roughly $1,200 per month on Facebook ads that generated inconsistent results at a high cost per lead. With the organic strategy producing a growing volume of free traffic, his effective cost per lead dropped by 60%. He reinvested some of that savings into the SEO program and pocketed the rest. The return on investment continued improving every month as the organic traffic compounded.
“I used to wonder if online marketing was even worth it for a company like ours,” Matt shared with us at our six month check-in. “Now I cannot imagine running this business without it. We get calls every single day from people who found us on Google. Last month we had to start a waitlist for the first time ever. That has never happened.”
What Made This Work: Lessons from the Husek Brothers Campaign
Every business is different, but there are patterns that repeat across successful local SEO campaigns. Here is what made this one work so well.
We started with strategy, not tactics. Before we wrote a single line of code or published a single blog post, we spent time understanding the competitive landscape, the customer journey, and the highest impact opportunities. That upfront investment in strategy meant everything we built was intentional and targeted.
We focused on the full picture, not just rankings. Rankings matter, but only if they translate into real business results. Our approach to digital marketing in Wilmington always ties SEO performance back to leads, revenue, and ROI. Every decision we made for Husek Brothers was evaluated through the lens of “will this generate more qualified leads?”
We were consistent and patient. SEO is a long game. Months one and two showed modest improvements. Month three is when things started to accelerate. By month five, the compound effect of consistent content, growing reviews, and strengthening domain authority created a momentum that became very difficult for competitors to match.
We leveraged local specificity. Generic content about fencing does not win in local search. Content about fencing in Wilmington, NC, written by people who understand the coastal climate, local permit requirements, and neighborhood aesthetics, performs significantly better. That local expertise is something national SEO agencies simply cannot replicate.
Key Takeaways
- New businesses can compete online faster than you think. Husek Brothers went from invisible to page one in under six months for multiple keywords. The key is a focused strategy that targets realistic opportunities first and expands from there.
- Your website is your most important sales tool. A custom, conversion-focused website built for your specific business will outperform a generic template every time. Invest in getting it right.
- Google Business Profile optimization is non-negotiable for local businesses. Reviews, photos, posts, and accurate information directly influence your visibility in the map pack, which is where most local customers look first.
- Content builds compounding returns. Every blog post, every service page, and every piece of optimized content is an asset that continues generating traffic and leads month after month.
- Consistency beats intensity. A steady, sustained effort over eight months produced dramatically better results than the sporadic ad spending Matt had tried before. SEO rewards patience and persistence.
- Track everything from day one. Without proper analytics and call tracking, you are flying blind. Data-driven decisions are what separate campaigns that plateau from campaigns that keep growing.
Could Your Business Be Next?
Husek Brothers Fencing is just one example of what happens when a local Wilmington business partners with an agency that understands both the technical side of SEO and the real-world dynamics of running a service company. Whether you are a contractor, a medical practice, a restaurant, or any other local business, the fundamentals are the same. Get found online by the people who are already looking for what you offer, and make it easy for them to choose you.
If your business is struggling to show up in search results, losing leads to competitors who have been online longer, or spending money on ads without seeing a real return, we would love to talk. Our team has helped dozens of Wilmington area businesses build the kind of sustainable online visibility that drives real, measurable growth.
Request a free consultation and let us show you what a focused digital marketing strategy can do for your business. No long-term contracts. No generic playbooks. Just a customized plan built around your goals, your market, and your budget.
