PENELOPE & The Beauty Bar

Downtown Seattle is one of the most contested local categories we work in. 'facial seattle' and 'massage seattle' are fought over by chains, hotel spas, aggregators and every independent studio in the city, and a single location has to earn each position against businesses with far larger budgets.

Rather than chase the broad head terms first, the campaign went after the treatments PENELOPE actually specialises in. That meant the named protocols their clients search by: Biologique Recherche, MBR, Morpheus8, PRX and oxygen facials. Those searches are smaller but they convert, because somebody typing 'biologique recherche facial seattle' has already decided what they want and is only choosing where to get it. Once those were held, the broader category terms became winnable. The Google Business Profile ran alongside the site throughout, which is where most of the visible gain landed.

All 25 tracked keywords improved and none declined, for a net gain of 2,461 positions and an average position of 10.3. Across the set that is 19 positions in the top 3 and 47 in the top 10.

• 'facial seattle', the category head term, ranks #1 in Maps
• 'luxury facial seattle' and 'oxygen facial seattle' both rank #1 in Maps and #5 on desktop
• 'biologique recherche facial seattle' ranks #2 on desktop and #2 in Maps
• 'laser hair removal seattle' ranks #2 in Maps
• 'spa near fairmont olympic hotel' ranks #1 in Maps, capturing hotel guests nearby

The site has also earned 287 referring domains, by far the strongest link profile in this group.

A handful of terms slipped on desktop and mobile even as Maps rose sharply, including 'facial seattle' on desktop and 'morpheus8 seattle' on mobile. The net across the account is strongly positive, but the classic organic results need the same attention the profile has had. Only 11 of 54 scheduled content pieces are published, and closing that gap is the obvious next move.

Win the treatments you are known for before chasing the category. The named-protocol searches are less glamorous than 'spa seattle' but they bring people who are ready to book, and holding them is what makes the head terms reachable later.