SEO — Becca Ellison

The Discipline

SEO is a critical cog in the visibility of local brands.

For service businesses, organic search is often the difference between growth and stall. I treat SEO as infrastructure — not something bolted on after launch, but built into the brand from the first sitemap forward.

The Approach

Five pillars, one integrated system.

SEO breaks when any one layer is missing. I run all five together.

Technical SEO

Crawlability, Core Web Vitals, site speed, canonical structure, indexation hygiene. If Google can't read the site cleanly, nothing else matters. Every site I ship passes a technical audit before it goes live.

Local SEO

Google Business Profile optimization, review generation systems, local citations, service-area schema. For a service business, local is the whole game. I build it in from day one.

On-Page + Structured Data

Keyword-mapped architecture, schema (LocalBusiness, FAQ, Service, Review), meta hygiene, internal linking. Structured data is how machines understand the brand, so I ship it by default.

Content-for-Search

Content mapped to search intent — blog, service pages, location pages — written to answer the actual questions people are searching, in the brand's voice. Not stuffed. Human-first, machine-legible.

AEO + Authority Signals

Answer Engine Optimization, PR mentions, media features, local citations, and trusted directory listings. Getting the brand cited in the right places is what earns organic rank AND AI-search visibility in 2026.

Featured Work

Multi-client SEO ownership across service verticals.

Featured client work from active engagements. Full case detail available on request.

Deepest Engagement · 8+ Years

North Seattle Handyman

When we started in 2017, the business didn't exist. We chose the name and the URL for search popularity — SEO-first naming, before the logo, before the site, before the first job was booked. Then built website depth, structured data, and PR-driven citations to earn domain weight over time.

Eight years later, NSHM is the leading handyman in Seattle. #1 organic for "handyman seattle" and "seattle handyman" — the two largest terms in the market. Top 5 for every other primary handyman-Seattle term. Dominant in the local business pack. The brand name itself is now one of the top 5 searched handyman-related terms in the greater Seattle area.

The revenue arc followed the SEO arc: $0 to $250K/year as a solo operator on brand + local SEO alone. When they were ready to scale, we built the team systems, expanded SEO, and added paid — $250K to $1.8M in 18 months.

SEO-first name + URL
Site depth architecture
PR + citation strategy
Local pack + GBP
Schema markup suite
Review generation system
Content-for-search
AI-citation optimization

View live site

#1

Organic for "handyman seattle" & "seattle handyman"

40+

Organic leads per month (plus ~20 from ads)

200+

5-star Google reviews — dominating local pack

Top 5

Brand name itself now a searched handyman-Seattle term

Organic · First-page dominance

Local pack · Maps

AI Overview · Cited

AI Overview · Second query

How SEO Fits

Ongoing SEO, for a select few.

Most clients come to us to build the brand — not to run ongoing SEO. Every brand we ship has SEO baked in from day one: keyword-mapped architecture, schema, local SEO, and content structured to earn Google's attention. For handyman operators in less-competitive markets, that's often enough to land on page one without ongoing management. For a few clients — NSHM (featured above) and Airpros currently — we run the full ongoing discipline: site cleanup, keyword optimization, consistent content, and PR mentions to earn top local rankings.

Airpros Energy

HVAC. Technical + local SEO, on-page architecture, schema.

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Handyman of Wichita

Handyman. Local SEO foundation, GBP, service-area schema.

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Handyman of Western Slope

Handyman. On-page + local SEO, content-for-search.

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Dedicated Plumbing Services

Plumbing. Site refresh + initial SEO optimization pass.

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The Method

How I approach SEO.

Foundation before feature.

A perfect blog post on a broken site doesn't rank. Technical foundation, schema, and site architecture come first. Content strategy stands on top of infrastructure — never the other way around.

Local is the whole game.

For service verticals, 80% of the wins live in local SEO — GBP optimization, review systems, service-area schema, local citations. I build local SEO into the brand at launch, not after the client asks why they aren't ranking.

Schema by default.

Structured data isn't optional in 2026 — it's how AI search, featured snippets, and rich results happen. Every site I ship has LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, and Review schema wired in from day one.

For both readers.

I write for both — the person searching AND the algorithm scoring. Most small businesses don't give Google enough context to pay attention, so you need enough words, pages, and context for Google to confidently show the business to the customer. And you need simple language with easy next-step CTAs so the human searching can move quickly from "can you help me?" to "I'm ready to hire you."

Ship, measure, refine.

SEO is iterative, not a one-time deliverable. I set up GSC + tracking on day one, then use the data to inform which content, which keywords, and which technical fixes actually move the needle — not what a checklist says should matter.