SEO Case Study: Boston Pads

Boston Pads was ProSource Media’s first SEO client. We began the campaign back in May 2016 and we’re still actively managing their SEO and content to this day. The initial scope of work involved providing content and backlinks for the newly redesigned website bostonpads.com. In addition to that, we were responsible for rebuilding and writing content for 60 other local apartment websites owned by the client.

Our scope of work for Boston Pads has evolved considerably since then, but for this case study we will focus on the SEO strategy executed by ProSource for the client’s main objective: Rank bostonpads.com on Page 1 for the keyword boston apartments.

Background on Historical SEO Performance

The client’s website launched around 2003 and for a long time he held top 3 position for his main keyword ‘boston apartments’. His rankings and organic traffic began to decline in 2012 as a result of Google’s Panda algorithm update and the emergence of some big national players.

The client operated and maintained 80 apartment websites, one for every neighborhood in Greater Boston. These sites were structural copies of one another with no unique content to differentiate them. Google’s Panda update was rolled out in February 2011 specifically to penalize duplicate content, so he saw a steep decline in traffic as a result.

Also during this time, many national apartment websites were starting to emerge. Zillow, Trulia, and Apartments.com all started popping up on page 1 in many regional markets starting in 2010. As more national portals became popular, there were less positions on Page 1 for the smaller local players. By April of 2016, there was only 1 local website on Page 1 for keyword ‘boston apartments’, and it was boston apartments dot com.

The Goal

The client’s primary objective was to restore and maintain Page 1 ranking for the keyword ‘boston apartments’. It is a highly competitive keyword and it is searched roughly 18,000 times a month in Google. Client’s rank at the time of campaign launch was hovering between 12 and 13.

The Strategy

SEO Content – Produce keyword optimized content for the website’s service pages and blog. This was key to fixing the penalties received from the Google Panda update. We needed to create keyword optimized content for each new Service page on the site and compelling blog content support our keyword strategy. Our process was and always has been the same for this type of SEO:

• Conduct exhaustive keyword research for every Service page to determine search volume for transactional keywords
• Identify primary keyword, secondary keywords and long tail keywords to be implemented on each page
• Search for additional keywords that are not being targeted on the site tree
• Request any pages to support these keywords
• Conduct thorough keyword research on informational queries popular in Google
• Write articles for the blog on bostonpads.com targeting these common searches

Backlinks – Build high quality backlinks to bostonpads.com to increase domain authority. With new national players in town, we needed to increase domain authority in order to be able to compete for Page 1 positions.

• Research potential backlink opportunities on real estate related websites
• Reach out to website with an offer to provide content for their blog with topic suggestions
• Product content and submit to website admin for review and posting
• Acquire backlinks via paid channels used by ProSource
• Social bookmarks for posted blog content to increase Page authority
• On-Site SEO – Optimize the website to ensure all keywords are implemented and no keyword cannabilization exists on the website. This is our standard on-page checklist:
• Check & optimize Page Titles, Meta Descriptions, Headings, Subheadings, Content, image URLs, and image alt tags
• Check for correct implementation of primary keywords, secondary keywords, and long tail keywords for each page
• Optimize site hierarchy to ensure proper architecture exists for optimal SEO
• Utilize internal links to silo content under main categories and avoid cannabilization
• Perform website speed test and reduce image size and/or script load order as necessary

The Results

The results for bostonpads.com were very positive. We saw a 7x increase in organic traffic over a 2 year period from May 2016 to May 2018.

We also achieved an 8x increase in total keywords ranked during that same time.

Unfortunately, we were still stuck on Page 2 of Google for the keyword ‘boston apartments’.

SEO Strategy 2.0 – Back to the Drawing Board

Our initial strategy was doing a great job at increasing traffic, but not rank for ‘boston apartments’.   The reason was that our blog articles were getting indexed and generating tons of traffic, but it had little effect on the position of our page dedicated to ‘boston apartments’.

We were able to improve domain authority considerably during that time as a result of a few data infographics we produced. ProSource created a series of infographics that showed average rent prices by neighborhood and send them out to a list of over 100 contacts representing 60 local Boston media outlets. The infographic was picked up by several of them, and we received some authoritative backlinks from their websites going to our blog posts that contained the infographic.

Website Redesign 2018

At this point we realized we needed something bigger. The website redesign from 2016 was an upgrade from the previous version, but the website still lacked many of the interactive features offered by the national portals as of June of 2018. We made a plan to redesign the website to include an interactive map with a more attractive listing layout, complete with added filters for more easy searching.

We took this redesign as an opportunity to optimize the architecture of the apartment listing pages and apartment search result pages. We removed several query parameters from the URL structure that were preventing us from getting our search result pages indexed.

The Real-Time Data Feed

Seeing how well the real-time data infographics were received by the local media outlets, I proposed that the client build a data feed into their database that would capture key data points such average rent price, vacancy rates, and total apartments. By doing this, we could present this data in a historical perspective which opens up a treasure trove of content marketing opportunities.

The client began building this at the time of the second redesign, and by January 22, 2019, we were recording all of these statistics on a daily basis in the database. Within a few months time, we would have some compelling data to analyze and evaluate for bostonpads.com.

We used this data to produce apartment rental market reports for every neighborhood in Boston. ProSource wrote the articles, built the historical data charts and tables, posted the content, and conducted the local outreach to media contacts.

Armed with a beautiful new design and all the data to assess the market, we became the leader in providing analysis and predictions on the local housing market. We began gaining a lot of attention from local media outlets, earning dozens of valuable backlinks in the process.

As a result, we grew organic traffic 42% in 2019 compared to 2018. Towards the end of 2019 we added 3,000 words of local content to the local apartment search pages, as well as a live real time data feed showing the current average rent prices and vacancy rates for each neighborhood on their respective pages. We also added internal links on all search result pages and listing pages pointing towards the main ‘boston apartments’ page.

All of this allowed us to establish the apartment search result pages as the cornerstone content of the website, and Google finally began showing us for apartment searches higher in search result pages. We were seeing historic traffic for people actively searching for apartments in Google.

In May of 2020, we finally achieved our target objective. I sent out a link to a mid-year market report we posted on bostonpads.com which highlighted some unprecedented vacancy numbers we were seeing due to coronavirus. I sent it out to all of our media contacts, and after 4 years of emails, dozens of story pitches, and 0 responses, we finally got quoted in a story in both the Boston Herald and Boston Globe.

On May 22, 2020, we Googled ‘boston apartments’ like we’ve done thousands of times before. But this time we were on Page 1, holding down the 8th position for the Holy Grail of Boston rental keywords. We bought a nice bottle of Rioja and celebrated with a steak dinner. Goliath hath been matched.

Since then, we’ve gotten local coverage from the Boston Business Journal, Boston Herald, Universal Hub, WKGV, WBZ and more. Our rank has climbed and settled into the top 3 and we’re seeing organic traffic like never before.  As of January 2021, we’ve been steadily ranked above Zillow.com in position #2.  There’s only apartments.com to beat next and last.

Our original strategy was primarily focused on content, backlinks and on-page optimization. While that has evolved in scope over the past 5 years, it still holds as our strategy focus for bostonpads.com. We are still producing market reports and doing local outreach, and we’re currently laying out plans to remove query parameters for the bedroom filter on the local apartment search result page URLs. This will allow us to index apartment search result pages for specific numbers of bedrooms, so we will be able to rank that page for searches like ‘3 bedroom apartment in Back Bay.’

Our goals have changed, as we’re now looking at position 1 as the goal for ‘boston apartments’. We’re also working on improving rank for neighborhood searches like ‘south end apartments’ and ‘fenway apartments’.