INDUSTRY:
Blue Earth Equipment Appraisals had the fundamentals of a strong local search presence — real reviews, a real service history — but an early audit found the technical foundation working against them. Meta titles and descriptions weren’t optimized for local search, alt attributes needed fixing, internal linking was thin, and there was no conversion tracking in place to know which visitors were actually turning into inquiries. On top of that, a review of past Google Ads spend found their campaigns running in “Smart Mode,” quietly driving low-quality traffic from partner networks rather than the qualified local searches they were paying for.
The deeper issue went beyond standard SEO. As AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity became a real part of how people research service providers, we found those tools couldn’t reliably pull Blue Earth’s own customer review data from their Google Business Profile — meaning strong, real reviews weren’t making it into the AI-generated summaries potential customers were starting to rely on. A business could have excellent reviews and still be invisible to the exact tools people were increasingly using to decide who to call.
We rebuilt the technical foundation first — corrected metadata, fixed alt attributes, strengthened internal linking, and set up proper conversion tracking for click-to-call and form submission events so performance could finally be measured accurately. To directly address the AI visibility gap, we implemented schema markup across the site, giving AI platforms a structured, readable way to access and surface the review data that was already there. We also built dedicated industry-specific landing pages — starting with Farm Equipment Appraisals and Construction Equipment Appraisals — to capture more qualified, specific search traffic rather than competing only on broad terms. On the paid side, we moved their Google Ads campaigns from Smart Mode to Expert Mode, giving them real control over budget and targeting instead of letting automated placement decide.
The schema markup fix worked: Blue Earth now appears in AI-generated search summaries on platforms that previously couldn’t read their review data at all — closing a visibility gap most businesses don’t even know they have. Search Console shows a clear shift toward more targeted, higher-quality visibility: average position improved from roughly 31 to 14, and click-through rate climbed from 0.1% to 0.5% — five times higher, even as total impressions narrowed. That combination is a good sign, not a concerning one: it reflects the site showing up for fewer, more relevant searches rather than a wide spray of unqualified ones, and the people who do find it are clicking through at a much higher rate because the match is better.
That shift shows up in real lead activity too. Organic search sessions grew 14% year over year, and combined leads from phone calls and form submissions grew from roughly 1 to 10 over the same period — modest in raw volume, but a real, measurable step toward the kind of qualified traffic Blue Earth’s business actually depends on.
Patrick Blaser,