Case Study
A 14-month SEO campaign that ranked a southern Utah adventure brand on page 1 for high-volume national queries dominated by travel media giants, driving consistent growth in organic clicks and revenue.
Overview
When this account was taken over in May 2025, Expedition Kanab was a well-regarded southern Utah tour operator competing in a search landscape dominated by large travel media publishers for its most valuable keywords. The site had technical issues holding rankings back, an underdeveloped internal link structure, and no eCommerce conversion tracking in GA4, making it difficult to measure what was actually driving bookings.
The goal was to build a clean technical foundation, develop topical authority around the site's core tour themes, get proper analytics tracking in place, and progressively push mid-ranking pages onto page one. The campaign ran for 14 months across five planning periods, combining on-page SEO, content strategy, CRO, local entity optimization, and AI search visibility work.
The Work
The campaign was structured across five phases. Click any phase to expand the details.
The campaign opened with a full Screaming Frog audit to identify and fix existing technical issues: missing meta tags, missing H1 tags, spelling and grammar errors, and keyword cannibalization across pages. Fixing these was the first step to ensuring on-page and content work could take effect properly.
Existing blog posts were reviewed to identify key themes and group them into topical clusters. New cluster topics were mapped to fill gaps, each targeting untapped long-tail informational keywords with the depth and NLP optimization needed to cut above the competition. The Zion National Park destination page and Utah Vacation Packing Guide were also factored into the cluster map, as they tied directly into the tours and travel planning theme.
Blog posts within each cluster were interlinked, and contextual links were added from informational content to relevant commercial pages, including the new Welcome to Kanab Orientation page once published. April's conversion data was also analyzed following a reported decrease in sales, to understand whether the drop was organic-related or broader.
New technical issues flagged by Semrush were addressed: broken internal links, incorrect pages found in the sitemap, and missing meta tags on select pages. Page indexing status was reviewed in GSC and any indexing issues found were corrected. Internal links from 3–5 top-performing blog posts were added to relevant commercial pages to strengthen the link between informational and commercial content.
The top 3–5 pages showing declining organic traffic were identified and reoptimized: content was refreshed, keyword and NLP targeting was rechecked, and 1–2 new internal links from fresher, performing pages were added pointing back to each. The site's overall internal link architecture was reviewed and updated to better distribute authority across commercial pages.
The top 3 high-traffic but low-converting commercial pages were identified and reviewed using MS Clarity heatmap and session data. Specific on-page conversion improvements were drafted for each page, building the foundation for the CRO work planned in Q4. Q3 search performance and conversion rate data were also reviewed to inform the Q4 plan.
A new Google Tag Manager (GTM) account was created and configured to implement GA4 eCommerce event tracking across all tour pages, covering view_item, add_to_cart, and purchase events. This gave the account proper conversion attribution for the first time, making it possible to measure the full booking funnel from organic search to completed transaction.
Meta titles and descriptions were rewritten for all high-impression, low-CTR commercial pages and blog posts identified in GSC, with a focus on improving keyword alignment and clickability. FAQ schema was added to key commercial pages for rich result eligibility. Above-the-fold CRO updates were applied to the homepage and the ATV tours page based on the Q3 MS Clarity data.
High-traffic blog posts were reviewed and contextual internal links were added from them to tour pages currently ranking in positions 11–15, the pages closest to page one. FAQ content on these target pages was also updated and expanded to better match search intent and address common pre-booking questions around tour logistics, difficulty, safety, and age suitability. Structured JSON-LD FAQ schema was generated for every updated page.
A comparison widget was created for the Peekaboo Slot Canyon and Peekaboo + Great Chamber Loop tours, offering visitors a clear side-by-side breakdown of pricing, difficulty, scenery, duration, and ideal audience. The goal was to reduce choice friction and guide users toward the tour that best fit their needs, improving conversions on both pages.
The "Renting vs. Buying an ATV for Off-roading" blog post was updated to focus specifically on off-roading conditions in Kanab and Southern Utah, repositioning it from a generic comparison article into a locally relevant, conversion-focused piece that naturally guides readers toward guided tours. Internal links and contextual CTAs were added throughout to route traffic toward key commercial pages.
Clear CTAs and internal tour links were added to all high-traffic blog posts. GA4 funnel metrics were rechecked in preparation for the Q1 plan. Q4 GSC data showed impressions growing from 189K to 201K and average position improving from 14.8 to 9.6, confirming on-page optimizations and meta rewrites were producing measurable ranking gains.
CTR and impression data from GSC were pulled for all high-visibility pages. Pages generating more than 2,000 impressions with CTR below 2% were flagged for re-optimization, as these indicated a mismatch between SERP intent and the current title or description. Rising queries ranking between positions 5–20 with increasing impressions were also identified to inform Q1 optimization and new content opportunities.
GA4 and MS Clarity heatmaps were reviewed for the homepage and ATV tours page to evaluate the Q4 CRO updates. No major friction points or behavioral issues were found, confirming those updates were holding up well.
A mid-funnel blog post calendar was built around Expedition Kanab's core commercial pages (UTV Adventures, Jeep Tours, Peekaboo, Great Chamber, Coral Pink, Utah Dark Sky, Planning), mapping cluster topics to real search demand from GSC and Semrush data. Two conversion-focused, mid-funnel posts were written and published targeting decision-stage searchers: a Great Chamber and Peekaboo slot canyon one-day itinerary and a Coral Pink Sand Dunes sandboarding beginner's guide. Both were designed to capture high-intent planning searches and route readers into tour pages through internal links placed in the upper half of each article.
An E-E-A-T recommendation was prepared for the blog, centered on author bios for Rhees Jackson, the founder of Expedition Kanab and a 7th-generation Kanab local. The plan outlined placing a byline block near the top of each post, adding a full bio at the end, and linking to a dedicated author page with his background and role. The copy and implementation guide were drafted and handed off to the client for execution.
Expedition Kanab's existing online citations were audited across key travel and local directory sources. The audit found NAP inconsistencies, most notably conflicting phone numbers and minor address variations (e.g., "Building B" appearing in some places but not others). A single canonical NAP was established and a prioritized cleanup plan was put in place, starting with the website footer and contact page as the authoritative source, then correcting high-impact third-party listings and aligning social profiles.
This work matters because consistent NAP data strengthens Google's confidence in the business entity, reduces customer friction, prevents inaccurate information from spreading across aggregators, and improves visibility in map results and local travel searches.
A full competitive GBP audit was conducted comparing Expedition Kanab against three local competitors (Kanab Tour Company, Kanab UTV Rentals, and Trailhead Off-Road) for the target keyword "Kanab ATV tours," reviewing primary and secondary categories, services, business description, Q&A, photos, attributes, and amenities. Follow-up work on the Q1 NAP audit continued, correcting citation inconsistencies across the website contact page, GBP, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and tourism directories.
A review acquisition and response strategy was put in place, targeting 5–10 new Google reviews with language mentioning tour type, location, and experience highlights. All new reviews were responded to with natural references to services and locations. Listings were submitted or updated across TripAdvisor, Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, YellowPages, and relevant travel directories, targeting 3–5 strong new citations or brand mentions to further strengthen local entity coherence.
Two new informational blog posts were published and structured specifically for AI Overview extraction: direct answers under headings, bullet lists, structured sections, and FAQ sections. Two existing posts ranking in positions 5–15 were updated with the same structural approach, adding clear H2 question headings, short answer summaries (40–60 words), bullet lists, and FAQ sections, plus internal links to relevant tour pages.
Results
Key Takeaways
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