March 2025 brought bad news for one of my retainer clients. Their handyman service site lost half its visibility overnight after a Google update. Rankings for their main terms dropped from positions 4-8 to 18-25.
The Before State
Looking at their pages, the content was thin. Service pages averaged 120 words with generic descriptions like "We provide quality handyman services." No specifics about what they actually did or how.
Title tags were outdated, still targeting their old service area from before they expanded. Images had no alt text or used filenames like "IMG_4782.jpg." The blog hadn't been touched in two years. URL structure was messy with parameters and session IDs indexed.
Their competitor ranking above them had detailed service breakdowns, project galleries, and proper schema markup. The gap was obvious.
What Changed
I expanded each service page to 450-600 words with specific details about processes, materials used, and common project examples. Rewrote title tags to match their current service area and actual search terms people used.
Added descriptive alt text to 180 images. Set up canonical tags to handle the URL parameter mess. Implemented LocalBusiness schema with proper service area markup.
Created 8 new location-specific pages for neighborhoods they served, each with unique content about local building codes and common issues in those areas.
Results After 10 Weeks
By late May 2025, rankings recovered to positions 3-6 for main terms. Traffic reached 140% of pre-drop levels. Their booking calendar filled up enough that they raised prices.
Total time investment was around 25 hours. The client paid $1,850 for the work and considers it the best money they spent this year.