Summary

The Well Personal Fitness operates two locations in Virginia—one in the Hanover/Ashland area and another in the Richmond metro—while preparing to expand into a third area. Their SEO and Google Ads performance was severely underperforming due to a fragmented SEO implementation, missing technical SEO foundations, and a complete absence of analytics instrumentation. I led a full audit and remediation initiative spanning technical SEO, on-page SEO, structured data, and measurement foundations—resulting in measurable gains within the first month.

Role: Curtis Lancaster — Lead Web Optimization & Growth Engineer

Delivery Context: Implemented under Axim Solutions, Inc.

Licensing Context: SEO and Paid Marketing framework, packaging, and training licensed to Axim Solutions by Lancaster Solutions LLC, executed by Member-Manager Curtis Lancaster

Platform: WordPress (Divi)

Business Context

For multi-location service businesses, local-market relevance is the entire game. The client’s website needed to consistently signal geographic intent to search engines, support conversion tracking, and provide a clean foundation for paid marketing optimization. Instead, their stack and implementation had drifted into a state that diluted SEO signals and made performance difficult to measure or improve.

Primary Problems Identified

Fragmented SEO Stack and Conflicting Outputs

The site had multiple SEO plugins installed simultaneously. Metadata and structured data were fractured across plugins, creating overlap, collisions, and inconsistencies. This undermined the site’s ability to present a coherent “source of truth” for titles, descriptions, canonical signals, and schema outputs.

Missing Technical SEO Foundation

There was a lack of site-wide technical SEO posture and best-practice implementation. The result was a backlog of critical issues that reduced crawl efficiency, clarity, and confidence for both search engines and users.

No Measurement Infrastructure

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics were not implemented. This eliminated reliable attribution, prevented proper conversion measurement, and limited the ability to optimize both SEO and paid campaigns using real performance signals.

On-Page Structure Issues

Heading hierarchy inconsistencies (H1/H2), template-level structure drift, and incomplete on-page optimization weakened relevance—particularly for location-driven services where page intent must be explicit.

Traffic Quality Degradation

Traffic had degraded in relevance, including a disproportionate share of overseas visitors (over 50% of total traffic). For a local service business, this introduced noise into analytics, reduced the quality of engagement signals, and weakened optimization accuracy.

Audit and Validation Approach

I conducted a full SEO performance, security, and accessibility audit using proprietary auditing software, and validated findings using Sitebulb. The combination of proprietary and third-party auditing improved confidence in prioritization and ensured that remediation focused on the highest-impact blockers first.

Remediation Strategy

The remediation plan followed a strict order of operations:

1. Establish a single SEO “source of truth” (remove conflicts, normalize outputs)
2. Implement measurement infrastructure (GTM + GA) to enable decision-grade data
3. Resolve technical SEO blockers site-wide (critical issues first)
4. Apply on-page SEO, structural consistency, and structured data aligned to local intent

What I Implemented

1) SEO Plugin Consolidation and Data Normalization

• Extracted and preserved SEO data from existing plugins
• Removed conflicting/overlapping SEO plugins
• Standardized the SEO stack on RankMath SEO Pro (selected for strong compatibility with WordPress + Divi)
• Re-applied consolidated metadata and core configuration under one system to eliminate collisions

2) Measurement Foundations (Built From Zero)

• Implemented Google Tag Manager
• Implemented Google Analytics
• Established baseline tracking readiness for marketing optimization and attribution

3) Site-Wide Technical SEO Fixes

• Applied technical SEO corrections across templates and key page types
• Resolved all critical issues identified during the audit
• Standardized best practices to reduce regression risk moving forward

4) On-Page SEO, Structure, and Local Relevance

• Corrected heading hierarchy inconsistencies and structural template drift
• Implemented on-page SEO improvements aligned to local service intent
• Implemented structured data best practices appropriate for a multi-location local business

Results (First 4 Weeks)

Within four weeks of consolidating the SEO stack, implementing measurement, and completing site-wide technical/on-page remediation:

• Overall site traffic increased by 23%
• Overseas traffic decreased by 87% (previously over 50% of total traffic)
• Local-market relevance improved, translating into increased impressions and clicks from qualified audiences in the target geography

These changes materially improved the signal quality used for both organic optimization and paid marketing decision-making, supporting the client’s growth and expansion planning.

Tools and Stack

• WordPress (Divi)
• RankMath SEO Pro
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Analytics
• Proprietary audit tooling (SEO, performance, security, accessibility)
• Sitebulb (third-party validation)

My Contribution in One Line

Consolidated a fragmented WordPress/Divi SEO stack, rebuilt analytics foundations, and executed site-wide technical + on-page SEO remediation—driving +23% traffic growth in 4 weeks and reducing irrelevant overseas traffic by 87% to improve local-market relevance.