Client work · Local SEO
A counselling practice in Metro Vancouver: its main local search from average position 20 to 7.6 in three weeks
Between 16 September and 8 October 2026 we audited and fixed the website, Google Business Profile and local listings of a six-counsellor practice. Measured in Search Console, its core local search moved from an average position of 20 to 7.6. Here is what we changed, the numbers with their screenshots, and what has not moved.
The challenge
The practice's local pages sat on pages 2 to 4 of Google. "counsellor [city]" was at average position 20, "[city] counselling" at 24 and "teen therapy [city]" at 35 to 37. Three thin, overlapping city pages earned no clicks from 4,198 impressions in three months. Google had left 208 pages out of its index, against 197 that it kept: thin pages, duplicate copies, off-topic posts, and looping and dead addresses.
The site also made claims that conflicted with the counsellors' professional standards: "licensed", "court-ordered", promised outcomes, and offices that had closed. Business details disagreed across the website and the Google profile (two wrong postcodes, wrong opening hours), and nothing recorded booking clicks, phone taps or form submissions.
The Google Business Profile was in decline too: monthly interactions had fallen from about 58 to 20 in six months, with 4 categories, no products and only studio portraits.
What we did, week by week
Week 1 · 16 to 24 September
A full audit of all 276 pages with every finding written up for the owner's approval. Conversion tracking built in GA4 (booking clicks, phone taps, form submissions). Name, address, postcode and hours corrected site-wide. The compliance wording fixed. Three thin city pages consolidated into one strong page with redirects, and five local service pages rewritten or strengthened, two of which had no working way to book.
Weeks 1 to 3 · Google Business Profile
Categories raised from 4 to 8 with a more accurate primary one, the description rewritten without the closed offices, hours, phone and postcode corrected. Six products with tracked booking links, 9 real photos and 2 short videos added. All 9 reviews answered (3 of 9 had a reply before), and no review ever solicited, in line with the counsellors' professional standards. Twenty unique posts scheduled, one a day, each with its own photo and a tracked link to the matching service page.
Week 2 · 25 to 30 September
Four growth pages (EMDR, trauma, emotional crisis, chronic health) given approved titles, descriptions, headings and a "what a first session involves" section with booking links. Fifty-nine internal links added across 56 articles, pointing readers to the right service page.
Week 3 · 1 to 8 October
Eight looping addresses fixed (one was linked from every page's footer), eight dead addresses redirected and broken downloads repaired. New titles and descriptions for more than 25 pages that Google showed thousands of times but few people clicked. All 112 non-indexed pages reviewed one by one, with 19 targeted internal links added. Speed work with the platform's support team to remove a duplicate analytics tag, two unused scripts and a full icon library. Facebook and LinkedIn corrected, Bing Places set up, an insurer's provider directory claimed and updated for four counsellors, and indexing requested on 8 October for the 10 most important pages (two of which Google had never seen).
How the work was done
Every change to content, titles or addresses was proposed in writing and approved by the owner first. Nothing was deleted: pages were hidden or redirected, with backups, so any change can be undone. Every change was checked live, logged out, after it was made. In all: 276 pages audited, 78 internal links added, 112 non-indexed pages reviewed, 16 loops and dead addresses fixed, 3 conversion events tracked, 0 pages deleted and 0 reviews solicited.
The numbers
Google Search Console, the 4 weeks to 6 October 2026 (9 September to 6 October) compared with the 4 weeks before (12 August to 8 September). Screenshots captured 8 October 2026 from the client's accounts, with the domain, name and city redacted.
20 → 7.6
Average Google position for "counsellor [city]", the core local search
14.7 → 11.3
Average position across the whole site
457 → 486
Clicks from Google (+6%); click rate 0.8% to 1.0%
56K → 49.3K
Impressions (-12%): the site appeared in fewer searches
173 / 200
Pages not indexed / indexed on 8 October (208 / 197 on 16 September; the decline began in July, before our work)
54 → 59
Mobile PageSpeed score for the homepage (desktop 61 to 76), a modest change
| Search | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| counsellor [city] | 20.1 | 7.6 |
| [city] counselling | 24.3 | 12.3 |
| counselling [city] | 19.1 | 19.8 |
| psychologist [city] | 40.3 | 39.5 |
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Clicks from Google | 457 | 486 |
| Average position | 14.7 | 11.3 |
| Click rate | 0.8% | 1.0% |
| Impressions | 56,000 | 49,300 |
| Measure | 5 Oct | 7 to 8 Oct |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile score | 54 | 59 |
| Desktop score | 61 | 76 |
| Mobile main content (LCP) | 12.2 s | 10.1 s |
Reading the results honestly
- Impressions fell 12% while clicks rose 6%. The site appears in fewer searches overall but gets more clicks and a higher click rate, which usually means visibility for loosely related searches dropped while visibility for relevant ones grew. The click increase itself is small.
- Two of the four searches in the screenshot barely moved or did not move: "counselling [city]" is at 19.8 (it was 19.1) and "psychologist [city]" is at 39.5 (it was 40.3). Two further tracked searches come from the same Search Console report but are not in the screenshot: "teens therapy [city]" from 35.3 to 25.4, and all searches containing the city name from 31.9 to 26.5.
- The last two weeks are flat against the two before (241 clicks against 245). Most of the week 3 work (indexing, internal links, titles) went live between 2 and 8 October, and Google usually takes 2 to 4 weeks to reflect changes like these. A re-measure is planned for November.
- The indexing chart shows pages not indexed falling from about 280 in July to 173 now, so the decline began before our work and Google also recalculates that chart over time. We cannot claim the whole fall from 208 to 173. Indexed pages went from 197 to 200.
- Average position in Search Console is an average over every time a page was shown. It is not a fixed rank. The comparison window began on 9 September, a week before the work did.
- Speed: the 5 October figure is the baseline, and the 7 to 8 October figure is the average of four runs (mobile 57, 60, 61, 58; desktop 79, 68, 79, 78). Single runs vary by several points, so the mobile gain is within normal variation and the desktop gain is larger. What remains slow is the platform's own stylesheet and script, which only the platform can change.
- Rankings depend on Google, competitors and seasonality, so no result is guaranteed. These figures are measured, not projected.
Sources: Google Search Console (performance and page indexing reports, read 8 October 2026), Google PageSpeed Insights (5, 7 and 8 October 2026) and the site audit of 16 September 2026. "[city]" stands in for the city name in search terms. The client's name, domain and city are withheld at its request.
The evidence
Screenshots from the client's Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, captured on 8 October 2026, with the domain, name and city redacted.
![Search Console queries for the city: counselling [city] 19.8 against 19.1, counsellor [city] 7.6 against 20.1, [city] counselling 12.3 against 24.3, psychologist [city] 39.5 against 40.3 (city redacted)](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fwork%2Fcs-gsc-queries.webp&w=3840&q=75)
Where it stands
Local searches moved up
"counsellor [city]" went from 20.1 to 7.6 and "[city] counselling" from 24.3 to 12.3. Two other tracked searches did not move.
Indexing is heading the right way
Pages not indexed stand at 173, down from 208 on 16 September, and indexed pages at 200. The fall began in July, so we do not claim all of it.
Early days
The last two weeks were flat, and most of the work only went live in the final week. We re-measure in November rather than claim more now.
Built with
- Google Search Console
- GA4
- PageSpeed Insights
- Google Business Profile
- Bing Places
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