CASE STUDY: DES MOINES PLUMBER GETS MORE CALLS THAN HIS TWO BIGGEST COMPETITORS COMBINED
How a mid-size Des Moines plumbing company used a strategic website rebuild to outperform both of his biggest competitors in organic leads.
Dear Plumber,
Rick had been the third-biggest plumbing company in Des Moines for as long as he could remember.
Two companies always outranked him. Always got mentioned first. Always showed up higher on Google. They had bigger teams, bigger budgets, bigger everything.
Rick had 6 employees. They had 15-20 each. Rick spent $1,200/month on marketing. They probably spent ten times that.
He'd accepted his place. Third fiddle. Good enough. Comfortable enough.
but "comfortable enough" has a funny way of becoming "barely surviving" real quick
Then one of his employees showed him something interesting. He searched "plumber Des Moines" on his phone. Rick didn't show up. Not on page 1. Not on page 2. Not anywhere.
His two big competitors? Positions 1 and 3.
"Where are we?" Rick asked.
Page 4. Buried. Invisible.
That was the day Rick called us.
The Competitive Landscape
Before we built anything, we analyzed Rick's competitors. Here's what we were up against:
Competitor A: - Website since 2015 (decent, not great) - 230 Google reviews, 4.6 stars - 18 indexed pages on Google - Running Google Ads ($2,500+/month estimated) - Ranking for 45 keywords on page 1
Competitor B: - Website since 2017 (actually pretty good) - 175 Google reviews, 4.4 stars - 24 indexed pages on Google - Running Google Ads ($1,800+/month estimated) - Ranking for 38 keywords on page 1
Rick's company: - Website since 2020 (built on Squarespace, template site) - 19 Google reviews, 4.2 stars - 5 indexed pages on Google - No Google Ads - Ranking for 2 keywords on page 1 (both were his business name)
The gap was massive. But here's what jumped out at us:
Neither competitor had great websites. They were okay. Nothing special. They were winning on age and momentum, not on quality.
That meant we could leapfrog them with a better site, better content, and a smarter strategy. We didn't need to outspend them. We needed to outsmart them.
The Strategy: Death by a Thousand Pages
We had a theory. Rick's competitors had 18-24 pages each. If we built Rick a site with 50+ pages of high-quality, locally-focused content, we could overwhelm them in Google's index.
More pages = more keywords = more opportunities to rank = more traffic. Learn about how many pages your plumber website needs.
### Phase 1: The Website (Month 1)
We built Rick a new site with:
- 14 service pages (each targeting a specific service + "Des Moines" and surrounding cities)
- 8 location pages (Des Moines, West Des Moines, Ankeny, Urbandale, Johnston, Clive, Waukee, Altoona)
- Emergency plumber page (optimized for 24/7 and urgent search terms)
- About page with Rick's 20-year story, team photos, and credentials
- Reviews page with embedded Google reviews
- Blog section (ready for content)
That's 26 pages on day one. Already more than Competitor A.
### Phase 2: Content Blitz (Months 2-4)
We published 24 blog posts in 3 months. That's 2 per week. Each one targeted a specific keyword that Des Moines homeowners search for:
- "How much does a water heater cost in Des Moines?"
- "Signs you need a sewer line repair"
- "Best tankless water heater for Iowa winters"
- "Emergency plumber in Ankeny"
- "Frozen pipe repair Des Moines"
- And 19 more
By the end of month 4, Rick's site had 50 indexed pages (verified through Google Search Console). More than both competitors combined.
### Phase 3: Review Collection (Ongoing)
Rick committed to asking every customer for a review. We gave him the system:
- Text message with direct Google review link within 1 hour of job completion
- Follow-up text 3 days later for anyone who didn't respond
- A small card left at the job site with a QR code
Rick's team was doing 6-8 jobs per day. Even at a 25% response rate, that's 10-15 new reviews per week.
### Phase 4: Google Business Profile (Ongoing)
Weekly posts. New photos every week. Responded to every review. Complete service listings. Regular updates.
Rick's GBP went from a ghost town to one of the most active plumber profiles in the Des Moines metro.
The Results: 6 Months In
| Metric | Before | 6 Months | |--------|--------|----------| | Indexed pages | 5 | 54 | | Page 1 keywords | 2 | 67 | | Monthly organic visitors | 120 | 4,800 | | Monthly leads (website) | 8 | 78 | | Google reviews | 19 | 112 | | Google star rating | 4.2 | 4.7 |
Let's compare that to his competitors at the same point:
| | Rick | Competitor A | Competitor B | |--|------|-------------|-------------| | Page 1 keywords | 67 | 48 | 41 | | Monthly organic visitors | 4,800 | ~3,200 | ~2,600 | | Google reviews | 112 | 241 | 183 | | Monthly website leads (est.) | 78 | ~55 | ~40 |
Rick was getting more organic leads than both competitors. Not combined... yet. But individually? He'd passed them both.
the underdog just became the top dog
Month 9: The Tipping Point
By month 9, the compounding kicked in hard.
Rick's site was ranking #1 for "plumber Des Moines." The keyword that mattered most. The one that Competitor A had held for years.
His Google Business Profile was in the top 3 of the local pack for virtually every plumbing search in the metro area.
Monthly leads hit 95. Competitor A was estimated around 60. Competitor B around 45.
95 > 60 + 45? Not quite yet.
But by month 12...
Month 12: More Calls Than Both Competitors Combined
| Metric | Rick | Comp A + Comp B | |--------|------|-----------------| | Page 1 keywords | 89 | 52 + 44 = 96 | | Monthly organic visitors | 7,200 | ~3,400 + ~2,800 = ~6,200 | | Monthly website leads (est.) | 110 | ~55 + ~42 = ~97 | | Google reviews | 198 | 256 + 190 = 446 |
110 leads vs. their combined 97. Rick was officially generating more inbound calls from his website than his two biggest competitors combined.
And he was spending a fraction of what they spent on ads.
Rick hired 4 new employees that year. Bought 3 new trucks. His revenue went from $680,000 to $1.1 million.
The third-biggest plumber in Des Moines wasn't third anymore.
How a Smaller Company Beats Bigger Ones
Rick's story proves something important.
You don't need the biggest team. You don't need the biggest budget. You don't need to have been around the longest.
You need: 1. More content (pages, blog posts, location pages) 2. Better content (helpful, specific, locally-relevant) 3. More reviews (with a system to collect them consistently) 4. A faster, better-converting website (not a template) 5. Consistency (12 months of showing up, not 2 months of effort followed by 10 months of nothing... see our content calendar guide)
Run a competitor analysis to see exactly where they're weak. Your competitors got complacent. They're sitting on old websites and old strategies. They think their brand name and tenure will protect them forever.
It won't. Not against a competitor who's hungrier and smarter.
Get your free website audit and we'll show you exactly where you stand against your local competitors.
P.S. Rick texted me a screenshot last month. His competitor's owner called him and asked, "What the hell are you doing? Our phone stopped ringing." Rick just smiled. You can smile too. See what our clients say and grab one of our remaining spots. Let's make YOUR competitors nervous.