SEO Overhaul for Homebaked Nearby – Transforming a Local Marketplace Through Structured Search Visibility

Client: Homebaked Nearby

Industry: Local Marketplace, Cottage Food

Services Provided:

• SEO Keyword Research & Strategy
• On-Page SEO Optimization
• Semantic Heading Structure
• Technical SEO Enhancements
• UX Flow Alignment

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The Challenge

Homebaked Nearby is a platform that connects customers with licensed home bakers across Texas. While their service was in high demand, the website lacked the SEO foundation needed to grow visibility and acquire users organically. Key challenges included:

• Disorganized heading structure and lack of semantic clarity
• No keyword strategy or content targeting
• Low impressions for non-branded search terms
• Poor site performance and unclear UX pathways

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What We Did

1. Strategic Keyword Research and SEO Planning

We developed a comprehensive SEO keyword strategy tailored to Homebaked's audience and regional goals:

• Conducted competitive research on three leading home baking platforms in the U.S.
• Identified keyword clusters by product type, location, and user intent
• Delivered a structured SEO keyword file, including:
  
  • A detailed keyword list with search volume, keyword difficulty, competition, and conversion potential
  • Target pages and six-month position goals for each group
  • A “Criteria” sheet explaining the strategic selection of keywords based on business fit and user behavior

This roadmap enabled targeted content creation and page optimization around high-converting and underserved search queries.

2. Semantic Heading Structure Redesign

We audited and redesigned the site’s heading architecture (H1 to H6) to align with semantic SEO and accessibility standards:

• Reorganized headings across core pages and blog posts
• Ensured content hierarchy matched user reading flow and SEO best practices
• Incorporated long-tail keywords and FAQ-style headings for increased discoverability

This improved user experience and how search engines interpreted and indexed the content.

3. On-Page SEO Optimization

We optimized all key on-page SEO components to improve relevance, readability, and crawlability:

• Rewrote page titles and meta descriptions for clarity and higher click-through rates
• Added image alt text aligned with keyword and product relevance
• Enhanced internal linking across product, location, and blog content
• Improved site speed through script minification, image compression, and lazy loading
• Resolved URL, canonical, and mobile performance issues

The site became faster, cleaner, and aligned with Google's page experience signals.

4. UX Flow Mapping and Content Realignment

To ensure alignment between content and user behavior, we mapped key customer journeys and updated site architecture accordingly:

• Clarified flows for cake ordering, browsing by city, and baker registration
• Improved mobile navigation and call-to-action placement
• Streamlined homepage messaging to support core user goals

This resulted in smoother navigation and higher engagement across primary pages.

Outcome

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After following the SEO improvements, Homebaked Nearby saw a substantial increase in organic impressions, especially for local and product-intent keywords, and began acquiring its first customers through the website. While ranking growth is still in progress, the site has a solid SEO foundation for sustainable, long-term search visibility.

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This project demonstrates how strategic keyword planning, semantic structure, and technical on-page SEO, when combined with UX insights, can transform a small marketplace into a discoverable, scalable platform.