From page 20 to page 2-3 in 2 months for a 15-year Maui surf instructor.
Zack and I worked together a decade ago. We lost touch, reconnected this spring, and the first thing I did was look at his site. It was hurting him — poorly designed, didn’t convert, ranking on page 20 for terms he should have owned. We rebuilt it. Two months later he’s on page 2-3 and climbing, with a working booking funnel for both his lessons and his new surf retreat business.
- Niche
- Surf lessons + retreat
- Market
- Maui
- Engagement
- Web rebuild + SEO + retainer
- Started
- April 2026
Source: Google Search Console + manual incognito SERP checks April-June 2026. Position 2-3 verified on incognito google.com 2026-06-15.
Mobile-first because surf students book on the beach.
Maui surf lesson bookings happen on phones — standing on the sand, talking to friends, comparing instructors. Zack’s old site loaded slow and confused visitors. The rebuild fixed both.
“Zack’s situation was the kind I get into this work for. Real expertise, real years in, ranked on page 20 because nobody had ever helped him do his SEO properly. Two months of focused work and he’s on page 2-3. Page 1 is a question of a few more on-page passes.”
The four moves behind the result.
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01
Audit the old site (it was killing him)
Zack’s old site was poorly designed, slow on mobile, and had no real conversion path. People who DID land on it bounced. Worse, his SEO foundation was thin enough that he ranked on page 20 for terms he should have owned — terms with explicit Maui + surf lesson intent.
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02
Rebuild from the ground up
Custom WordPress build with booking-first hero, clean nautical brand, real surf imagery, fast mobile (sub-2s LCP). New IA: lessons / rentals / about / contact, plus a dedicated surf-retreat path for his newer offering.
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03
SEO foundation pass
Rewrote title tags, meta descriptions, H1s + body copy around the actual searches Maui surf students make. Added LocalBusiness + SportsActivityLocation + Service schema. Cleaned up GBP, added 25+ years credibility signals everywhere Google looks.
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04
Iterate against rankings
Two months in, ranks have climbed from page 20 to page 2-3 for primary terms. Still a few on-page + link signals to dial in before page 1 — but the direction is unmistakable.
Ten years ago. Reconnected this spring.
Zack and I first worked together around 2016 on his SEO. We lost touch over the years — life moves fast on Maui. We reconnected this April and he asked what I’d charge to fix his site. The answer was: let me look first.
What I saw: 15+ years of teaching credibility, a real reputation in the Maui surf community, a brand new surf-retreat offering — and a website holding all of it back.
What we didn’t promise — and why this result took 2 months, not 2 weeks.
- We never promised page 1. Ranking is Google’s call. We promised the rebuild, the schema, and a monthly iteration cadence — and we’re still climbing.
- Two months is normal for moving from page 20 to page 2-3 in a competitive Maui tourism niche. Faster wins happen but aren’t the baseline.
- No PBNs, no syndicated link networks, no AI-content shipped without senior review. Every signal is legitimate.
- Page 1 needs a few more passes — deeper local citations, more topical depth on surf-retreat content, and continued GBP momentum. We’re working on all of it.
See our methodology page for the full scope + pricing model that applies to every Digital Reach engagement.
Want a result like Zack’s?
If you have real expertise + real reputation but a website that’s holding you back, that’s exactly the engagement I do best. Tell us your top keyword and we’ll tell you the realistic timeline.
