SEO is one of the biggest specialties at Madroit Marketing. It’s imperative to us that every website we develop and every copywriting project we deliver starts with a good SEO strategy. It’s also one of the top three areas we investigate during an analysis of a new client’s prior marketing efforts.
In this blog, we’ll explain why SEO is important and how it has helped a few of our clients (with real examples) achieve consistent growth in the local Grand Rapids and West Michigan market.
What Is SEO and How Does It Work in 2026
Twenty years ago, it was enough to use as many keywords as possible on each page for Google to send you to the top.
Now, with Google algorithms releasing major updates every 6 months, we are no longer talking about simple tactics. Today’s SEO is about common sense, quality, and relevance.
What Works for SEO in 2026:
- Backlinks from trusted sources
- Meaningful internal links across your website
- Keywords that are now actually key words. Mention your services, your location, your method of communication, what your company does, and the algorithm will match all these words into common user requests
- Use question-based keywords. For example: “What works for SEO in 2026” 😉
- Localize! Globalization is no longer a trend. If your business is connected to a city or state, or even multiple states, talk about it. Google prioritizes local companies over nationwide ones.
- Keep your website updated regularly with fresh and relevant content
- Make your website fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate
Local SEO Success Stories from Madroit Marketing
Theory is good, but real examples hit harder. Here are the results of two of our recent SEO projects for Grand Rapids area businesses.
First Client: Cheese Farmer
What We Did:
- Adjusted the full marketing funnel:
- Relevant keywords
- Clickable meta tags
- SEO-optimized, well-written product pages
- Strong CTAs to finalize the purchase
- Abandoned cart email funnel
- Found all the blind spots in farmer cheese production that people were searching for, and gave exceptional answers explaining why our client’s product is the best choice
- Concentrated on the best-selling products and pushed them harder to reach Google’s top-3 results
Our Results:
- From April 2025 to April 2026, we increased site impressions by 236% and clicks by 28%.
- The client jumped into the top-3 positions for two of their main products.
- The number of purchases during the highest-performing months doubled compared to the previous year.
Second Client: Home Service Business
What We Did:
- Concentrated on local SEO for the business’s service areas
- Updated Meta Descriptions to convince customers that this was exactly the solution they were looking for
- Raised trust in the client through exceptional professional information about related services across the homepage, service pages, and blogs
Our Results:
- Traffic shifts from mainly paid ads in 2025 to mainly organic search in 2026, while maintaining the same number of purchases.
- Constant growth of up to 50% every month since the website update in February
- Most importantly, new customers coming directly from Organic Search and happy reviews from the client
SEO and AI
Right now, we are in the midst of the transition from the old Search Engine era to the new AI Search era. We no longer look only at Google rankings, but also at AI presence.
A Few Tips to Win Here:
- Write clear and direct answers to common customer questions
- Build authority through expert blogs and detailed service pages
- Use structured and organized content so AI tools can easily understand your website
- Keep information updated, because AI systems prioritize fresh and trustworthy content
- Focus on real expertise and practical value instead of mass-generated AI articles
What Not to Do in SEO in 2026
SEO today is not about tricking algorithms anymore. Modern search engines are becoming better and better at understanding quality, relevance, and user behavior. That’s why outdated SEO tactics can now seriously hurt your rankings instead of helping them.
- Don’t place keywords without organic context. Google sees it and ranks you lower
- Don’t rely only on AI while writing texts. More and more algorithms are tracking AI patterns and deranking these types of copy.
- Don’t underestimate Meta Descriptions. You can do everything well, prepare the best SEO copy, add backlinks, connect with many websites, and finally show up in top searches. But no one will click on your page if your Meta Title and Meta Description do not accurately represent your service.
Conclusion
We love SEO work because we see in real time what it does for our clients.
At Madroit Marketing, we see SEO not as a separate tool, but as a part of the full marketing strategy. When SEO, website structure, copywriting, and customer psychology work together, businesses get not only more traffic, but real clients and long-term growth.
If you feel your website is not bringing enough organic traffic or your business is not showing up where it should, our team would be happy to help. Contact Madroit Marketing for an SEO review and let’s find the growth opportunities for your business together.
