Organic clicks up 75% in 3 months, with page one rankings for local publishing searches across the US (Jul to Oct 2026 vs Apr to Jul, Google Search Console).
The client
An independent self-publishing and creative services firm in Cleveland, Ohio, selling ghostwriting, editing, design, audiobooks and publishing support to US authors. theworldpublishingcompany.com
The challenge
Work started in February 2026. In April and May the site averaged about 7 search clicks a day, while most demand came from people searching for a local publisher in their own city.
What I did
I designed and built the website, then ran the full SEO and marketing program:
- Designed and built the website, including the local publisher page system by state and city: 544 pages under /publishers/.
- Handled the technical SEO fixes.
- Wrote and optimised content.
- Built links.
- Managed the Google Business Profile.
Results
I designed and built the site, then grew it through local SEO. Organic clicks rose from about 7 a day in April and May 2026 to about 25 a day by July. Comparing the last 3 months with the 3 before, clicks grew 75% (1,231 to 2,157) and impressions 26%. The local publisher pages now earn two thirds of all search clicks, and the site ranks on Google page one for local searches such as "publishing house macon ga" and "publishers in athens".
On Bing, daily clicks rose 57% and daily impressions doubled over the same comparison, and the site ranks in the top 5 for terms like "book publishing services" and "book publishing companies". In AI search, Google's AI features showed the site 9,268 times since mid-May, and Bing records 7,239 citations in its AI answers since late April, now about 80 a day.
| Measure (Google Search Console) | 18 Apr to 17 Jul 2026 | 18 Jul to 17 Oct 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clicks | 1,231 | 2,157 | +75% |
| Clicks per day | 13.5 | 23.4 | +73% |
| Impressions | 137,845 | 174,021 | +26% |
| Click-through rate | 0.89% | 1.24% | +0.35 pts |
Proof in the gallery above: Google Search Console compare view (last 3 months vs previous 3: 2.15K vs 1.25K clicks, 174K vs 138K impressions) and Bing Webmaster Tools (6 months, 374 clicks and top keywords), screenshots taken 21 Oct 2026.
Over the full 6 months (18 Apr to 17 Oct 2026): 3,388 clicks and 311,866 impressions, 77% of clicks from the United States. 203 non-branded queries average a page-one position, 51 of them in the top 5 (counted from the 1,000 queries Search Console exports). Weekly clicks grew from 39 in the week of 18 Apr to a peak of 199 in the week of 18 Jul.
Local publisher pages
The 544 state and city pages under /publishers/ earned 2,279 of 3,409 page clicks (67%) and 191,945 impressions from 18 Apr to 17 Oct 2026, and 256 of them average a page-one position.
| Page | Clicks | Impressions | Avg position |
|---|---|---|---|
| /publishers/colorado/ | 44 | 6,782 | 10.8 |
| /publishers/ohio/cleveland | 44 | 2,529 | 7.8 |
| /publishers/california/sacramento | 43 | 1,856 | 8.3 |
| /publishers/south-carolina/charleston | 41 | 2,242 | 6.9 |
| /publishers/north-carolina/greensboro | 40 | 1,773 | 10.8 |
| /publishers/pennsylvania/pittsburgh | 39 | 1,907 | 8.3 |
| /publishers/south-carolina/greenville | 38 | 1,514 | 5.7 |
Page one on Google for local publishing searches
Average Google position, 18 Apr to 17 Oct 2026, branded searches excluded.
| Keyword | Avg position | Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| mansfield publishing support | 3.8 | 159 |
| publishers in athens | 4.2 | 958 |
| columbus author services | 7.3 | 228 |
| local publishing companies | 7.4 | 152 |
| publishing company near me | 7.5 | 167 |
| publishing a book macon ga | 7.7 | 194 |
| getting a book published macon ga | 7.7 | 184 |
| publishing house macon ga | 7.9 | 190 |
| publishing houses near me | 7.9 | 582 |
On the brand side, "the world publishing company" ranks 4.3 and "world publishing company" 7.1, together 227 clicks.
Bing
Comparing the same two 3-month windows, daily Bing clicks rose 57% (1.6 to 2.6 a day) and daily impressions doubled (31 to 63 a day). Since 25 Apr 2026 Bing has sent 374 clicks from 8,403 impressions. City pages rank near the top too: Denver averages 2.3, Tulsa 2.1 and Greenville, SC 1.0.
| Keyword (Bing) | Avg position |
|---|---|
| book publishers in or near macon georgia | 2.0 |
| book publishers near me | 2.7 |
| book publishing services | 3.2 |
| book publishing company | 3.4 |
| publishing companies | 3.4 |
| book publishers | 4.0 |
| book publishing companies | 4.2 |
| book publishing firms near me | 4.4 |
AI search visibility
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: 9,268 impressions across 566 pages (18 May to 17 Oct 2026). Daily impressions rose 59%, from 44.8 a day in the first two months to 71.1 a day in the last 3; the local publisher pages lead with 4,411.
- Bing AI answers and Copilot: 7,239 citations since 25 Apr 2026, rising from 16.5 a day in the previous 3 months to 63.7 a day in the last 3, with 10 to 13 different pages cited on the busiest days.
- ChatGPT: GA4 records 106 sessions from chatgpt.com (1 Jan to 20 Oct 2026).
Impressions and citations show visibility in AI answers, not visits.
Stack and architecture
Built with: PHP · Programmatic SEO · Schema.org · GTM · Cloudflare
A custom server-rendered PHP site with programmatic SEO. The state and city publisher pages are generated from data, which is how 540+ location pages exist without being hand-built. Each page stays unique: dynamic H1s, titles and meta, handling for cities that share a name, and schema added automatically. That system is what turned the site into a local search engine for publishing queries.
| Layer | What it runs on |
|---|---|
| Core | Custom PHP with a modular includes architecture (shared header and footer partials, config constants, reusable components), PHPMailer via Composer |
| Programmatic SEO | City and state pages generated from data arrays, with dynamic H1s, titles and meta, plus deduplication for same-name cities |
| SEO engineering | Auto-injected FAQPage JSON-LD, Organization and service schema, a custom PHP sitemap generator, .htaccess 301s, canonical rules and rewrites |
| Frontend | HTML5, CSS3, ES6 JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Swiper.js; Core Web Vitals work (hero preload, deferred scripts, preconnect, lazy-loading, minification) |
| Leads | Flexform CRM via fetch POST with a PHPMailer fallback, consent-gated submissions, Zendesk live chat |
| Analytics and ads | GA4, Google Tag Manager with Consent Mode v2 (default denied), Microsoft Clarity, Microsoft Advertising UET |
| Blog | Separate WordPress install with Elementor Pro, Rank Math Pro, LiteSpeed Cache, Link Whisper |
| Infrastructure | cPanel and Apache, Cloudflare CDN, HTTPS and canonical-domain enforcement |
What's next
Title and meta rewrites on the city pages that rank but don't earn clicks yet, to lift click-through rate, and lead tracking (form and call events in GA4) so results can be measured in enquiries, not just clicks.
Sources: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools (search performance and AI Performance) and GA4 exports. Figures shown with the client's permission.
