We Were Focused on the Work. The Internet Was Telling a Different Story.
When you run a fencing business, your attention naturally goes toward the things customers can see in front of them. The fence has to be straight. The materials need to be right. The installation needs to be done properly. Measurements have to be accurate, schedules need to be managed, and customers need to be happy with the finished project.
Those things were always our priority at Solid Fencing. What we eventually realized was that there was another part of the customer experience happening long before we arrived at someone’s property. People were searching for fencing companies online, and they were forming an opinion about us before we had a chance to talk to them.
That was particularly important for us because we were only three months into working with Oastreck when we began to look at our online presence in a more serious way. We wanted Solid Fencing to have the kind of online presentation that matched the quality and professionalism we wanted customers to associate with the company.
A Customer Cannot See the Fence Yet
There is an interesting challenge with a fencing company. Our best work is physical. A homeowner can see a finished fence, walk around it, look at the gates, and appreciate the installation. But a person searching for us online cannot see any of that firsthand.
The website and Google Maps presence therefore have to do some of the early communication.
Our work with Oastreck on Google Maps helped us take our local visibility more seriously. Instead of thinking of our Maps listing as a basic business directory entry, we started looking at it as one of the first touchpoints between Solid Fencing and a potential customer.
That shift sounds simple, but it changed the way we thought about the online side of the business. We wanted our information to be clear, our services to be represented properly, and our local presence to feel consistent with the company customers would actually meet.
We Started Paying More Attention to the Website
Our website also became an important part of that process. Someone considering a new fence usually has questions before contacting a contractor. They may be thinking about privacy, property boundaries, appearance, materials, maintenance, installation, or the overall process.
We wanted our website to help answer those questions rather than simply exist because every business is expected to have a website.
Oastreck’s Web Development work helped us improve the way our website presents Solid Fencing. The goal was not to make the site complicated. We wanted it to be clear and useful. A visitor should be able to understand what we do, what kind of fencing work we provide, and how to take the next step.
That is particularly valuable in a service business because a website does not need to replace a conversation with a contractor. It needs to make that conversation easier to start.
SEO Gave the Website a Bigger Purpose
The other part of our work with Oastreck has been Web SEO. We had heard the term SEO plenty of times, but there is a difference between hearing about SEO and actually thinking about how it applies to your business.
For us, it came down to relevance. We do not need people searching for fencing services in places we do not serve. We need the right people to understand that Solid Fencing is a company they can consider when they need fencing work.
That meant our website needed to communicate our services clearly and be structured in a way that supported the searches relevant to our business. SEO became less mysterious once we understood that it was not simply about adding keywords. It was about making the website more useful and making sure the business was represented accurately online.
Three Months In, We Are Building Rather Than Chasing
We are only three months into our work with Oastreck, so we see this as the beginning rather than the finished product. That is actually one of the things we like about the process. We are not expecting a few changes to transform the business overnight.
Instead, we are putting the right pieces in place.
Google Maps gives us a stronger local presence. The website gives potential customers somewhere useful to learn about us. SEO gives the website a clearer purpose when people are searching for fencing services.
For us, the biggest benefit so far has been having these areas worked on together rather than treating them as unrelated projects. It has made our online presence feel more intentional.
We are still focused on building fences, serving customers, and doing the work properly. But now we are also more aware of what happens before a customer ever calls us. Someone’s first interaction with Solid Fencing may happen through a Google search or our website, and we want that first interaction to give them a reason to keep looking.
That is the kind of online presence we wanted, and working with Oastreck has helped us move in that direction.