How we rebuilt The Colour Chameleon's website and Google presence

Where she started

The Colour Chameleon is a paint color consulting business serving north metro Atlanta. Homeowners bring her in when they're stuck on colors for a room, a whole house, cabinets, or an exterior.

She already had what most local businesses spend years building: a real reputation in her field. Past clients, local partners, and neighbors on Facebook and Nextdoor kept sending people her way.

But last year, she noticed fewer calls from people who had simply found her online. So early this year, she verified her business with Google and started asking clients for reviews. She built up a strong set of reviews in a short time, which gave her the credibility to build on.

Her search visibility hadn't caught up. In the month before we started, her site's average position on Google was 19.4, which put her on page two for most searches. People were seeing her, but not where they'd click.

This is the first post on the Dunna Digital blog, and it's the story of how we fixed that: what we built and what's happened since launch.

What was holding her back

Nothing was broken in an obvious way. The old site loaded, the phone number worked, and the reviews were real. The problems were in how her online presence explained itself to Google.

• Her site and her Google Business Profile told different stories. The services and areas listed on each didn’t line up, so Google had less confidence about what she did and where.
• The site wasn't structured for search. Pages didn't clearly signal which services they covered or which communities she served, so it was hard for Google to match her to specific searches.
• Her copy was written to explain, not to rank. It described what she does well, but it wasn't written around the specific phrases people type into Google.
• Her service area was bigger than her online footprint. She works across a wide stretch of north metro Atlanta, but little of that showed up anywhere Google could read it.
• Nobody could see what was working. There was no tracking on bookings, so there was no way to tell which visitors became consultations.

None of this is unusual. Most small business websites are built to share what they do, not to be understood by search engines.

What we built

A fully custom website

We hand-coded the site with no templates and no page builders. Each page has a clear job, and a booking button sits on every one so visitors are always one tap from a consultation. It's built mobile-first, meets WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards, and loads fast on a phone.

A search foundation that matches her business

Every page got a clean, logical structure, its own title and description, and structured data that tells Google exactly what kind of business she is and where she works. The site also spells out the north metro Atlanta communities she serves, in words people actually search. The copy was drafted to do two jobs at once: answer the questions her clients ask, and match the phrases they search for.

A Google Business Profile that agrees with the site

We aligned her Google Business Profile so its services and service areas match up with the website. When the profile and the site agree, Google can trust both of them more.

Tracking from day one

We set up Google Analytics 4 from scratch, with tracking on booking actions. For the first time, she can see where visitors come from, their journey on her website, and which ones turn into consultations.

Early results

It's early, but the first stretch after launch is encouraging. Here's how the period after launch (September 23 to October 3) compares to the month before we started (August 18 to September 14), using Google Search Console data.

• Average Google position, all searches: 19.4 to 7.7
• Click-through rate from Google: 2.3% to 3.9%
• "color consultant near me": #13 to #1
• "paint color consultant buckhead": #3 to #1

Her average position moved from page two to page one, and a larger share of the people who see her in search now click through.

Rankings move around for weeks after a launch while Google reevaluates a site. We'll publish a full follow-up once the data has had time to settle.

What other local businesses can take from this

• Your reputation doesn't show up in search on its own. Great reviews help, but Google still needs a site and profile that clearly explain what you do and where.
• Your website and Google Business Profile should agree. When they tell the same story, Google trusts both more.
• Launch is the start, not the finish. Google keeps reevaluating a site for months after it goes live. We keep monitoring her site and rankings, fixing anything that could hold her back and making changes that build on what's already working.

If your business has the reputation but not the search visibility, we'd like to hear about it. Get in touch with Dunna Digital and we'll take a look at where you stand.