For local businesses in NYC, it can be hard to get noticed. Even niche markets get crowded in a city of 8.4 million people and pushing yourself to the top of a Google search page is not always easy. But with the help of Wix - and her own hard work - Sera Rogue was able to do just that.
The owner of Red Fern Brooklyn, a full-service garden and interior plant design studio, Sera has swiftly conquered the world of Google in the three years since she created her website. She is now able to attract the majority of her clients through organic traffic!
Meet Sera Rogue, Owner of Red Fern Brooklyn
Sera Rogue is a writer, filmmaker and botanist living in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from rural Michigan, her love of nature, plants and gardening blossomed early on. Today she brings her green thumb to gardens and homes through Brooklyn, giving plants (and their owners) a welcome haven in the urban cityscape of NYC.
According to Sera, she created her business and website with the aim of reaching “busy homeowners who want to green their spaces, inside and out.” Red Fern, Sera told us, “likes to focus on the style and sensibilities of our clients to provide a boutique experience tailored to their needs from the space.” To help this target market discover her business, Sera has taken to the Internet, learning about SEO and optimizing her site so that her customers can quickly find her through Google.
Why SEO Matters for Red Fern
Showing up high on Google for relevant keywords is essential to the success of Sera’s business. As she says, “My business is totally dependent on my website. Since I am selling a creative service, potential clients can see my past work and understand the process before calling for a site visit.”
For Sera, investing in SEO wasn’t something that came naturally, but she has quickly been able to master what she needs to know. At first she feared that SEO might be too complicated, she now feels prepared and ready to implement SEO techniques all on her own. Sera is thrilled to know that “everyone can find me!”
Finding SEO Success!
So how did she do it? Sera’s entree into the world of SEO began when she went to an event at the Wix Lounge in NYC. She spoke there with a Wix staff member and they walked her through the basics of SEO. They planted a seed, teaching her about how to find target keywords. And with just the right amount of tender love and care, she has been able to cultivate that seed into a tree full of fruits! (Those juicy fruits, of course, are the many phone calls, emails and customers that come to her through her website!)
Since that initial meeting, Sera is holding the reins on her site’s SEO. She targets several keywords in the families of landscaping, garden, interior plant design, garden design, green and maintenance. In no time, Sera saw her site start to show up in the top results for relevant terms. She ranks on the first page for: garden design brooklyn, garden landscaping and landscape design.
Sera has also taken advantage of Wix SEO tools including the SEO Wizard and Site Booster app. She wrote optimized alt text for her images as well as dedicated page titles and descriptions for each page on her site. Sera created a mobile-optimized version of her site and set up listings for her business on popular online directories like Yelp.
Meet Sera Rogue,
SEO Hero and Garden Guru
“After working on my site's SEO, I noticed that my website would be in the top results.”
Harvesting the Results of her TLC
Sera’s SEO work has paid off! She is tracking her success regularly and has seen an increase not only in traffic to her website but also in phone calls and conversions. In fact, thanks to the website’s great SEO, Red Fern was even featured in a story about interior plant design in The NY Post, one of the three largest newspapers in New York City. The writer found Sera in a search on Google. He liked her website, gave her a call and the rest, as they say, is history! Sera told us the article was a huge boost for her business. Red Fern has also been featured in the popular Brooklyn blog, the Brownstoner.
Sera loves Wix for its great SEO tools and because she has used the platform to build a beautiful website. (Of course a great website is an essential element to improving your business!) She said, “I always get compliments on my site. Clients love the simplicity of it, and of course the photos of gorgeous plants.”’