📍 Local SEO / Google Maps Case Study – Refresh Painters Wellington
Refresh Painters' improvement in visibility across Wellington, NZ.
As of May 2025, Refresh Painters are nearly fully booked for the year — thanks to a serious boost in visibility for high-value Wellington searches like "painting company" and "house painters Wellington".
🧾 Client Snapshot
Business Name: Refresh Painters
Industry: Residential & Commercial Painting Services
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Start Date with Team Empathy: Late November 2024
🎯 The Challenge
When Refresh Painters came to Team Empathy, they were feeling stretched. The business owner was spending too much time working in the business and not enough time on it, leading to burnout and a lack of freedom. Despite having a strong reputation and solid workmanship, they weren’t getting enough consistent local leads to sustain growth or reduce their workload.
Their Google Business Profile (GBP) had low visibility and engagement, wasn’t appearing consistently in the local 3-pack, and wasn’t driving enough calls or website traffic. They knew that with better exposure on Google Maps, they could attract the kind of steady, local work that would give them more control, more breathing room, and more confidence in their pipeline.
🛠 Our Local SEO Strategy
To help Refresh Painters regain control of their time and create a more predictable stream of inbound enquiries, we focused on making their Google Maps presence work harder for them.
Here’s what we did:
Fully optimised their Google Business Profile for local visibility
Built a keyword-rich business description and service offering
Uploaded high-quality photos and videos to boost engagement and trust
Created and scheduled regular GBP posts to showcase services and updates
Replied to reviews and encouraged new customer feedback to build credibility
Generated and answered relevant Q&As to help pre-qualify leads
Tracked rankings and performance to guide ongoing improvement.
The goal: make it easier for customers to find, trust, and choose Refresh Painters - so the owner could spend less time chasing work, and more time running (and enjoying) the business.
📊 The Results (Q4 2024 → Q1 2025)
Team Empathy began work in late November 2024. While the Q4 numbers include October and November, a large portion of the growth occurred in December, directly following our initial optimisations, and those results laid the groundwork for even stronger gains in Q1 2025.
| Metric | Q4 2024 (Oct–Dec) | Q1 2025 (Jan–Mar) | % Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Maps Views | 73 | 155 | +112% |
| Google Search Views | 1,627 | 2,360 | +45% |
| Calls from GBP | 8 | 10 | +25% |
| Website Clicks from GBP | 50 | 66 | +32% |
| Top 3 Local Pack Rankings | 11 | 42 | +281% 🚀 |
| New Reviews Added | 0 | 8 | 🌟 |
These results translated into more leads, more trust signals for potential customers, and less pressure on the owner to manually hustle for every job.
Refresh Painters' improvement in visibility across Wellington, NZ.
📌 Now Ranked Top 3 on Google Maps For:
Exterior painters Wellington
House painters Wellington
Interior painters Wellington
Roof painting Wellington
Painting company Wellington
Painting services Wellington
Exterior Cladding Wellington
Being consistently visible in the Google Maps 3-pack for high-value local keywords means Refresh Painters now has a much steadier stream of local traffic - and a growing number of leads landing right in their inbox and phone line.
✨ Bonus Wins
📸 Uploaded 31 new photos & videos, significantly boosting visual engagement
💬 Replied to 30 customer reviews, increasing credibility and activity
❓ Published 12 Q&As addressing common customer queries
🗓 Shared 28 GBP posts, highlighting services, updates, and seasonal offers
All of these activities helped build a stronger online presence that works in the background, so the team could spend less time marketing and more time doing what they do best: painting!
“Team Empathy helped us finally break through in local search. We’re getting more visibility, more calls, and more qualified enquiries than ever - to the point that we’re fully booked!”
- Tyler Johansson, Owner, Refresh Painters.
Want results like these for your business?
Want to see if these results would be possible for you too? Get a free Google Maps Audit to see if your online presence has room for improvement, and how we would unlock exponential growth for your business!
💖 The Team Empathy Difference - Why We’re Loved!
We prioritise client experience and transparency - we keep you regularly updated on your results and provide strategic marketing advice for the bigger picture of your business. We are fully transparent with our process - giving you access to live results on a monthly basis!
We are committed to this relationship (and operate from a place of core values) - which is why we engage so much! Your mission is our mission. You can rest easy knowing we are here for you when you need us!
We are results-focused. We're committed to the short, medium & long term growth of your business. We know what works, and you can trust us to build that out for you, with the specifics of your situation front of mind. Our goal is to build the infrastructure (that you ultimately own) into your business that we know you need for sustainable growth.
