SEO Case Study: Step Up ABA Therapy
Increase in Conversions
Increase in Organic Traffic
Location
Kent and Des Moines, Washington
Serving the greater Seattle area
Services Used
Local SEO
On-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO
Development
PPC
About Step Up ABA Therapy
Step Up ABA Therapy provides applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy for children with autism across Washington, with priority markets in Kent and Des Moines. They offer center-based, in-home, and school-based care, so families can choose the setting that fits their child. Step Up came to us already experienced in their own marketing. They had managed their local SEO and Google Business Profile themselves, and it had earned them real visibility with local families who knew and trusted them. That foundation was solid. What they wanted was to build on it and reach further, beyond the families already finding them, to the ones still searching.
That is where Funnel Boost Media stepped in. We came ready to sharpen their local SEO, capture the searches they were missing, and turn that trusted local name into a business more families could find and choose.
The Challenge
Ranking by City, Invisible by Service
Step Up came to us with a visibility problem that was easy to miss, because on the surface their SEO was working. Their own local optimization had earned page-one rankings for broad terms like “aba therapy kent,” where a searcher pairs the service with the city. That was a real foundation, and the goal was to build on it.
But most parents don’t just search by city. They weigh the other factors that shape a decision this important for their child, starting with the kind of care and the setting that fits them best. Phrases like “center based aba therapy” and “in home aba therapy” carry more volume and more intent, because they describe both the service and the environment a family is choosing for a child with autism. Step Up didn’t have a page-one presence for those terms in either of their two priority markets. Many of them sat past the first hundred results, which in practice means no visibility at all.
That gap mattered more here than it would for most clients. Step Up treats the setting as part of the therapy itself, because the right environment and the right service option shape how well the care works for a neurodivergent child. The searches that describe those choices were exactly the ones the site wasn’t showing up for.
The Solution
A Dedicated Page for Every Market and Service
We diagnosed the core issue fast, then looked at the site the way we’d want a year down the road, not just to fix what was in front of us but to build something Step Up could keep growing into. The site had strong footing in its home market, but nothing built to speak to the specific services families searched for or to the surrounding cities. Piling more city and service names onto the homepage wouldn’t have worked, because Google rewards a page built for one place and one intent over a page trying to cover everything.
So we rebuilt the structure around the way parents actually search, with room to expand. Washington became the core, with dedicated city subdirectories built to capture the ABA therapy searches in each priority market. Then we layered in service-focused pages for broad ABA, center-based, in-home, and school-based therapy, so the intent and decision factors parents weigh most each had a page designed to earn them.
As demand grew, we expanded into nearby markets backed by competitor analysis and keyword research, adding pages for Auburn, Federal Way, Covington, and the communities near Des Moines. We managed their Google Business Profile to hold their place in the local map pack, and a year in we took over the PPC campaign and guided a site redesign, with our development team fixing and adjusting links under SEO oversight so the change strengthened rankings instead of disrupting them.
The Results
The strategy landed where it was aimed, widened the company’s reach across Washington, and turned search visibility into booked care. They saw more visibility across their aba therapy services, and were booking more and more clients fast.
Page One Coverage Expanded
The site’s footprint on page one grew across the board, led by real service searches rather than the brand name alone. Terms that once sat past the first hundred results moved onto page one where families actually look.
keywords ranking on page 1
keywords ranking in the top 3
for “center based aba therapy federal way”
Keywords Ranking
Campaign Start vs. Mid 2026
Rankings That Turned Into Care
Higher rankings only matter if they bring in more clients and leads, and these did. The pages the strategy targeted are the ones growing, and the visitors they pull in inquire at a higher rate than before. Leads are the clearest proof of the work.
Increase in conversions, leads more than quadrupled
Website Conversion Rate
Reaching New Markets Across Washington
This was the whole point: strategize, formulate the target keyword strategy and execute for rankings, leads and ultimately keep up with expansion. Priority service terms that had no ranking presence now sit on page one, and the newer market pages are carrying real visibility where the site had none before.
8 priority keywords went from no visibility to page one, most in the top five
New market pages in Auburn, Federal Way, and Covington now rank in the top three
Holding Through a Google Core Update
Search did not sit still during this work as multiple methods of search and search engines evolved. The May 2026 Google core update pushed nearly a fifth of the pages ranking on page one out of the top 100 entirely. Step Up kept gaining through it, a sign the work is built to hold rather than to spike and fade.
Increase in Search Impressions
Average Search Position
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