I’m Kayla. I run a small cake studio just off Penny Street in Lancaster. I bake, I clean, I answer the phone, and I try to keep the website alive between wedding tastings. You know how it goes.
When I need a quick snack between tiers, I grab a wedge of crumbly Lancashire cheese for fuel. And if you’d like an even deeper dive into the journey, here’s my straight-talking review from a small shop owner that breaks down every step.
Last spring, my traffic went flat. Calls dipped. I typed “seo lancashire” into Google, made tea, and phoned three agencies. Before I committed, I skimmed the straight-talking blog over at Rogers Digital to learn what a solid regional strategy should actually include. Here’s what happened when I hired one based in Preston. It wasn’t magic. But it did move the needle.
The problem I walked in with
- We ranked on page 3 or 4 for “wedding cakes Lancaster.”
- Our Google Business Profile had messy info. Old hours. Old photos. Ouch.
- My site was slow on mobile. Like… crawl slow.
- I had nice photos but no plan. No blog, no calendar, no local pages.
I kept thinking, am I the only one who can smell the burning toast here?
Who I picked (and why)
I met two folks at a little café near Winckley Square. Very Lancashire. Straight talk. No fluff. They showed local wins from Preston, Chorley, and Blackpool. I liked that.
Preston’s a university city too; if you’re curious how campus life feeds the local vibe, take a peek at my honest take on UCLan in Lancashire.
Cost was £650 a month, plus a £400 clean-up. No long contract. They asked for 90 days to show clear signs. Fair enough.
We set goals:
- More calls from Maps
- Top 5 for two core terms
- Faster mobile speed
- One sale-ready page for Christmas orders
What they did in the first 90 days
Here’s the thing: they didn’t start with links or fancy stuff. They fixed basics first.
- Technical audit. They ran Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and Screaming Frog. They found broken links and some “thin” pages I’d forgotten about.
- Mobile speed. They compressed images, set proper caching, and trimmed some heavy scripts. Mobile score went from 48 to 92. I could feel the site snap.
- Titles and metas. They changed “Cakes” to “Wedding Cakes Lancaster & Bespoke Bakes | River Street Bakery.” Sounds small. It wasn’t.
- Google Business Profile. New hours, 30 fresh photos, weekly posts, and proper categories. They added UTM tags so we could see calls from Maps.
- Local pages. We added three: Lancaster, Morecambe, Garstang. Each had map embeds, FAQs, and real photos from jobs in those places. The salty breeze in Morecambe always reminds me of this little travel diary, *A Week in Lancashire That Smelled Like Sea Air and Warm Pies*—worth a read if you need content inspiration.
- Content calendar. Two posts per month:
- “How Much Do Wedding Cakes Cost in Lancashire? A Simple Guide”
- “Top 5 Lancaster Wedding Venues (With Cake Tips)”
- Reviews. They set up a QR card at my counter. People used it after tastings. It worked better than I thought.
- Citations. They cleaned NAP info on Yell, Bing, Apple Maps, and a couple local directories. Boring, but needed.
It reminded me that niche, city-specific directories can sometimes outrank the big players: for example, an independent massage studio in California looking to capture local intent would be crazy not to claim its spot on the hyper-local listing at AdultLook Vacaville where potential clients filter providers by city, ratings, and live availability—a vivid illustration of how the right directory can funnel high-intent traffic straight to your booking form.
We used Slack for chat and Asana for tasks. Monday check-ins. Quick voice notes when my hands were covered in buttercream.
Real examples that changed things
- October push: they had me put up a “Christmas Cake Orders for Lancaster” page in early October. We filled my first batch by mid-November. That page paid for itself fast.
- Seasonal posts: they tied content to the Blackpool lights and winter weddings. Not fluff—actual questions couples ask me. If you ever fancy swapping seaside lights for city wanderings, my snapshot of a weekend in Bolton, Lancashire shows how varied the county can be.
- Photos as proof: they picked four cake builds and turned them into case studies with step-by-step photos. People stayed longer on those pages. I could see it in Analytics.
One snag: a blog came back too salesy. I flagged it. They rewrote it in my voice within a day. After that, I approved all posts before they went live. Easy fix.
Numbers after four months
I like feelings, but I also like numbers. So here you go:
- Google Maps calls: up from 12 to 29 per month
- Organic traffic: +38% (mostly local pages and the Christmas page)
- Rankings:
- “wedding cakes lancaster” moved from position 27 to 6
- “birthday cakes lancaster” went from 22 to 9
- “bespoke cakes lancashire” started at 41 and hit 11
- Mobile speed: 48 to 92 (PageSpeed mobile)
- Inquiries: wedding cake inquiries went from 2–3 to 6–8 per month
Not all top spots, but real growth. And not a one-hit wonder either. It held into spring.
What bugged me (because nothing’s perfect)
- November content ran a week late. It landed after my promo window. I moaned. They owned it. We pulled that plan forward for December.
- One backlink pitch made no sense. A random Midlands blog. We cut it. After that, we stayed local with press mentions and venue guides.
- Reporting was too techy at first. Lots of charts, not much plain talk. They switched to a one-page summary with three wins, three next steps. Much better.
- They did try to sell me ads. I said no. I wanted organic steady, not a quick spike. They backed off.
How they treated me
This matters. I’m busy, and I hate jargon for the sake of it.
They were kind, clear, and a bit nerdy. In a good way. They’d say, “We’ll fix CLS shift on mobile; it’s why your hero jumps.” Then explain it in normal words: “The page stops wobbling.” We had a laugh. We got things done.
Also, they’re local. They knew venues like Ashton Memorial and Bartle Hall. They knew what couples search before they ring. That helps more than people think.
Tips if you’re hunting “seo lancashire”
Believe it or not, the way Google decides which bakery pops up on someone’s phone around the corner isn’t so different from how dating apps surface nearby matches. For a fun, down-to-earth look at hyper-local algorithms doing their thing, skim this no-fluff Scruff review—it breaks down how the gay dating app leans on proximity, intent signals, and user engagement, giving you transferable insights you can borrow for your own local SEO game.
- Ask for local case studies, not just shiny graphs.
- Approve content before it goes live. Guard your tone.
- Get your photos in order. Real images beat stock.
- Set two or three clear KPIs. Calls. Rankings. Speed. Keep it simple.
- Don’t chase only big keywords. Own the nearby towns first.
- Start seasonal pages early. My Christmas page in October was clutch.
- Planning an in-person strategy day? Bolton has some surprisingly handy spots to crash—here’s my honest take on hotels in Bolton if you need a place to stay while you plot rankings.
Still on the fence about whether hyper-local optimisation is worth the fuss? Fertile Frog’s quick read on why local SEO is essential for small businesses cuts through the noise with real-world stats.
Little extra: if you’re a café, florist, or hair studio, ask them to map out a “three-town ring” plan. For me it was Lancaster, Morecambe, Garstang. For you it might be Preston, Leyland, Chorley. That small ring adds up.
If you want a quick real-world example of local SEO that works, take a look at how [The Three Fishes](https://