Capturing High-Intent Local Search in a Dense Market

About this project

DTLA Print is a custom print and apparel shop based in Los Angeles, California. The SEO engagement from 2020 through 2022 built a keyword-dense organic presence that scaled dramatically beyond the engagement period, ultimately reaching a peak of 45.8K monthly organic visits in early 2024. The work covered site architecture, web redesign, technical SEO, onpage optimization, and local search setup.

Organic Performance

The site currently holds 14.9K monthly organic visits with a 30% growth rate and 27K organic keywords indexed. At peak in 2024, the site was generating over 45K monthly visits and 63K indexed keywords, a direct product of the architectural and content foundation built during the 2020 to 2022 engagement. Authority Score of 31 with 1.6K referring domains and 7.3K backlinks.

Top Organic Rankings

• * “custom dad hats” position 1, 1.3K monthly searches
  * “customizable snapback hats” position 1, 720 monthly searches
  * “custom under armour t shirts” position 1, 320 monthly searches
  * “printing near me” position 9, 165K monthly searches
  

Technical SEO and Web Redesign

The site was fully restructured to support a large product catalog and a broad local plus e-commerce keyword strategy. Crawl architecture was rebuilt to ensure product category pages, brand-specific pages, and location pages were all indexed efficiently. Speed, mobile usability, and structured data were implemented across the full site. Semrush and Ahrefs were the primary tools used for audit, keyword research, and competitive analysis.

Onpage and Content Optimization

• * Keyword-driven content architecture built around print category types and custom product queries
  * Product and service pages optimized for commercial and local search intent in the LA market
  * Brand-specific product pages created targeting logo and branded apparel queries at scale
  * Schema markup implemented across product, local business, and service pages
  * GSC and GA4 configured for full e-commerce tracking and page-level performance visibility
  

Local SEO

DTLA Print operates as a Los Angeles-based print shop with both walk-in and online customers. Google Business Profile was optimized with service categories, photos, and business hours. Local citation building was executed through Yext and Brightlocal to establish consistent NAP across business directories, LA-specific directories, and print industry platforms.

GBP and Local Visibility

• * GBP profile optimized with product categories, service attributes, and geo-tagged photos
  * Citations built and verified across print industry and LA business directories 
  * Yext used for data sync across aggregators, ensuring consistent business information
  

Google Algorithm Updates

The May 2020 Core Update coincided with the start of this engagement and favored product-focused sites with clear content architecture, providing early momentum. The December 2020 Core Update validated the structured product page approach built in the first months of the engagement. The July and November 2021 Core Updates further rewarded the depth of content architecture that had been built, contributing to the continued growth that carried the site through 2022 and beyond.