B2B SEO case study: merging service pages that competed with each other

The firm and the problem

The client sells commercial services to businesses in North America and the UK. The name stays private, and this page shows only what the Search Console screenshot above supports.

The firm had demand. Google was already showing its pages for many commercial searches, which the impressions in the screenshot reflect. But the pages sat low in results and got few clicks for that level of visibility. Google kept testing the pages and kept choosing other sites.

The reason was inside the site. Over time the firm had built a separate version of its main service page for each region it served. The offer was the same, the wording was close to the same, and the searches each page targeted were the same.

What the audit found

Notice what is missing from the list: links, new content, and new keywords. The firm did not need more of anything first. It needed its existing pages to stop cancelling each other out.

What we changed, in order

1. Step 01

   Merge the competing pages

   The regional versions were merged into single pages, one for each buyer intent. Internal links, canonicals, and the sitemap were updated to point to the surviving page for each intent.

   What this finds. One strong page per search, instead of several weak ones.

2. Step 02

   Rebuild the business schema

   ProfessionalService markup was rebuilt to connect the parent business with the services it offers and the places it serves.

   What this finds. A clear, machine readable picture of who provides what.

3. Step 03

   Work on speed

   Page structure and the delivery of scripts and styles were reworked so the merged pages rendered faster on mobile.

   What this finds. A faster first view for buyers and less work for Google.

The order mattered. Merging pages without the speed work would have sent all the attention to slow pages. Speed work without merging would only have made several competing pages load faster.

How to read the numbers

Comparing the last 3 months of Google Search Console data with the 3 months before, organic clicks grew +309% organic clicks, last 3 months vs the previous 3 months, view evidence. The table above shows clicks, impressions, average click through rate, and average position before and after.

One detail stands out. Clicks grew faster than impressions. When that happens, the site is not just being shown more often: searchers are choosing it more often when they see it. That fits the main fix, because a single clear page for each search matches what the searcher wants better than several near copies.

Average position is averaged across every search the site appeared for. As impressions grow for more searches, some of them low, the average moves less than the main commercial searches do. Read it with clicks and impressions, not alone.

Why merging pages tends to work

For most searches, Google shows no more than two results from the same site, and it uses links and content to decide which pages those are. When several pages answer the same search, the links pointing to them, the internal links between them, and the trust they earn are spread thin. Merging them puts all of that behind one address.

Merging also improves the page itself. Instead of four thin versions, you write one page that covers the service properly: who it is for, how it works, what it costs, and proof that it works. That page answers more of what a buyer wants to know, which is what Google's guidance on helpful content asks for.

The risk is in the redirects. If old addresses are deleted instead of redirected, or redirected to the wrong page, the links and rankings they held can be lost. That is a common reason traffic falls after a site cleanup, and it is covered in my guide to a sudden drop in search visits. Before you merge anything, list every old URL and where it will point. If you want a rough idea of what that kind of project costs, the SEO budget calculator gives a range.

What this case does not prove

The screenshot measures clicks from Google, not enquiries or contracts. I do not have the firm's lead figures to publish, so this page makes no claim about sales.

The screenshot compares two 3 month periods without exact dates, so seasonality may play a part. The firm sells in North America and the UK, not Pakistan. And because the three changes happened together, this page cannot say how much each one contributed.

What the case does show is a pattern I meet often on service businesses: more pages for the same offer can mean less visibility, not more. I cannot promise the same result for another site.

Signs your site has the same problem

• Several pages on your site target the same service with only the city or region name changed
• In Search Console, the same search shows clicks for two or more of your pages over time
• Your impressions grow while clicks stay flat
• Your service pages have no schema, or schema that does not name your business and its services
• Your service pages feel slow on a phone over mobile data

If two or more of these apply, read my guide to traffic that brings no enquiries, which covers intent and landing page problems in more detail.

What a service business in Pakistan can take from this

Many Pakistani service firms build one page per city: the same service for Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, with the city name swapped. Google's own guidance warns against pages created only to rank for small variations of a search. If the pages say the same thing, they are likely to compete with each other the way they did here.

A city page earns its place when it says something true and specific about that city: the team that serves it, the areas covered, local examples of work, and local reviews. My own Lahore service page is built on that idea. If you cannot write that for a city, one strong service page is usually the better choice.

Part of the work in this case was technical fixes on crawling and speed. The rest was service page writing for buyers. The first step is finding out which of your pages compete, which is part of any full site review. If you only want a second opinion, one paid hour together is enough to read your Search Console data. Ongoing work is priced in my packages in Pakistani rupees. You can see a store version of a similar fix in the online store case.

Your next step

If several of your pages target the same service, send me your site and the pages you suspect. I reply within 24 hours. You can also run the free website scan for a first look at speed and basic problems.