How This Church in San Diego Went to #3 in Google

Barabbas Road Church is one of hundreds of churches in San Diego yet they managed to get to #3 in Google for the keyword “Church in San Diego.” How?

Let me give you some of the back story…

Barabbas Road Church started less than 10 years ago with less than 10 people. At the time this article was originally written, they worshiped together at Pacific Beach Middle School, their third location in 10 years, which is about 10 miles north of downtown San Diego.

This gives them 4 serious disadvantages to ranking well in search engines

1. Lots of competition – San Diego is the 8th largest city in the U.S. Google lists more than 400 churches in the San Diego area.
2. Far from the city center – For local searches, Google gives preference to organizations closer to the center of the city, making it harder for churches on the outskirts to rank well.
3. Recent move – When organizations move to a new location, Google often doesn’t know it.
4. Shared space – When organizations share space with another organization, Google often gets the location information wrong.

Despite the disadvantages, Barabbas Road Church loves the people of San Diego and is determined to reach people. They understand that most people searching for a church start their search online, so they have been determined to reach people through search engines and connect with them on their website.

So, what specifically did Barabbas Road Church do?

Progressive SEO Service

First, Barabbas partnered with OurChurch.Com, utilizing our Progressive SEO Service plus our Local SEO service. I usually don’t talk about pricing in blog posts, but I think it’s important to note that Barabbas is a mid-sized church, and yet they made a significant financial commitment of hundreds of dollars a month for an aggressive SEO service.

We started their SEO service, with an SEO audit, and continued with technical SEO, keyword research, and on-page optimization.

Next we worked to improve their local search rankings by registering and correcting local search listings

These things all helped get Barabbas good search rankings, but the big thing that helped push them towards the top of the search rankings was…

Keyword-Targeted Blogging

Brett Schoeneck, who is the Minister of Media at Barabbas, told me in a phone conversation that he tries to ask everyone who visits Barabbas how they found the church. He said that when someone tells him he found them online, he asks what phrase they searched, and the vast majority of them say “Church in San Diego.”

Brett basically told me that while they appreciate being in the top 10 for lots of other phrases, none of that mattered if they weren’t in the top 10 for “Church in San Diego.”

I appreciate Brett’s forthrightness and I give him major kudos for asking visitors how they found the church and what they search for!

The Progressive SEO Service includes writing and publishing weekly blog posts. I did a 45 minute phone interview with Brett, and based on the information he provided in that interview, we began writing blog articles specifically targeting the phrase “Church in San Diego.”

Why blog articles?

1. Because search engines love fresh content.
2. Because people link to great content and links improve search rankings.
3. Because people share content on social media and social media helps improve search rankings.

This is an ongoing service, so we continue to write and publish blog posts, but already Barabbas is experiencing remarkable results. At the time this article was written they were #10 in the Google organic results for “Church in San Diego” and #3 on Google Maps.

(Update: Unfortunately, Barabbas Road Church discontinued their OurChurch.Com SEO service several years ago. Since then their search rankings have plummeted. Not only are no longer in the top 10 in the Google organic and Google Maps search results, but their church does not even appear in the top 100 results. Which is why I wrote about the importance of ongoing SEO in The Last Thing You Should Do for Church SEO.)

The bottom line is…

There’s no better way to improve search rankings than creating great content, and there are no shortcuts to great content.

Everyone wants to be in the top 10 for their top keyword, but the sites that are in the top 10 are the ones willing to commit the time and energy to create great content or commit the finances to have someone create it for them.

Partner with the Church SEO Experts

If you’d like to talk with one of our Church SEO experts about how OurChurch.com could help you with that, complete the consultation request form below (mobile) or to the right (desktop).

Comment and Discuss:

• How is your church SEO going? How are you church’s search rankings?

Read more about church SEO in The Ultimate Guide to Church SEO

Read more articles in our 25 Stories from 25 Years series.