The at-bat: Strikeout, then a base hit.
Client: Multi-location counseling practice
Change: Reworked the psychological testing service page
Date: May 13, 2026
Windows: March 15 to May 12 (before), June 3 to July 31 (after), August 1 to October 26, 2026 (later)
What we did
I brought in questions from actually asking about psychological testing, and reworked the page around them.
Why we did it
Psychological testing is one of the practice's most important services, and the page was sitting on page two.
What happened
- Before: average position 15.9.
- The two months after: average position 23.9. It went backwards.
- The three months after that: average position 14.0.
- Times shown in Google went from 145 to 438, then 520 over the later, longer window.
What I learned
There are a lot of things I've done that I thought would move faster. Reworking the page and hoping it's going to move in a better direction: it goes backwards. Maybe that's just Google relearning the page. I'm not sure. They don't give you an exact reason why. A lot of the time, it's theory on what's actually going on.
I'm wondering if Google thought the page answered more of another question, and I was pushing it toward the actual service they provide, and the actual questions people ask around psychological testing.
What didn't
Clicks are still small: 4, then 6, then 6. Google's May 2026 core update rolled out between May 21 and June 2, right after this change, so the drop may not be about the page at all.
About the data: these numbers come from Google Search Console, leaving out searches that included the practice's name. The later window is longer than the first two, so compare positions, not click totals.
More on how long SEO takes, or talk to Stephen about a page that isn't moving.
