SALTWORKS
655 E 4500 S #210
SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84107
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
QUICK LINKS
DIGITAL MARKETING | WEB DEVELOPMENT
655 E. 4500 S. SUITE 200
SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84107
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
QUICK LINKS
Plumbing Company Marketing Case Study
How a Family-Owned Plumbing Company Became the First Choice For Utahns
Millcreek Plumbing was started in 2002 by two brothers from a family line of general contractors. Over the years, the plumbing company has grown to serve many more customers across Northern Utah. However, it is still family-owned and holds tight to the values of cleanliness, quality workmanship, and professionalism.
The Challenge
There are an estimated 550 plumbing companies in northern Utah, one of the highest concentrations per capita in the country, according to the Utah Department of Commerce (only 5 states have a higher concentration). Millcreek Plumbing had already built a strong reputation in that crowded market, but its digital presence hadn’t kept pace. The website was generating decent traffic, yet converting only a small fraction of it into leads. Its Google Ads campaigns, run in-house, were burning budget on the wrong searches. And it was ranking well for its own brand name, but not for the high-intent searches of profitable services that turn into paying jobs.
Utah’s Wasatch Front: A Highly Competitive Plumbing Marketplace
| 550+ | 6,000+ |
|---|---|
| PLUMBING COMPANIES | PLUMBERS |
Millcreek needed a digital marketing partner who could close that gap: preserve its hard-earned reputation while turning search visibility and website traffic into real leads and a stronger return on ad spend. The Saltworks team was excited to take on the challenge.
The Approach
Saltworks began with a full SEO audit of Millcreek Plumbing’s website and an evaluation of their marketing ecosystem. It was important to understand what was working and what was not – where the growth opportunities were, and what the next steps in optimization should be. Here’s what we found. The Millcreek website was getting a good amount of traffic, but was only converting a small fraction of visits into leads. This represented a big opportunity.
Saltworks mapped the consumer journey for the various consumer avatars and problem sets using our problem > solution framework. Then we reimagined the user experience on the website, by answering the following question:
For a person in search of a solution to their plumbing challenge (E.g., leaking water heater), what is the most useful information to present in each section of the relevant web page?
From a search ranking standpoint, when Saltworks began working with Millcreek Plumbing, Millcreek was already ranking highly for many search terms such as Salt Lake City Plumber, but there was room for growth in ranking for terms around key services (such as water heater repairs/replacement and water main repair).
By exploring more key terms that get good search volume (including long-tail) keywords, we could help Millcreek show on page one of search enginers for many more searches.
Website Development
Telling Millcreek Plumbing’s Story Online
Already a leader in the northern Utah market, Millcreek has a great consumer-centric culture that clearly differentiates it from the competition. The key was to highlight that differentiator and position Millcreek as the clear choice for consumers who wanted to establish a relationship with a locally-owned plumbing company that offered honest assessments and a square deal. Just about every plumbing company makes these claims. So Millcreek’s marketing couldn’t just make the claim – it had to deliver proof.
Building Pages That Convert
Every service page follows the same conversion logic: lead with 24-7 emergency availability, quickly frame the visitor’s options, then make the case for Millcreek, licensed, bonded, and insured, transparent pricing with no surprise invoices, and a workmanship guarantee. Phone number and estimate form stay visible and repeat throughout the page, so the path to convert is never far away.
We built a dedicated page for each core service, drain cleaning, water heater repair, pipe repair, hydro jetting, water softeners, and commercial plumbing, each targeting its own keyword set rather than competing for the same rankings. Alongside those, we developed service area pages for the communities Millcreek wanted to grow in, from Salt Lake City to Sandy, Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, and Park City, so the site shows up for searches by neighborhood, not just by service.
Proof Over Promises
Every plumber in northern Utah claims to be honest and family-owned. Millcreek’s edge is that Jordan actually built the business that way, with roots in a family line of general contractors and continuous operation in Salt Lake since 2002, and our job was to make that provable. Rather than asking visitors to take Millcreek’s word for it, we surfaced third-party proof: recognition as a Best Plumber in Salt Lake City by Expertise, an Angi Super Service Award, UPHCA Qualified status, and a strong review presence across Yelp and Google. Paired with the Licensed, Bonded, and Insured badge and the workmanship guarantee, visitors can size up Millcreek’s credibility in seconds, before they’ve even called.
Local SEO
For a family-owned shop competing against multiple larger and often venture-backed plumbing companies in one of the most saturated markets in the country, ranking at the top of Google for profitable services isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between the phone ringing and staying silent. It’s a worry that most home service businesses feel- you do great work, but if a homeowner doesn’t see you in the first three spots in Google, that job goes to a competitor instead. And often that competitor isn’t better, just more visible.
When Saltworks began working with Millcreek, the company already had strong visibility for its own name, but wasn’t capturing nearly as much of the problem-aware searches, the moment a homeowner has a leaking water heater or a broken water main and starts searching for help right now. That gap represented a large share of Millcreek’s addressable market hiding in plain sight.
Saltworks built a local SEO strategy around the three areas home service businesses most often underinvest in: dedicated, locally-grounded service pages for each core offering targeting the specific language homeowners actually use when searching; ongoing Google Business Profile optimization, including categories, services, and regular posts, to strengthen visibility in the Google Maps pack; and on-page trust signals that turn Millcreek’s licensed, bonded, and insured status, workmanship guarantee, and transparent pricing from a claim into proof.
The results followed. Engaged website sessions from organic search grew sharply year over year, phone calls generated directly from Millcreek’s Google Business Profile climbed by double digits, and visibility in the local three-pack and Google Maps nearly doubled year over year, a shift that translated directly into more calls and more website clicks from people actively searching nearby. Millcreek now holds the number one organic ranking for the broad, highly competitive term “plumber” in several of its busiest zip codes.
Nowhere is that shift clearer than on the Main Water Line Repair & Replacement page. It went from not ranking in the top three pages of Google to the number one organic position across multiple Salt Lake County zip codes, including Midvale and South Salt Lake, within about a year of the page going live. That change wasn’t cosmetic. As owner Jordan Beesely put it during a recent check-in call: “We’re killing it on the water lines. I don’t think we’ve done so many water main replacements ever.” The crew assigned to that work, he added, is doing some of the best, busiest work of the company’s history, business that came directly from ranking for a service that used to be nearly invisible in search.
Google Ads Management
Before Saltworks took over, the Google Ads account had reached a point common to most growing home service businesses: the structure that worked when the business was smaller hadn’t yet evolved to match its increased volume and competition. Saltworks rebuilt the account around the way people actually search for a plumber in an emergency. We built dedicated Dynamic Search Ads campaigns tied to specific, high-intent service pages (Water Main, Water Heaters, Sewer Repair), added a separate Branded campaign to protect Millcreek’s own name from irrelevant competition, and installed proper conversion tracking so every lead, not just phone calls, gets counted. We also made ongoing negative keyword audits a standing part of account management, work that catches issues most accounts don’t have the bandwidth to monitor continuously.
Through ongoing campaign optimization, tight audience targeting, and continuous refinement, cost per lead has dropped 35.8% in less than eight months, all while sending more qualified prospects to Millcreek than before.
The Results
Our approach to Millcreek’s online presence comes down to one idea: give people with a plumbing problem the most useful information as fast as possible, then make it effortless to reach Millcreek. That approach has translated directly into more visibility, more calls, and more leads.
Increase in Organic Leads
Year-over-year after just one year.
Reduction in Cost Per Lead in Google Ads
In less than 8 months of optimization.
Increase in Local Maps and Three-Pack Visibility
Year over year, driving a 57% increase in phone calls and a 34-35% increase in website clicks from Google Maps.
Increase in Organic Phone Calls
From Millcreek’s Google Business Profile year over year, 151 calls in a single month.
The Takeaway
Millcreek Plumbing is the kind of client every home services marketing agency hopes for: an established reputation, a genuinely collaborative team, and leaders willing to act on data instead of guesswork. That combination, paired with continual optimization on our end, is what turned early opportunity into sustained results. It’s an honor to be Millcreek’s marketing partner, and we’re excited for what’s next.
The Review
“Millcreek Plumbing of SLC, UT has been in partnership with Saltworks Digital for almost two years. We needed a boost in our online presence. We initially asked for help with organic website performance, and the results spoke for themselves, our rankings jumped for the keywords that matter most to us, and we started showing up number one in the Google Maps pack for “plumber” in some of our busiest zip codes. We were so happy with the strong results that we moved forward with Saltworks Digital building targeted Google Ads for us.
Millcreek Plumbing and Saltworks meet on a regular basis, have open communication and feedback on what is working and what is not working. We collaborate together on ideas, wants, and needs for what is right in our business.
Since working with Saltworks, our phones have been ringing more than ever, our online leads have grown steadily, and we’re booking more jobs directly off our website every month. We’re busier than ever on water main replacements too, more than we’ve ever done before, and it’s some of the best work we do. Saltworks Digital has been an integral part in our success and growth, constantly helping us to level up, not only in online presence but many other ways.
Doug Burton has a strong team that is on the leading edge of supporting any business to grow and stay relevant in their industry when it comes to your digital marketing needs. I highly recommend this great company!”
Jordan Beesley
Owner
Millcreek Plumbing
Schedule a Free Consultation
Ready to stop losing customers to the competitor with the better optimized listing? Fill out the form here, or talk to a human at (801) 747-9985
"*" indicates required fields