How SEO is putting Sheriff About Town on track for $100,000 in annual revenue

For many small businesses, word of mouth and referrals are the foundation of their success. When customers receive a great service, they recommend it to friends, family and colleagues. But while this is an effective way to grow, relying on referrals alone can limit how quickly a business attracts new customers.

This was the opportunity we identified when working with Sheriff About Town, a dog walking and doggy daycare business servicing Sydney’s Inner West.

After designing and developing their new website as part of our small business website packages, we approached Lisa, the founder of Sheriff About Town, with a proposal to collaborate on a local SEO and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) strategy.

Our belief was simple: if we could help more local dog owners discover Sheriff About Town online, Lisa and her team could turn those initial enquiries into long-term customers through the quality of their service.

The results have been encouraging. Having previously relied almost entirely on word of mouth and referrals, Sheriff About Town has now generated more than 40 website enquiries since launch and averages more than six enquiries per month, creating a new and consistent source of customers.

Understanding the business and its potential

Founded in 2014, Sheriff About Town has built a loyal following across Sydney’s Inner West by delivering personalised dog walking and daycare services. Lisa and her team have developed a reputation for caring for dogs as if they were their own, with small group walks, experienced handlers and regular updates to owners.

For a business like this, customer loyalty is incredibly valuable. Once a dog owner finds someone they trust, they are likely to continue using that service regularly, sometimes for years. This makes acquiring a new customer particularly valuable.

When we first created the Sheriff About Town website, Lisa was extremely happy with the result. However, we believed there was an opportunity to go further.

Turning local searches into enquiries

Rather than competing exclusively for broad terms such as “dog walking Sydney”, we concentrated on searches with a much clearer geographical intent. Someone searching for “dog walker Marrickville” or “doggy daycare Petersham” is likely looking for a business that can service their immediate neighbourhood.

For dog owners, having a service nearby makes it more convenient to meet Lisa and her team. Equally, for Lisa and her team, attracting customers within close proximity helps reduce travel time between appointments, allowing them to operate more efficiently and spend more time caring for the dogs.

To capture this demand, we developed dedicated location pages targeting local area suburbs throughout the Inner West, including Tempe, Marrickville, St Peters, Petersham, Summer Hill and many others. Each page was structured around the services Sheriff About Town delivers, while making it clear that the business operates in the surrounding area.

For example, our Marrickville dog walking and daycare page brings together information about the services available, reasons local customers choose Sheriff About Town and answers to common questions.

We also connected these pages to the broader website through internal linking, helping visitors navigate between services and locations while creating clearer signals for search and AI engines.

Combining local SEO with AEO

An important part of our approach was recognising that online discovery is changing.

Traditional search engine optimisation remains critical, particularly for local businesses that depend on Google searches. However, people are also increasingly using AI-powered search tools and answer engines to research local services.

Our strategy therefore considered both SEO and AEO. This involved structuring website content so that search engines and AI-powered systems could more easily understand what Sheriff About Town does, where it operates and why customers might choose its services.

We focused on clear service descriptions, relevant local information, structured headings, frequently asked questions and connections between location and service pages. Alongside these on-page improvements, we also considered off-page signals that help establish the business’s relevance and credibility, including its broader online presence.

 

On track towards a $100,000 annual revenue opportunity

The most important measure of success was whether the website started generating enquiries and bookings. For Sheriff About Town, the change has been significant.

Before implementing our4 digital strategy, the business was largely dependent on its existing customer network and referrals. Today, it averages more than 6 enquiries per month through its website, with over 40 enquiries already generated since launch.

At the current rate, that represents more than 72 potential customer enquiries over a 12-month period. But the value of those enquiries becomes particularly interesting when we consider the nature of the business.

Recurring revenue for business owners

Unlike businesses that rely on one-off purchases, dog walking and daycare services have the potential to generate recurring revenue from customers who return week after week. With this in mind, we modelled the opportunity using a conservative estimated annual customer value of $2,000, meaning that acquiring 50 new customers could generate $100,000 in annual revenue.

Click-through and conversion rates make the strategy viable

While not every enquiry will convert into a paying customer, we’ve found that dog walking and daycare services attract particularly high click-through and conversion rates, reflecting the strong intent of people actively searching for these services. The results to date demonstrate how even a relatively modest number of enquiries can translate into significant long-term value for a small business.

For Sheriff About Town, the advantage is that the website consistently attracts new customers, while the quality of service they receive gives them a reason to return. This combination of attracting new customers and building long-term relationships creates valuable opportunities for recurring revenue.

Applying what we’ve learnt across other small businesses

We have been developing and refining this approach across a range of small businesses, achieving encouraging results in different industries.

One example is ATEC Electrics, an electrical services business operating across Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Through a combination of targeted service pages, dedicated location content and a considered local search strategy, the ATEC Electrics website generated 27 enquiries in its first three months.

We have also adopted a similar approach for Tailored Blinds, a Melbourne business specialising in custom blinds, curtains and shutters. For Tailored Blinds, we developed location-focused content targeting suburbs throughout Melbourne, helping connect its services with homeowners searching for window furnishings in their area.

These examples demonstrate how relevant, geographically focused content can create genuine business opportunities, even in other competitive service industries.

Your website could be doing more for your business

One of the biggest lessons from these projects is that many small businesses are missing opportunities to attract new customers through their websites, simply because they aren’t aware of how local SEO works or what can realistically be achieved with the right strategy and expertise.

Part of our ambition at Studio Web Design is to change that perception. We want to help small business owners understand that generating enquiries through their websites isn’t something reserved for large companies with substantial marketing budgets. By working with the right partners and making a considered investment, small businesses can achieve meaningful results that deliver real commercial value.

Through our small business website packages, we’re bringing the knowledge and expertise we’ve developed over more than 20 years of working with much larger enterprises to businesses operating on more modest budgets. Our aim is to make professional website design and effective digital strategies more accessible, with a focus on delivering measurable results that business owners can see reflected in their bottom line.