Case Study
How Rife Masonry Became Seattle's #1 Masonry Contractor
How a five year partnership turned a local masonry crew into one of Washington's most trusted brands.
Meet Chad Rife
Meet Chad Rife. Owner of a humble but fierce masonry contracting team out of Mercer Island, WA. Scalable enough to staff large commercial jobs through BAC Local #1, small enough to pick up the phone himself. Historic restoration, new construction, tuckpointing, waterproofing. If it's masonry, Rife does it right.
Overview
From Outdated Website to Digital Authority
Chad Rife had been running a masonry crew for years and the work spoke for itself. Government contracts. Historic restorations. Commercial builds where reputation is everything. But online, none of that existed. The website had been hacked and left broken. The brand that homeowners and property managers saw on screen had nothing to do with the company that showed up on their jobsite.
When Dylan from our team first connected with Chad, it wasn't about a marketing strategy. It was about fixing something that had become embarrassing. The website was a liability. Chad knew the digital side of the business needed to catch up to the work, but he'd been burned before and wasn't sure what "doing it right" actually looked like.
That honesty is what made this work. We didn't walk in with a five year roadmap. We walked in with a conversation: what's broken, what matters to you, and what does "winning" look like for a masonry company that already does the work but nobody can find online? From there, the strategy built itself, one phase at a time, one milestone at a time.
Five years later, Rife is the most consistently referenced masonry contractor in Washington across Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. Their digital presence finally matches their craftsmanship. And it keeps compounding.
"The website didn't represent who we were. It was honestly embarrassing. We knew we needed to fix it but didn't know where to start."
Chad Rife
Challenge
Starting Point
The technical problems were obvious. Outdated site, thin content, no authority signals. But underneath that was a harder problem: Chad had spent years building a reputation through handshakes and referrals, and the internet was telling a completely different story. Property managers Googling "masonry contractor Seattle" weren't finding Rife. Commercial prospects checking the website were seeing something that looked abandoned. The gap between the real business and the digital business was costing them work they were more than qualified to do.
Meanwhile, competitors were equally stuck in 2015. Nobody in the masonry space was investing in digital. That meant the first company to actually show up online would own the category. The window was wide open.
- Hacked, broken website with zero credibility
- Thin service pages with no topical depth
- Invisible outside of Seattle proper
- Weak backlink and authority signals
- No commercial search presence
- Zero recognition in AI Overviews or LLMs
- Competitors equally outdated but not investing in digital growth
Strategy
A Structured Roadmap
There was no five year plan on a whiteboard somewhere. The first conversation was simple: fix the website, make it professional, and see what happens. But once the foundation was in place and Chad could see real traffic coming in, the question shifted from "does this work" to "what's next."
That's how the multi-year strategy happened. Not top-down. Phase by phase, as results earned the next investment. Each milestone built trust, and that trust funded the next move.
Rebuild the Website
Strip it down and start clean. Fast, modern, mobile-first. A site that looked like a company doing $8M in masonry work, not a company that got hacked three years ago. This was the credibility reset.
Expand Content Depth
Service pages, city landing pages, commercial content, blog articles tied to real search intent. The goal wasn't just more pages. It was becoming the most complete masonry resource in Washington, the site that answers every question a property manager or homeowner could ask.
Build Search Authority
Monthly backlink acquisition targeting the terms that matter: masonry contractor Seattle, tuckpointing, historic restoration, waterproofing. Consistent, compounding signals that told Google (and eventually AI models) that Rife is the authority.
Improve User Journey
As traffic grew, the site evolved with it. Homepage refinements, cleaner CTAs, commercial vs residential pathways. The goal shifted from "get found" to "convert the people finding us."
AI Search Optimization
As search shifted toward AI, so did the strategy. Entity-level optimization, structured content, and topical authority positioned Rife to be cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. This wasn't an afterthought. It was the natural result of doing everything else right for five years.
"We didn't know if it would work at first. But once we started seeing real leads come in from Google, it clicked. We just kept going."
Chad Rife
Results
Quantitative Impact
The numbers tell one story. But what Chad notices is simpler: the phone rings differently now. More commercial inquiries. Higher quality residential leads. And a completely new kind of call, people reaching out because an AI told them Rife was the best masonry contractor in Seattle. That's a sentence that didn't exist three years ago.
AI and LLM Search Visibility
Rife now ranks #1 across major AI platforms for "masonry contractor Seattle":
#1
Perplexity
#1
ChatGPT
#1
AI Overviews
#1
Gemini
This is the hardest position to replicate. Competitors can buy ads. They can't buy five years of compounding authority.
Organic Search Performance (GA4)
#1
Traffic Source
Organic is the top source of website sessions
65%
Engagement Rate
Highest engagement rate across all channels
4.5%
Conversion Rate
Highest conversion rate across all channels
Keyword Growth (SE Ranking)
Steady Growth
Ranking Keywords
Consistent increase in total ranking keywords
Growing
Top 3 Positions
Growth in top 3 and top 10 positions for core services
6+ Cities
Geographic Reach
Rankings across Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah, and Bothell
"I don't have to explain who we are anymore. People already know before they call."
Chad Rife
Looking Forward
What Comes Next
The foundation is built. Now it scales. Rife is expanding into seismic and structural offerings, growing commercial and restoration content, strengthening AI entity signals, and improving conversion rates across key landing pages.
But the thing that actually changed isn't on a dashboard. It's that Chad doesn't worry about the digital side of his business anymore. He has a partner handling it, a strategy that compounds, and a brand that finally represents the work. The stress is gone. The confidence is real. And the leads keep coming.
The north star hasn't changed since 2020: be the most trusted masonry company in Washington.
Five years in, it's not a goal anymore. It's what's happening.
"Just wanted to let you guys know you are killin it! I appreciate you guys being forward thinking and getting my business in front of the AI information! A guy reached out from AI and it had me at the top of the list!"
Chad Rife
President, Rife Masonry
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