A fictional business. The figures are a modelled scenario, not a client result.
Coláiste Ceannrua Irish-language summer college · Galway
Local SEO case study · Galway, Ireland · 8 months
Parents compared dozens of near-identical colleges and the client's site was buried behind aggregators. Eight months of bilingual local SEO later, the college owned its own name, in both of its languages.
Courses sold out
6
weeks earlier
+94%
Organic applications
41
Irish-language keywords top 3
+130
Parent reviews
Caibidil IThe challenge
arents compared dozens of near-identical colleges and the client's site was buried behind aggregators. Every spring, parents in Dublin, Cork and Belfast search for a three-week Irish course for a twelve-year-old, then compare the same handful of facts: dates, price, how supervised the evenings are, and what the bean an tí is like.
Coláiste Ceannrua had honest answers to all of it, but they were in a brochure PDF. The directories that list every college had copied its old paragraphs, outranked it for its own name, and charged a referral fee on the bookings they sent. Searches in Irish, the language the college exists to teach, landed on English pages or on nothing at all.
Before · “irish college galway”
After · “irish college galway”
Caibidil IIDiagnosis
Local
No “Language school” or “Summer camp” category, a duplicate listing at the old Spiddal address, 23 reviews and none answered. Aggregators held the map pack for every “near me” search.
Local
The Irish and English spellings of the college were used interchangeably, so Google treated them as two weak entities instead of one strong one.
Technical
The /ga/ section existed, but every page pointed its canonical at the English twin. Irish-language searches were served English pages, or an aggregator.
Technical
Three courses, six intakes and a fee table sat in a scanned brochure. Nothing a search engine could read as an event, a date or an offer.
Content
Paragraphs supplied to the directories years ago had been reused on the site, so the directories, being stronger domains, won the duplicate.
Content
Supervision ratios, the bean an tí host families, travel from Dublin and Cork, scholarships and phone policy were all missing, in either language.
Caibidil IIIThe strategy
Built on our Local plan: win the map pack where parents compare, and make the college the definitive source for its own courses.
Próifíl Ghnó
One verified profile, the right categories, and a review habit built into the end of every course.
Ábhar dátheangach
Irish pages written natively, not machine-translated, and each course page rebuilt around what parents compare.
Clibeanna teanga
Each Irish page and its English twin declare each other, so Google serves the right language to the right searcher.
Scéimre imeachta
Every intake marked up as an event with dates, location, price and availability, so courses surface with dates in search.
Caibidil IV8 months
Audit in both languages; profile merged and recategorised; directory clean-up begins.
8 applications · 3 Irish top-3
hreflang and canonical fix shipped across 64 page pairs; Irish pages reindexed.
15 applications · 5 Irish top-3
Dates-and-fees page replaces the PDF; Event markup live for all intakes.
27 applications · 9 Irish top-3
Course pages rewritten natively in Irish; parents’ FAQ published.
45 applications · 14 Irish top-3
Booking season opens; review requests start; Irish queries reach page one.
96 applications · 21 Irish top-3
Peak month: map pack held for Galway and Connemara searches.
142 applications · 28 Irish top-3
Courses fill from the top; availability flips to SoldOut in search results.
130 applications · 35 Irish top-3
Last places taken before Easter; waiting-list page captures overflow.
69 applications · 41 Irish top-3
Caibidil VThe results
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
Places filled · booking season
Organic applications · per month
60 Irish-language queries tracked · gilded = top 3
Modelled Google positions, before and after, for the queries parents use in each language.
| Query | Monthly searches | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| coláiste samhraidh gaeilgeIrish summer college | 1,900 | #18 | 1 |
| cúrsa gaeltachta gaillimhGaeltacht course Galway | 880 | #27 | 1 |
| coláistí gaeilge conamaraIrish colleges Connemara | 720 | #14 | 2 |
| cúrsaí samhraidh do dhéagóirísummer courses for teenagers | 480 | — | 2 |
| scoláireachtaí gaeltachtaGaeltacht scholarships | 390 | #41 | 3 |
| bean an tí gaeltachthost family, Gaeltacht | 260 | — | 1 |