Case study · Local SEO
Dunmore Lettings
Letting agency · Cork · Ireland
How a Cork letting agent won landlords in every neighbourhood from Douglas to Blackpool
Modelled over 11 months on the Local plan. Fictional business.
I · Who held the keys
National portals outranked the agency for every landlord-intent search across the city.
Dunmore manages a few hundred tenancies across Cork, mostly for single-property landlords. Every one of them starts the same way: a landlord types “letting agent” and a neighbourhood into Google. For two years the answer was a national portal, a lead-gen aggregator and a chain branch with a generic profile — with Dunmore fourteenth for its own home patch of Douglas, and nowhere at all north of the river.
The agency had the local knowledge. Google simply had no way to see it: one page for a whole city, two addresses in circulation and a review count frozen since spring.
- 1National portal — rent listingsOrganic · portal listing page
- 2Aggregator — compare agentsOrganic · lead-gen directory
- 3Branch of a national chain4.4 ★ (71) · Real estate agency
- 1Dunmore Lettings4.9 ★ (211) · Letting agent · Douglas
- 2Branch of a national chain4.4 ★ (96) · Real estate agency
- 3Independent agent4.6 ★ (58) · Property management
II · The inventory
Six things missing from the cabinet.
- 01 · GBPCritical
Wrong primary category
The profile was listed as a generic “Real estate agency”, so it competed with sales agents for buyer searches and was invisible for “letting agent” and “property management” queries.
- 02 · CitationsCritical
Two addresses in the wild
23 of 41 directory listings still carried the pre-2021 office address and an old landline. Google could not be sure which Dunmore was the real one.
- 03 · ContentHigh
One page for a whole city
A single “Areas we cover” page listed 30 neighbourhoods in a comma-separated line. No page could rank for a neighbourhood-level landlord search.
- 04 · ReviewsHigh
38 reviews, last one in March
No ask after tenancy sign-up or the first rent statement. Competitor branches averaged 140+ reviews and replied to every one.
- 05 · SchemaMedium
No structured data
No LocalBusiness, RealEstateAgent or AggregateRating markup — so no stars in organic results, and no machine-readable service areas.
- 06 · TechnicalMedium
Valuation form behind a 3.9 s LCP
The landlord valuation page loaded a full-screen slider before the form. On mobile, the form appeared below the fold after nearly four seconds.
III · Cutting the keys
One key for every neighbourhood.
Built on our Local plan: fix the profile Google trusts, then give each neighbourhood its own page, its own reviews and its own reason to rank. Four tactics, cut to fit.
Key A
Google Business Profile
Primary category, services, service areas and weekly posts tied to each neighbourhood — the profile describes a letting agent, not a sales office.
Calls from profile ×2.6
Key B
Neighbourhood guides
Twelve landlord-first guides: achievable rent by bedroom count, tenant demand, BER ratings and compliance notes — each with its own valuation form.
12 guides, 12 hooks
Key C
Review schema
A post-tenancy review ask plus RealEstateAgent and AggregateRating markup, so stars show in organic results as well as the map.
38 → 211 reviews
Key D
Local citations
One name, address and phone across 41 directories, the old office merged, and community sponsorships for genuine local mentions.
23 listings corrected
IV · The key log
11 months, hook by hook.
- 010/12 hooks
Audit & fixes
GBP category changed to Letting agent with Property management secondary; services, areas and hours rebuilt; valuation page form moved above the fold.
16 valuations · 44 reviews · 7 map-pack terms
- 020/12 hooks
Citation clean-up
41 listings audited, 23 corrected to one NAP. Duplicate profile from the old office merged.
17 valuations · 55 reviews · 9 map-pack terms
- 032/12 hooks
First guides
Douglas and Blackrock guides go live: rents by bedroom count, BER mix, schools, transport, and what landlords are asked for.
19 valuations · 68 reviews · 11 map-pack terms
- 044/12 hooks
Review engine
Review requests triggered after tenancy sign-up and the first rent statement; every review answered within 48 hours.
21 valuations · 84 reviews · 13 map-pack terms
- 056/12 hooks
Schema layer
RealEstateAgent, Service and AggregateRating markup site-wide; stars appear on core pages.
24 valuations · 101 reviews · 16 map-pack terms
- 068/12 hooks
Southside complete
Seven guides now live. Douglas enters the map-pack top 3 for its lead landlord term.
27 valuations · 119 reviews · 18 map-pack terms
- 0710/12 hooks
Into the city
Shandon and Montenotte guides; GBP posts per neighbourhood with photos of let properties.
30 valuations · 138 reviews · 21 map-pack terms
- 0812/12 hooks
Northside
Mayfield and Blackpool guides published; local sponsorship citations from two community groups.
33 valuations · 157 reviews · 23 map-pack terms
- 0912/12 hooks
Rent reports
Quarterly Cork rent report by neighbourhood earns local press mentions and links.
36 valuations · 175 reviews · 25 map-pack terms
- 1012/12 hooks
Q&A seeding
GBP Q&A answers the twelve most common landlord questions; guides updated with fresh rent data.
39 valuations · 193 reviews · 27 map-pack terms
- 1112/12 hooks
Twelve hooks
Ten of twelve neighbourhoods in the map-pack top 3. 42 valuation requests in the month.
42 valuations · 211 reviews · 28 map-pack terms
V · Every hook filled
The landlords now find Dunmore first.
Map-pack top-3 terms
6to28
Valuation requests / month
16to42
Google reviews
38to211
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
The cabinet, month 11
Hover, tab to or tap a tag: it swings, and the brass chit behind shows where that neighbourhood’s lead landlord term ranks now.
Neighbourhood keys
Douglas to Blackpool · month 11
Hook 01 · Southside
Douglas
Lead term “letting agent douglas” · guide live from month 3
- Before
- #14
- After
- #1
- Places up
- +13
| Neighbourhood | Search term | Month 0 | Month 11 | Map pack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas | letting agent douglas | 14 | 1 | Top 3 |
| Ballintemple | property management ballintemple | 20+ | 2 | Top 3 |
| Blackrock | letting agents blackrock cork | 11 | 1 | Top 3 |
| Ballinlough | rent my house ballinlough | 20+ | 3 | Top 3 |
| Turners Cross | landlord services turners cross | 18 | 2 | Top 3 |
| Bishopstown | student lettings bishopstown | 9 | 1 | Top 3 |
| Wilton | letting agent wilton | 20+ | 4 | — |
| Sunday's Well | rental valuation sundays well | 16 | 2 | Top 3 |
| Shandon | letting agent shandon | 12 | 1 | Top 3 |
| Montenotte | property management montenotte | 20+ | 3 | Top 3 |
| Mayfield | rent out house mayfield | 20+ | 5 | — |
| Blackpool | letting agents blackpool cork | 19 | 2 | Top 3 |
Your neighbourhoods, your keys
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