Illustrative case study

A fictional business. The figures are a modelled scenario, not a client result.

← All case studies

Pennyroyal Pantry

Zero-waste refill shop · Brighton

How a single refill shop became Brighton's first answer for 'zero waste near me'

#1map pack for 22 local terms
Plan
Local · Local SEO
Duration
7 months
Map-pack #1
0 → 22

Local search · 100% organic

#1 terms

scooped in 7 months

The challenge

A loved shop that search couldn’t see.

A sole trader's refill shop relied on foot traffic; national eco brands and a supermarket refill aisle took every local search.

Regulars knew where to find the lentils. Newcomers didn’t: someone searching “zero waste near me” from Hove or Kemptown met a supermarket refill aisle with nearly two thousand reviews, two national eco chains and a delivery-only website — and never the North Laine shop a fifteen-minute walk away. With one owner behind the till, the plan had to run on habits that fit a working day, not a marketing department.

Who won the click for 25 local refill searches, at baseline (modelled)
  • Supermarket refill aisle41%
  • National eco brands33%
  • Directories & marketplaces19%
  • Pennyroyal Pantry7%

Diagnosis · week one stock-take

Six labels that were wrong.

  1. 01Google Business Profile

    Found: Primary category set to “Grocery store”; no products, no services, nine photos — all of the shopfront.

    Fix: Primary “Zero waste shop”, secondaries “Bulk food store” and “Refill station”; 46 products with prices.

  2. 02Google Business Profile

    Found: Opening hours wrong on Sundays and every bank holiday; Q&A section empty.

    Fix: Hours corrected with special hours set a quarter ahead; 12 seeded questions answered.

  3. 03Local citations

    Found: 14 of 23 listings carried the old unit number or a retired mobile number.

    Fix: One canonical name, address and phone; 23 listings cleaned, 11 new ones built.

  4. 04Website

    Found: A single page titled “Home”, no city or neighbourhood in any heading, no LocalBusiness schema.

    Fix: Location-led titles, LocalBusiness + Store schema, opening hours and stock lists in HTML.

  5. 05Neighbourhood content

    Found: Nothing to rank for Hove, Kemptown or Hanover — where two-thirds of customers walked in from.

    Fix: Six neighbourhood pages with walking routes, bus stops and what to bring.

  6. 06Reviews

    Found: 31 reviews, newest seven months old, none replied to; the supermarket aisle nearby had 1,900.

    Fix: Till-side QR jar tags, a receipt prompt, and a reply to every review within 48 hours.

The strategy

Four jars, refilled every week.

Built on our Local plan: no ads, no national campaign — just the four signals Google reads when it decides which shop to show on the map, each kept topped up like stock on a shelf.

  • Jar 1 · Profile

    Google Business Profile

    • Re-categorised as a zero waste shop, with refill stations listed as services
    • Weekly posts: what came in, what ran out, what’s on the scoop
    • Products uploaded by the 100 g with live prices

  • Jar 2 · Citations

    Local citations

    • One canonical address and phone across 34 listings
    • Eco and plastic-free directories prioritised over generic ones
    • Brighton & Hove business groups and market listings

  • Jar 3 · Neighbourhoods

    Neighbourhood pages

    • Six pages: Hove, Kemptown, Hanover, Seven Dials, Preston Park, The Lanes
    • Real walking routes, bus routes and parking for each
    • Internal links from stock pages to the nearest neighbourhood page

  • Jar 4 · Reviews

    Review strategy

    • A QR tag on every jar at the till, asking about the product they refilled
    • Receipt prompt with a direct review link, never incentivised
    • Owner replies to every review within 48 hours, naming the product

The radius

From one street to the whole city.

Map-pack rankings are local: a shop can be #1 on its own street and invisible a mile away. Drag the month slider to see how far from North Laine the shop held the top spot for its core terms — 0.3 km at baseline, 3.5 km by month 7.

Chalk map of Brighton. In month 7 the shop is #1 in the map pack within 3.5 km, covering 11 of 12 neighbourhoods.English ChannelPalace PierNorth LaineThe LanesSeven DialsHanoverQueen's ParkBrunswickKemptownPreston ParkFivewaysLewes RoadHoveMoulsecoomb
Radius
3.5 km
#1 terms
22
Reviews
214

Month by month

7 months on the shelf.

  1. Month 1

    Stock-take

    Audit of profile, 23 citations, site and the local pack for 25 terms.

    1 at #1 · 45 reviews

  2. Month 2

    Re-label

    Profile re-categorised, products and hours fixed, schema shipped.

    3 at #1 · 68 reviews

  3. Month 3

    Clean shelves

    Citations cleaned to one address; review tags on the till.

    6 at #1 · 96 reviews

  4. Month 4

    Hove & Kemptown

    First two neighbourhood pages; first map-pack wins west and east.

    10 at #1 · 124 reviews

  5. Month 5

    Four more streets

    Hanover, Seven Dials, Preston Park and The Lanes pages go live.

    14 at #1 · 152 reviews

  6. Month 6

    Steady scoop

    Weekly posts and replies; 11 new citations in eco directories.

    18 at #1 · 184 reviews

  7. Month 7

    Full jars

    22 terms at #1 in the map pack; radius reaches Hove and Moulsecoomb.

    22 at #1 · 214 reviews

Results after 7 months

The refill wall.

One jar per measure. The dashed line marks where each one stood before we started.

  • 0 → 22

    Map-pack #1 terms

    out of 25 tracked terms

  • +260%

    GBP profile views

    1,000 → 3,600 views a month

  • +96%

    Website-to-store visits

    180 → 353 a month

  • 31 → 214

    Google reviews

    average 4.8★ held

Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.

Google reviews
31214BM1M2M3M4M5M6M7
Profile views a month
1,0003,600BM1M2M3M4M5M6M7
Map-pack #1 terms
022BM1M2M3M4M5M6M7
Before · month 0“zero waste shop near me”
  1. AHalcombe’s Superstore — Refill aisle4.1 (1,912) · Supermarket · 0.6 km
  2. BGreenLoop Eco4.3 (402) · Eco store chain · 2.1 km
  3. CRefillery Direct4.0 (88) · Online shop · delivery only
After · month 7“zero waste shop near me”
  1. APennyroyal Pantry4.8 (214) · Zero waste shop · North Laine · open now
  2. BHalcombe’s Superstore — Refill aisle4.1 (1,930) · Supermarket · 0.6 km
  3. CGreenLoop Eco4.3 (411) · Eco store chain · 2.1 km

The price list: tracked terms

Local search terms with monthly searches and map-pack position before and after
Search termSearches / moBeforeAfter
zero waste shop near me1,900Not shownPack #1
refill shop brighton880Pack #3Pack #1
zero waste brighton720Not shownPack #1
plastic free shop brighton390Not shownPack #1
refill shop near me2,400Not shownPack #1
bulk food store brighton260Not shownPack #1
eco shop hove210Not shownPack #1
laundry liquid refill brighton170Pack #3Pack #1
shampoo refill near me590Not shownPack #1
refill shop kemptown90Not shownPack #1
loose lentils brighton50Pack #2Pack #1
package free groceries brighton140Not shownPack #1

Showing 12 of 22 terms at #1; search volumes are modelled estimates.

Your shop, on the map.

Get a plan like this

Local is our local seo plan for businesses that live on nearby searches.

See the Local planTalk to us
← Back to all case studies