Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO — search engine optimization — is what connects your business to people actively looking for what you offer. If you're new to it or not sure how it works anymore, you're in the right place.
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Did you rank on page one, and still see a drop in web traffic?
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Are you paying for SEO that was designed for how search worked five years ago?
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Why are your competitors showing up in snippets and AI results — and you're not?
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Does ranking actually matter anymore?
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Bottom line: Is your SEO strategy built for search as it exists today?
What is SEO?
SEO isn't a trick. It's the long game.
When someone searches "plumber near me" or "Kennewick accountant," SEO is what determines which businesses show up — and where. It's not luck. It's structure, content, and credibility signals working together.
SEO compounds over time.
Unlike ads that stop when you stop spending, every SEO improvement you make keeps working.
SEO builds trust.
People trust organic results more than ads — consistently, across every study on the subject.
SEO takes patience.
There's no shortcut. But the businesses that start early pull ahead and tend to stay there.
Google’s first page has more moving parts now: AI summaries, map packs, snippets, ads, and traditional results. That gives your business more ways to show up — but only if your content is clear, useful, and structured for how people search today.
Why Invest in Search Engine Optimization?
Search has changed. Being findable still matters.
People aren’t only clicking blue links anymore. They’re scanning Google results, reading AI summaries, checking map listings, comparing reviews, and asking tools like ChatGPT for recommendations. Strong SEO helps your business show up across that whole search journey — not just in traditional rankings.
of Google searches end without a click to any website — which is why showing up in the map pack, snippets, and AI summaries matters as much as your ranking
of all clicks on Google go to organic results — not paid ads. SEO is how you earn your share of that traffic without paying for every click
years helping Tri-Cities businesses build lasting search visibility — through every algorithm update and search trend change since 2012
What Makes Good SEO?
Good SEO isn't one thing. It's a combination of signals working together.
Here's what we look at and what each piece actually does for your visibility.
Technical SEO The foundation everything is built on.
Site speed, mobile usability, proper indexing, and clean structure determine whether Google can read your site at all — before ranking ever enters the picture.
Keyword Research Finding the terms that actually bring customers in.
The terms people use when they're ready to hire are different from the ones they use when they're browsing. We build around the former — and for local businesses, that often means phrases larger competitors overlook.
On-Page Content Structured so search and AI engines know what to do with it.
Headings, meta descriptions, image tags, internal links — these signals tell Google what each page is about. Get them right and you're also in the running for featured snippets and People Also Ask placement.
Google Business Profile Often the first thing a customer sees.
Most potential customers see your GBP before they ever reach your website. A fully optimized, actively maintained profile is one of the single highest-impact things a local business can do for search visibility.
Reviews A ranking signal, not just social proof.
Google uses review volume, recency, and rating as local ranking factors. Businesses at the top of local results almost always have a steady, consistent stream of new reviews — not just a lot of old ones.
Citations & Directories Your business info, consistent everywhere.
Your name, address, and phone number need to match everywhere online. Inconsistencies — even small ones — send mixed signals to search engines and can quietly suppress your local rankings.
Local SEO Agency
We've been doing this long enough to know what actually works — and what's just noise.
SEO has a lot of opinions attached to it. We've been at this since 2012 — through every major algorithm shift and technology change — and our approach is built on what consistently delivers for local businesses over the long term.
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Real SEO assessment before recommendations
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Website structure, schema, internal links, and content built with search in mind
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Local SEO strategy based on your market, competitors, and service area
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Clear explanations without jargon, scare tactics, or mystery reports
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SEO work tied to search and AI visibility, leads, and long-term business growth
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A marketing partner who looks at the full picture, not just rankings
Years serving Eastern Washington businesses — through every algorithm update, platform shift, and search trend change
5-star reviews from real local clients who hired us, worked with us, and came back
Websites built with a solid SEO foundation.
SEO Strategy & Consultation
Five minutes on the phone beats months of guessing.
Most business owners we talk to have questions — what they actually need, what's worth prioritizing, what a realistic path looks like. We'll walk through it with you.
125+ 5-Star Reviews
When you do great work, people notice.
We highly recommend Cougar Digital Marketing for their exceptional marketing services. We used them initially to build our new website for our commercial and residential General Contracting company, and we signed on with them for future partnership hours. We have been pleased with the seamless results Travis's company has provided us. The team's collaboration and communication with the website designer, Ashlie, the marketing guru, Josh, and the photographer, Mykayla, were ALL GREAT. Having these marketing resources under one roof has made our transition from our last website company, much easier than expected. Their prompt availability and amazing support made the entire experience enjoyable. We are extremely satisfied with the results and grateful for their partnership and guidance!
Cougar Digital provides excellent follow through on all our projects. We trust them with developing solutions for our email marketing campaigns, graphic design, and collateral creation. Their designs are used by our partners nationally. We count on them for specific website support work and they always come through for us. They are solution oriented and their upbeat, friendly customer service is unparalleled.
Awesome experience working with Josh on a 25th anniversary video of my wedding photos set to music. Couldn’t be happier with the finished product. Thank you Cougar Digital and Josh!
Great company! Love how quickly Josh responds to our needs, questions and requests! Highly recommend them
Cougar Digital answered the phone, literally. During a company name change, we reached out to multiple design and marketing groups from the Tri-Cities to Walla Walla to Spokane. Although we'd left messages with each vendor, Cougar was the only one courteous enough to respond. After a couple consultations, Joshua Kandle, Director of Marketing took charge of the design of our new company logo. With patience and professionalism, he listened to our concepts and following a series of modifications, he created a logo that is printed on millions of labels and boxes that're shipped globally. The logo is headlined on our website and our email, along with being printed on our work garments. Digital art might be easy with today's technology, but without Joshua's patient nature and ability to listen to our ideas, the incredible logo wouldn't have been possible. Vehemently I recommend Cougar Digital. They're professional yet personable. They're communicative and driven while remaining patient.
We had a great experience working with COUGAR DIGITAL for creating our website and helping us with our ongoing marketing needs. Ashley, did an exceptional job with the website. Josh created an awesome logo and branding bible for us, and Makayla's photos added a professional touch. Highly recommended for top-notch digital marketing solutions!
This team is awesome! they truly have most things figured out and thought through before you walk through the door. And the unknowns are easily resolved with their level of professionalism! We cant say enough about Ashley the design manager and Josh the photographer! They both made the process fun and easy and we were constantly surprised by the “WOW” factor! Thank you all and we look forward to future growth for both our small businesses.
We love Cougar Digital! We have worked with them on various projects - rack cards, posters, banners, even a couple commercials. They're friendly, helpful, creative, and truly and do great work. We would recommend them to anyone!
Had a great experience working with Josh! Super easy to work with and really knows his stuff - especially when it comes to lighting and editing for interior shots. The photos turned out amazing, with just the right vibe we were going for. We ended up adding a few extra shot requests last minute, and Josh had no problem fitting them in. He also helped with staging, which made a big difference, and the drone footage was a great bonus. His pricing was very reasonable for the quality we got. Great value for money. We’ll definitely be hiring him again for future shoots!
Josh Kandle was excellent to work with on remaking our branding guidelines, etc. He was helpful, patient and his work was outstanding. Thanks Cougar Digital and Josh for making this process so great.
Cougar digital marketing is a fantastic company for your online marketing needs I had couple estimates on building my website cougar digital was one of the highest but their knowledge and responsive put them apart from other marketing companies which is why chose them best dollars I've spent for my business is here
I highly recommend Cougar Digital. I am currently working with them on 3 separate projects. They took over 2 community based websites that were painful to use and turned them into user friendly, performant websites. Their website & database design is outstanding and they have consistently exceeded my expectations. It has been a pleasure working with everyone at Cougar Digital!
I enjoyed working with Josh. Josh explains things in a way that make easily understandable for someone who is not in the marketing industry.
Cougar Digital went above and beyond to ensure our complete and total satisfaction with creating and launching our new website which can be a challenging process when multiple opinions are involved. Josh in particular was very attentive, patient and helpful throughout the creative process and also with recommendations for SEO and innovative solutions for soliciting reviews and feedback from customers to boost online reviews. He also facilitated communication with our existing IT support to smoothly transition our domain and emails. I highly recommend the expertise of Cougar Digital for help with all things digital. If they don't offer a solution themselves, they will help you find one!
I am the Office Manager of a business that badly needed a website reworked. I knew that Cougar Digital was up to the task, but I was unsure of my own Manager. He really didn't want to go through the steps to work with anyone on anything like a website. Nick was fabulous (as in over the top) in his Customer Service skills with a very hard to work with man. The professionalism of Cougar Digital, coupled with the patience and skills of Nick, provided my Manager with everything he needed to get a new website. The website is beautiful and I am one very pleased customer. I will always go to Cougar Digital for all of my marketing needs.
Greatly appreciate the work that Josh and the Cougar Digital Marketing team did for our organization. We had a vague vision and they were able to make it better than we could have imagined. Appreciate their flexibility to work with us on a short turnaround and their suggestions for making the best video possible.
Very helpful and easy to work with. They thought about everything that we needed on our website and it looks amazing! Very satisfied.
Josh was quick to reply and great to work with. I would highly recommend and look forward to the next opportunity we get to work with him.
The Cougar Digital team is fantastic. We recently revamped our website. I worked closely with Faith and she was super friendly and helpful every time we talked whether it was email, phone, or in person. The whole team works together to make sure everything is perfect and taken of. They really took our needs into consideration. Thanks!
Josh did a great job on my headshot. He provided a timely appointment and spent the time to make sure he got the best shot. He was even willing to try several different locations. I would recommend him for anybody looking to update the professional photos.
Cougar digital was awesome to work with. They made the website design experience very simple and were very helpful in accommodating my companies' specific needs!
We recently had the pleasure of working with Cougar Digital Marketing for a photography/video project, and we couldn’t be more impressed. From start to finish, their team was professional, creative, and incredibly easy to work with. We highly recommend!
Cougar Digital is a top notch company. As a business owner you have to be sure that the dollars you are spending are worth the result. All too often we are promised things that never materialize. These guys deliver and they make it easy. I am not computer savvy and I'm sure asked dumb questions. They took all the time necessary to help make sure I understood and was comfortable. Great people too. Highly recommend.
We are SO grateful with Josh from Cougar Digital! We are a community workspace and Josh came in and took some fantastic pictures of our brand new space! We are very pleased with the work that he did!
Josh Kandle and his team did a great job educating us about the importance of up-to-date digital tools, and how quickly out-of-date solutions can hinder our on-line reach. The solutions he offered were more than fairly priced, paid immediate dividends, and I am happy to refer him to any business in need of a productive digital marketing program.
We needed to update our website and Josh at Cougar Digital was very responsive, helpful, and capable. Our refreshed website looks great! -Jennifer Williamson Forster, Executive Director, South Sound Reading Foundation.
Josh created a style guide for us to help with consistency throughout our agency. He did a great job creating the guide with little information. He did a great job explaining everything to us. He went above and beyond troubleshooting a zip file issue. Our services with Josh Kandle were 5-star service! He was kind, patient, thoughtful with his work and helpful with creativity in our style guide as well and assisting with technical difficulties. Thanks again Josh!
We had the privilege of working with Cougar Digital to create a video for our annual Hospice Gala, and we couldn't be happier with the results. The team captured the heart of what we do beautifully, creating a piece that was both moving and true to our mission. Josh, in particular, was outstanding. His compassionate approach made our interviewee feel comfortable and valued, allowing them to share their story openly and genuinely. The video resonated deeply with our guests, effectively conveying the essence of hospice care and the impact of our work on patients and their families. Thank you, Cougar Digital, for helping us share our story in such an impactful way!
Cougar Digital has been great to work with! With their support we have seen significant improvement with our marketplace campaigns.
My class and I had a great time learning from Josh about his background, experience in design and video, and creative process. Thank you so much for volunteering!!
Very easy to work with and extremely professional. Cougar Digital was able to take our vision and make it a reality as well as making it easy and seamless. I would highly recommend Cougar Digital to anyone!
Fantastic service! Cougar Digital gave me very professional one-to-one couching! This is making a significant impact on my projects!
Cougar Digital worked closely with us to create a website for our business that truly reflects our vision. They dedicated time and effort to ensure every detail aligned with our goals, and the end result exceeded our expectations. We’re extremely happy with the final product and appreciate their commitment to quality.
We have nothing but great things to say about Cougar Digital Marketing! Travis took the time to understand our goals, worked around our schedule, and went above and beyond to make our vision come to life. Ashley was a whiz and was always available when we needed her. Our site turned out better than we imagined. Can't recommend them enough.
I honestly don't know where to start. My partners and I could not be happier with the process from start to finish working with Ashley and Cougar Digital Marketing. It was an absolute pleasure working with Ashley and I would recommend her to anyone who is looking to either create a website for their business or enhance their current one like we did. The service and pricing we experienced completely exceeded our expectations.
Josh was professional and personable. Produced great picture and he is a Coug to boot. It doesn’t get any better. Go Cougs
I used Cougar Digital Marketing for a personal Christmas gift in 2024. Josh was professional, friendly, and helpful throughout the whole process from setting up location and time for photos, to helping me through the purchasing process to get the photos printed. The Christmas gift was my father's favorite this year-- thank you , Cougar Digital Marketing!
It is always a pleasure working with Cougar Digital, especially with Josh and Mykaela. It's been a very good partnership with them. Very professional, always available for any questions or inquiries. Looking forward for more years of partnership.
Josh and Cougar Digital did an amazing job on a video for an event. We were super proud to show it to donors and had a wonderful response by community members regarding the video. Well done Josh and Cougar Digital!
Josh and the Cougar Digital team did an amazing job with a drone video production that included narration. The quality of audio and video show a professional production level. I appreciate the attention to detail and quality of work by the Cougar Digital team.
Cougar Digital has truly exceeded expectations with their outstanding work on our website. From start to finish, their team demonstrated peak professionalism, creativity, and technical expertise. The design they crafted for our website is nothing short of spectacular. It perfectly captures the essence of our brand while ensuring a visually stunning and user-friendly interface. Every detail was meticulously planned and executed, resulting in a site that not only looks impressive but also functions seamlessly! 100% Recommend Cougar Digital to all businesses.
Working with Cougar Digital to launch a campaign for kids to support the Prosser Boys & Girls Club. I was impressed with their creativity, professionalism, and attention to detail. They helped us to achieve incredible results and bring our ideas to life!
Excellent service. Creative work. They understand what you are trying to do and deliver! So enjoyable to work with them!
Working with the Cougar Digital Marketing team was an absolute delight. Truly good people who are VERY skilled at what they do. Running a large regional food company, it's a blessing to work with an experienced digital team here locally, and not have to seek services in the Seattle or Portland market. I highly recommend working with Cougar Digital!
I absolutely love working with Cougar Digital for every aspect of marketing our business utilizes. From digital content and graphic design work, to helping us create content (photos, videos and language) for various types of media and needs, Cougar does it all. The staff is awesome! Everyone is personable, prompt and professional. They are fun and I look forward to working with them on each project because I know the results will be incredible every time. Cougar's team members are open and flexible in helping us reach our goals and are authentic in their approach to meeting expectations and timeliness. Their consistent delivery of high level results within projected timeliness makes them my first choice for all marketing needs
I recently had an opportunity to choose a web designer to re-vamp and optimize Stepping Stones Alliance's website. Having worked with Cougar Digital before they were my choice for this project. I'm so glad they were able to work with us! The entire process from first meeting to re-launch of the site was stellar. They are quick to respond, listen to feedback, professional and clear in their communications, and spot-on with fulfilling the client desires. The entire team was great to work with along the way and I appreciated the high level of customer service at every point. Not only will I continue to work with them for all our organization's website needs, but I will recommend them to anyone looking for website and marketing projects.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) FAQS
Questions we hear a lot about search visibility.
If you’re thinking it, there’s a good chance someone else asked it too.
What is SEO and how does it work?
SEO — search engine optimization — is the process of making your website easier for search engines to find, understand, and recommend. When someone searches for a product or service you offer, SEO is what determines whether your business shows up in the results. It involves a combination of technical factors (how your site is built), content factors (what your pages say and how they're structured), and authority signals (reviews, links, and how your business appears across the web). Done well, it brings a steady stream of people to your website who are actively looking for what you do — without you paying for every click.
How long does SEO take to work?
Most businesses start seeing meaningful movement in three to six months, with more significant results building from there. SEO compounds over time — the work you do in month one keeps paying off in month twelve. The timeline depends on your starting point, how competitive your market is, and how consistently the work gets done. It's not instant, but it's also not a gamble. Businesses that invest in it consistently tend to pull ahead of competitors who don't — and stay there.
What's the difference between SEO and paid advertising?
Paid ads put you at the top of search results immediately — but only as long as you're paying. The moment the budget stops, the visibility stops. SEO builds organic visibility that doesn't disappear when you stop spending. The tradeoff is time: ads work right away, SEO takes months to gain traction. For most local businesses, the strongest approach uses both — ads for immediate visibility while SEO builds in the background.
Do I need SEO if I'm already running Google Ads?
Yes — and here's why. About 94% of clicks on Google go to organic results, not paid ads. A lot of people skip ads entirely, especially for local service searches where they're looking for someone they can trust. SEO also tends to generate higher-quality leads over time, because people clicking organic results are often further along in their decision-making. Ads and SEO aren't either/or — they cover different parts of how people search and decide.
How do AI Overviews affect my SEO?
Google's AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of many search results — are changing how people interact with search. When an AI Overview is present, users often get their answer without clicking any result at all. That doesn't make SEO irrelevant. It makes the kind of SEO you do more important. Websites that are well-structured, clearly written, and recognized as authoritative sources are the ones Google pulls from when generating those summaries. In other words, the businesses showing up in AI Overviews are there because their SEO foundation is strong — not in spite of it.
If you want to go deeper on how we optimize specifically for AI-powered search, we cover that on our AI SEO page.
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