SEO Case Study: A Mumbai College from Page 3 to Page 1 of Google
In Aman Tripathi's first job, our founder worked on a Mumbai college's website. It was slow, hard for Google to read and hardly visited. Here is what was found, what was fixed and what changed.
Please note: this work was done in Aman's first job, before AceGrow. It is not an AceGrow client project, and AceGrow is a new studio. This case study covers organic SEO and website work only. Results vary by business.
The situation
A college in Mumbai had a website that sat on page 3 of Google for its main searches, so very few people would ever find it. The bigger problem was the website itself. It was slow, heavy and poorly organised, and Google was not being told clearly which pages to show.
The website was full of large images and video, and nothing was set to load only when needed. Visitors waited around 22 to 27 seconds for the home page, and most people do not wait that long. Traffic was only about 30 to 40 visits a month.
The goal
Move the college from page 3 to page 1 of Google for the searches that matter most, make the website fast and easy for Google to understand, and bring in more visitors.
What was wrong
What was found at the start
A first look showed problems with speed, structure and search set-up.
- The home page took about 22 to 27 seconds to load
- Heavy images and video, with no lazy loading, slowed every page
- A lot of unused CSS and unnecessary code, and a messy site structure
- No sitemap and no robots.txt file
- Many pages had no index tag telling Google they could be indexed
- Many broken links
- No clean page URLs (slugs) and weak heading structure
- The official logo was not set up to appear in Google results
- Keywords on the pages were weak and not well researched
- Only about 30 to 40 visits a month to the website
What was done
Five areas of work
Fixing the basics first, then the keywords, then the measurement.
Technical SEO and site structure
- Cleaned up the site structure and removed unnecessary and unused code and CSS
- Created a sitemap and a robots.txt file
- Added index tags so the right pages could be indexed
- Found and fixed the broken links
- Set the official logo so it shows in Google search results
Speed and page loading
- Fixed image properties and optimised heavy images and video
- Added lazy loading so images and video load only when needed
- Improved the time to first paint, so visitors see the page sooner
- Brought the home page load time from about 22 to 27 seconds down to about 7 to 10 seconds
Keywords and on-page SEO
- Researched keywords using Semrush and other tools
- Improved keyword quality on the web pages
- Added clean URL slugs and a proper heading structure
- Optimised each page to load faster and read better
Off-page SEO
- Found and removed bad links pointing to the website, so they would not hurt its trust with Google
- Set up and improved the college's social profiles, linked back to the website
Measuring and improving
- Used Google Analytics to track traffic and bounce rate
- Used what the data showed to improve the quality of weak pages
Results
From page 3 to page 1 of Google
These numbers come from Aman's own account of the project.
Before
Page 3
on Google
After
Page 1
on Google
| What changed | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Google rank for its main searches | Page 3 | Page 1 |
| Home page load time | About 22 to 27 seconds | About 7 to 10 seconds |
| Website traffic | About 30 to 40 visits per month | About 300 to 400 visits per month |
| Time taken | Start of the project | About 3 months later |
Load time was measured on the home page, which had the heaviest content, and traffic was tracked in Google Analytics. A load time of 7 to 10 seconds is still not fast, because this website was image-heavy and used video. On a lighter website we aim much lower.
Why there is no college name or screenshots
The college asked not to be named, and its analytics and ranking data are private. So we do not show its name, graphs or screenshots. If you would like to know more about how the work was done, ask us on a call and we will explain it in detail.
What this means for your business
Every business is different, and we cannot promise the same result for you. But the lessons carry over:
- Speed matters. Heavy images and video with no lazy loading can make a website painfully slow, and visitors leave.
- The basics matter. A sitemap, a robots.txt file, index tags, working links and clean URLs help Google understand your website.
- Measure what happens. Google Analytics shows where visitors drop off, so the right pages get fixed.
If you want to know where your own website stands, the first step is free.
Not sure where you stand on Google?
Send us your business name and area. We will check your Google listing and tell you, in plain words, what to fix first. It is free and there is no pressure.