SEO case study
How the Veterans Transition Center grew its search reach fivefold after launch
The Veterans Transition Center of California has housed, fed and supported veterans and their families since 1996. We rebuilt its website off Wix, launched it in late July 2026, and have run its search program since: the migration, the technical groundwork, a content library written for the questions veterans ask, and the measurement to prove it.
Nonprofit veteran services
vtcofcalifornia.org
5x
Monthly search impressions, August to October
2.4x
Clicks from Google, first 28 days after launch vs the latest 28
+133%
Searches ranking on page one
Overview
The business behind the search.
VTC serves veterans and the families who support them from its campus on the former Fort Ord. Its work covers housing, a food pantry, benefits help and whole-person care, and the people who need that help often start with a Google search on a phone.
The need
The gap to close.
The center needed a website a veteran, a family member or a caseworker could find and use, and one that donors and partners could trust.
- Move off Wix without losing a single page Google already knew.
- Be found for housing and benefits questions, not only the center’s name.
- Explain programs like HUD-VASH in plain language.
- Make programs, staff and contact details easy to reach.
- Help veterans who are new to smartphones.
What we did
What changed on the site.
We designed and built the new website, then ran the search program on it from day one. The work fell into five parts.
Moving off Wix without losing a page
51 → 26
old Wix addresses redirected onto new pages
- Mapped 51 old Wix addresses onto 26 new pages with permanent redirects, and checked every target before launch.
- Re-hosted every file Wix had been serving, from the newsletter archive to more than 250 event photos.
- Launched on July 27, 2026, verified Search Console and submitted the sitemap the same day.
Groundwork for search engines and AI answers
25
schema.org types of structured data across the site
- Structured data across the site for the organization, its services, events, news articles, staff, FAQs and step-by-step guides.
- A CMS where every page carries its own search title and description, with warnings before either runs too long, and alt text required on every image.
- A sitemap that refreshes every hour as pages, news and lessons are added.
- Open access for AI answer engines, plus an llms.txt file that describes the center to them.
- A title and description pass on 22 pages once the first search data came in.
Fast, and usable by everyone
99
mobile PageSpeed score, first paint down from 1.7 to 0.9 seconds
- A mobile PageSpeed score of 99, with first paint cut from 1.7 to 0.9 seconds.
- Pages up to 97 percent lighter on mobile, image by image.
- Zero automated accessibility violations on the key templates against WCAG 2.2 AA, an accessibility statement, and a cookie banner that works with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Content written for the questions veterans ask
18
phone-guide lessons, plus an article every Tuesday for 52 weeks
- An 18-lesson phone guide, turned from a 309-page manual into short pages, from sending a text to spotting a scam.
- A plain-language HUD-VASH explainer that reaches page one for what the voucher pays for rent.
- A 52-week article calendar across housing, benefits, the pantry, family and giving, published every Tuesday.
- Program pages for housing, Lightfighter Village, the food pantry and weekly groups, and timely pieces like a Veterans Day guide for the Monterey Peninsula.
Measurement from day one
Day one
analytics, events, dashboard and Ad Grant live from launch
- GA4 with consent mode, ten custom dimensions and key events for leads, donations and calls.
- A staff dashboard that refreshes nightly with search, traffic and email numbers.
- A Google Ad Grant account built in the first week: nine campaigns and up to $10,000 a month in donated search ads.
The results
What the search data shows.
Search reach grew every month after launch. Average daily impressions climbed from 811 in August to 1,965 in September, 4,197 in October and 5,310 in the first twelve days of November. Monthly clicks rose from 497 in August to 842 in October, and the latest 28 days brought 1,046 clicks, 2.4 times the site’s first 28.
Against the last two months of the old Wix site, daily clicks from Google are 2.6 times higher and daily impressions 15 times higher.
The site now ranks on page one for 2,607 searches, up from 1,120 in its first seven weeks, and in the top three for 624, up from 327. The phone guide carries the reach: its lesson on sending a text sits on page one for the single word “text”, with 37,581 impressions in the latest 28 days. The HUD-VASH explainer reaches page one for what the voucher pays for rent, and searches for the center by name now land on it first.
Growth by month
November covers the 1st to the 12th. Figures are daily averages, so a partial month compares fairly.
| Month | Average daily impressions | Average daily clicks |
|---|---|---|
| Aug | 811 | 16.0 |
| Sep | 1,965 | 17.8 |
| Oct | 4,197 | 27.2 |
| Nov | 5,310 | 47.6 |
Search detail
Searches that moved
Average position for the named search. A lower number means a higher placement.
| Search | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| phone text | 26.2 | 4.3 |
| how to text to a phone number | 18.9 | 5.6 |
| vtc monterey | 4.5 | 1.0 |
| how much does hud-vash pay for rent | — | 6.4 |
Where the reach comes from, latest 28 days
| Page | Impressions | Clicks |
|---|---|---|
| Phone guide: Send text messages | 58,187 | 214 |
| Phone guide: Turn it on and set it up | 23,025 | 23 |
| Phone guide: Save and manage contacts | 15,755 | 33 |
| HUD-VASH, explained | 12,843 | 101 |
| Homepage | 3,676 | 227 |
| Donating stock to charity | 3,304 | 12 |
| How to apply for VA benefits | 2,673 | 16 |
| Veterans Day on the Monterey Peninsula | 2,277 | 185 |
The phone-guide lesson that ranks on page one for “text”.
How we measured it.
Google Search Console, vtcofcalifornia.org (domain property), July 26 to November 12, 2026. Monthly and daily figures come from the date report. Latest 28 days: October 16 to November 12; first 28 days: July 27 to August 23. Page-one and top-three counts compare July 26 to September 14 with September 16 to November 5. Old-site baseline: the Search Console export from the Wix site, May 24 to July 26, 2026 (901 clicks and 19,482 impressions over 63 days). Positions are Google’s average position for each search.
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