Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 06.10.2026 
Most local SEO case studies tell the same story: traffic goes up, and leads follow. GLIDE’S campaign for Austex Fence & Deck, a family-owned fence and deck company in Central Texas, went the other way. Organic traffic fell about 35%, and instant quote requests from organic search grew 825%.
That campaign, “Intent Over Volume,” earned GLIDE a spot on the 2026 US Search Awards shortlist for Best Local Campaign (SEO). Here’s who we are, what we did, and why this one means a lot to our team.
Who are GLIDE?
GLIDE is a web design and digital marketing agency founded in Austin, Texas, with a team that collaborates across time zones. In 20+ years we’ve completed 850+ projects, mostly for nonprofits, healthcare organizations, manufacturers, home services companies, and other mission-driven businesses. Our mission line sums it up: we help people who help others.
We’re a Certified B Corporation, SOC 2 Type II compliant, and a WP Engine Strategic Tier Partner. Our work spans strategy, brand, web design and development, SEO and AI search, paid search, and continuous improvement. That range matters for this campaign, because the result didn’t come from SEO alone. It came from SEO, UX, design, and development working as one team toward one number.
The challenge: traffic was falling, and that was only part of the story
Austex has been building fences and decks in Austin for 30 years and has more than 200,000 completed projects behind it. In the twelve months before the campaign, organic search drove 64 instant quote form submissions. We set a goal to double that to 128.
Then the ground shifted. Google AI Overviews started answering the informational questions that used to send people to Austex’s blog. By February 2026, organic sessions were down about 35% year over year. For most teams (and most clients), a drop like that triggers a reactive pivot toward more content, more links, more volume.
We didn’t pivot. When we looked closer, the traffic we were losing was casual research: people getting a quick answer from an AI summary who were never going to call. The people still clicking through were closer to buying than ever. The person on the other end is a homeowner shopping for a fence after a move, an HOA notice, or a property line problem. They want a price range before they commit to a call or consultation, and they will not finish a form that feels broken.
So the question became simple: if fewer people are arriving, are we doing right by the ones who do?
What we did
There was no single big launch, no viral content, and no aggressive link-building push. Instead, we focused on three fundamentals and kept improving them for a full year.
1. Fix the path to the quote. We audited the site for internal linking opportunities and added contextual links to the Fence Cost Estimator, then updated blog templates with inline “Get a Quote” CTAs to catch mid-article intent. Using Microsoft Clarity session recordings and a step-by-step GA4 funnel (mobile vs. desktop), we found where people were dropping off. Three rounds of UX improvements followed: we rebuilt the map drawing step, overhauled the mobile experience to fix scroll and navigation problems, and made desktop changes informed by a competitive review. Every round was measured with dedicated GA4 conversion events.
2. Publish content that earns its place. Rather than chasing volume, we mapped each piece to a buyer-intent query. We refreshed a fence etiquette post that had lost traffic to AI Overviews, published a guide to shadowbox fences, and added FAQs sourced directly from Austex’s own client documentation, marked up with FAQ schema.
3. Show up correctly everywhere a buyer looks, including AI. A citation audit catalogued more than 55 active listings and uncovered real contamination: duplicates, wrong phone numbers, a stray profile from an unrelated business, and listings placing Austex in cities where they have never operated. We corrected 31 listings, removed 22, and cleaned up 24 more. We also launched a Round Rock service area page as a pilot for multi-city expansion. Then we asked ChatGPT who builds fences in Austin, identified the directories it was citing, and worked on those specific sources so any AI pulling from them would surface accurate information.
The results
Measured against a March 2024 to February 2025 baseline, here’s what twelve months of fundamentals produced:
- Instant quote form submissions from organic search grew from 64 to 592 (+825% year over year), more than 4.5x our goal of 128
- Sessions on the Fence Cost Estimator grew from 298 to 1,939
- ChatGPT referral sessions grew from 30 to 408
- Average search position improved from 24.2 to 14.4
- All of this happened while overall organic sessions declined about 35%
Holding that position took more than data. It took a client who trusted the diagnosis and stayed the course through months when the traffic graph was trending down. Monthly reporting kept the conversation focused on what mattered: a traffic decline is not a lead decline when the mix shifts toward buyers. As early as April 2025, Austex’s owner sent us a note that still makes us smile:
| “March was a great month, let’s keep going!” Lauren Lockett-Summers, Owner, Austex Fence & Deck |
What being shortlisted means to us
Citation cleanup, form fixes, and FAQ schema are not the kind of work that usually gets submitted for awards. That’s part of why entering felt important. We wanted to put forward a campaign that reflects how search actually works right now, and that proves the basics, done consistently and with rigor, still compound into results that matter.
| “The hardest part of writing this entry was the first chart, because it goes the wrong way. Traffic is down. But that’s the whole point. In an AI search world, the visitor who still clicks is usually ready to buy, and our job is to make sure the experience they land on is worth that intent. Being shortlisted tells us other practitioners see it the same way.” Melissa De Oña, SEO Lead, GLIDE |
This campaign was a true team effort: SEO strategy, SEO execution, project management, creative direction, design, and development, all pointed at the same goal. Thank you to the Austex team for trusting us, and to our own team for spending a year on the unglamorous parts.
What we’d tell other teams
If your reports show traffic falling, look at what the remaining visitors are doing before you go chase volume. The people still arriving are usually further along than the ones you lost. Find the moment where they have to stop and wait on you (a quote, a price, a callback) and fix that moment first. You can’t separate SEO from UX anymore: ranking is only half the job, and the other half is what happens when someone arrives.
Winners will be announced at the US Search Awards ceremony on October 7, 2026. Congratulations to all of our fellow finalists. We’re in great company.
Learn more and connect with GLIDE
- Read our announcement: GLIDE Is a 2026 US Search Awards Finalist for Best Local Campaign
- Visit our website: glidedesign.com
- Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X
- See the client: Austex Fence & Deck
