WALKTHRU LABS
01
The challenge
In February 2026, Semrush found mbdoor.com in Google's top 100 for three keywords. Almost none of the company's commercial work showed up in search.
Our first full baseline on 2 Aug 2026 showed 23 keywords and no position in the top 3. Five of the 23 were other door companies' names. The access-control page ranked in Pasadena, 300 miles away, because it named no service area.
The research also showed that local commercial-door searches in Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz and Gilroy have almost no measurable volume. The reachable demand is in service and repair terms, and the site had no page for them.
02
Keyword research
Before we write a page, we find the searches that bring Monterey Bay Door work. These are the terms from our research, with the monthly search volume, how hard each one is to rank for, and what an ad click costs.
| Keyword | Searches / mo | Difficulty | Ad cost / click | Rank now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| commercial door repair | 6,600 | 21 Easy | $10.40 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial locksmith | 5,400 | 6 Very easy | $7.22 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial door installation | 2,900 | 16 Easy | $10.83 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial door repair near me | 2,400 | 11 Very easy | $9.63 | Not in top 100 |
| access control installation | 1,900 | 21 Easy | $14.42 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial door hardware | 1,900 | 24 Easy | $4.71 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial door installation near me | 1,000 | 5 Very easy | $8.74 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial door service | 880 | 4 Very easy | $9.76 | Not in top 100 |
| door closer repair | 720 | 27 Easy | $4.22 | Not in top 100 |
| fire door inspection | 590 | 23 Easy | $7.36 | Not in top 100 |
| custom wood doors near me | 210 | 10 Very easy | $4.38 | Not in top 100 |
| monterey doors | 170 | 14 Very easy | $6.16 | #5 |
| doors monterey | 140 | 20 Easy | $3.88 | #13 |
| panic bar repair | 90 | 6 Very easy | $3.41 | Not in top 100 |
| commercial door repair salinas | 50 | 0 Very easy | $0.00 | Not in top 100 |
03
The plan
Build the site
A fast static site that leads with custom wood doors, then hardware and access control, as the general manager asked in June 2026.
Put the catalog online
We published their commercial hardware range as a catalog of 498 product pages.
Wire the leads
Every inquiry is emailed to the team and logged, and a PIN-gated page lists them newest first.
Feed it real work
A phone portal lets the crew upload job photos from site. Those photos feed the project gallery and Google Business Profile posts.
Measure and aim
We set a Semrush baseline on 2 Aug 2026 and mapped the service and repair terms the site can realistically win.
04
What we built
- Website
- An Eleventy static site covering services, projects, partners, service areas, careers and contact.
- Hardware catalog
- 498 product pages for commercial door hardware, from closers and exit devices to thresholds and electric strikes.
- Crew photo portal
- A PIN-protected page at /portal. Crew upload job photos from a phone, the photos are stored, and the office gets an email.
- Lead inbox and filter
- Each inquiry is logged and emailed. A shared filter catches cold sales pitches and routes them away from the general manager, without deleting the record.
- Field-photo galleries
- Real crew install photos on the projects page and homepage, with alt text and image schema.
- AI-search files
- A brand-facts file, llms.txt, and a generated llms-full.txt built from every rendered page. robots.txt names ten AI crawlers.
- Sister site
- staleydoor.com for Staley Construction, their sister company, with matching careers, sectors and service-area sections.
05
Where search stands
Semrush US database, 18 September 2026. Semrush estimates traffic from rankings; Google Search Console is the exact count.
Show the numbers
| Month | Keywords | Visits |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 25 | 7 | 16 |
| Oct 25 | 8 | 17 |
| Nov 25 | 8 | 17 |
| Dec 25 | 5 | 33 |
| Jan 26 | 3 | 23 |
| Feb 26 | 3 | 15 |
| Mar 26 | 4 | 20 |
| Apr 26 | 8 | 17 |
| May 26 | 10 | 3 |
| Jun 26 | 21 | 0 |
| Jul 26 | 24 | 17 |
| Aug 26 | 21 | 18 |
| Keyword | Position | Searches / mo |
|---|---|---|
| monterey doors | #5 | 170 |
| monterey door | #8 | 70 |
| doors monterey | #13 | 140 |
| monterey hardware | #22 | 90 |
| bay doors | #32 | 1,300 |
| garage door company monterey | #48 | 50 |
| commercial door hardware carmichael | #55 | 40 |
06
Who they compete with in search
| Competitor | Shared keywords | Their keywords | Their visits / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| montereycoastdoor.com | 4 | 22 | 119 |
| mydoor.us | 3 | 95 | 126 |
| rsdoorsmontereybay.com | 3 | 48 | 33 |
| coastdoor.net | 1 | 61 | 60 |
| doorrepairmonterey.com | 2 | 76 | 0 |