Barrons Building Services
A clearer brand and faster site made Barrons easier to find in Google and AI search.
SECTOR
Construction & Trades
LOCATION
Stroud, Gloucestershire (Cotswolds)
SERVICES
Web Design, SEO & AEO, Photography
RESULT
Two number-one rankings and 23.5% more search visibility.
26.85%
Search visibility
Up 23.53% in Semrush Position Tracking
2
Keywords ranking #1
Including “dry stone waller Stroud” and “dry stone walling rates”
4
Keywords in Google’s Top 10
Three new Top 10 rankings in the tracked period
154
Referring domains
Up 29.41%, alongside 555 additional backlinks
A prospective client, a former cyber security analyst at GCHQ, came to see us specifically to say how impressed he was with the new website. That's not the kind of feedback you get very often, and it's exactly why we wanted it done properly.
Nick, Founder, Barrons Building Services
The situation
Nick runs Barrons Building Services, a Stroud-based stonemasonry and building specialist with genuine pedigree: 15+ years' experience, work showcased on BBC's Building the Dream, a Chelsea Flower Show commission with garden designer Chris Beardshaw on a Morgan Stanley-sponsored garden, and heritage projects at estates including Blenheim Palace. None of that came through on the old website. It read like a generic local trades site: a templated layout, awards buried below the fold, and messaging pitched at 'all your masonry needs' rather than the high-end stonework Nick actually specialises in. The risk was direct: Nick nearly lost a piece of client work because the site didn't represent the quality of what he does.
The brief
Reposition Barrons as the premium option it already was in practice, not just on paper.
Google + AI
Two engines, one site
What we did
We rebuilt the site from the ground up: darker, more editorial, positioned around 'Crafting timeless stonework and bespoke living spaces' rather than a generic service list. We went on-site with Nick and the team to shoot real project photography, replacing the stock-adjacent imagery on the old build. Alongside the rebuild, we ran a focused local SEO and AEO campaign targeting the specific high-value searches Barrons' ideal clients actually use, getting the technical and content foundations right rather than chasing volume for its own sake.
Results
Semrush Position Tracking recorded Barrons at 26.85% search visibility, up 23.53% over the tracked period. Two target keywords now rank number one, four sit in Google’s Top 10 and seven are in the Top 20.
More significantly for AEO, Barrons now appears as a directly cited source inside Google's AI Overview for 'cost of dry stone walling', genuine proof the AEO work is landing, not just traditional rankings. Nick has also confirmed the site is now surfacing in ChatGPT and Claude for relevant searches.
A prospective client, a former GCHQ cyber security analyst, visited the site and told Nick unprompted how impressed he was by how well it was built. It's the kind of validation that's hard to manufacture, and exactly the problem the project set out to solve: a site that actually reflects the standard of the work behind it.
Real project photography
Every image here is genuine work, shot on-site. Nothing stock, nothing borrowed.
Built by the people who wrote this
Same team, start to finish. No handoffs, no ghostwriting.
The same SEO & AEO system we run ourselves
Not agency theory — the exact approach behind Unpick’s own visibility.
Numbers you can check yourself
Every stat above is traceable, not rounded up for a case study.
BEFORE
AFTER
The detail
26.85%
Search visibility, up 23.53%
2
Target keywords ranking #1
4
Keywords in Top 10, 3 new
154
Referring domains, up 29.41%
555
Additional backlinks
7
Keywords in Top 20
Ranking #1 for “dry stone waller Stroud”
Ranking #1 for “dry stone walling rates”
Ranking #4 for “dry stone walling Stroud”
Search visibility up 23.53% over the tracked period
Source: Semrush Position Tracking, UK Google, 30 May to 27 August 2026
