One metro, two governments, and a market most agencies misread
Healthcare, plant science, aircraft and mapping technology. Plus a quirk most outsiders miss: the city and the county are two separate places, and most of the big 'St. Louis' companies are in the county.
Benchmarks in this market
- Typical organic visibility gain, healthcare and B2B SEO, 6-12 months
- +20-35%Typical organic visibility gain, healthcare and B2B SEO, 6-12 months
- Typical map-pack lead increase after building city- and county-level location pages
- +15-25%Typical map-pack lead increase after building city- and county-level location pages
- Typical cost-per-lead reduction, county-level geo-targeting vs. one metro-wide campaign
- -10-20%Typical cost-per-lead reduction, county-level geo-targeting vs. one metro-wide campaign
Illustrative ranges for engagements of this type, not verified St. Louis-specific client data. Orientation, not a guarantee. Your starting point changes the range.
How we work here: Remotely from our San Francisco office, with CT coverage for calls and travel for kickoffs. We don't claim a St. Louis office we don't have.
Clients across every market
What's actually different about Greater St. Louis
Greater St. Louis is home to about 2.8 million people across Missouri and Illinois. The thing outsiders usually get wrong is the map. Since 1876, the City of St. Louis has been separate from St. Louis County, and the city itself has only about 280,000 residents.
That matters because many famous 'St. Louis' companies are in the county. Enterprise and Centene are in Clayton. Edward Jones has its main campus in Des Peres. Bayer's crop science business, the former Monsanto, is in Creve Coeur, next to the Danforth Plant Science Center, the heart of the region's ag-tech scene.
The city has its own anchors. Anheuser-Busch still brews in Soulard, though its parent company, AB InBev, is based in Belgium. BJC HealthCare and Washington University School of Medicine run one of the country's biggest medical centers. The Cortex district in Midtown is the main hub for tech and bioscience startups.
Two more things shape the market. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's new NGA West campus in north St. Louis, a federal project of roughly $1.7 billion, is drawing mapping and defense-tech firms to the city. And Boeing's large defense plant near Lambert airport supports a long chain of aerospace suppliers. Across the river, the Illinois side (Belleville, Edwardsville, O'Fallon) is its own market, with Scott Air Force Base nearby.
City or county? Decide on purpose
People type 'St. Louis' for the whole region, but customers live in the city, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. If you only build one 'St. Louis' page, competitors pick up the searches for Clayton, Chesterfield and O'Fallon.
Web design searches are easy to win
Google's own data rates the main St. Louis web design and development searches as low competition. 'Marketing agency' searches are tougher. A fast, well-built site with proper local pages can rank here without a huge budget.
Defense buyers read websites differently
Suppliers to NGA West and Boeing win work with capability statements, certifications and past performance. A contracting officer wants clearances, NAICS codes and proof you've done similar work. Polished brand copy doesn't help.
Illinois is a separate market
Belleville, Edwardsville and O'Fallon, Illinois search and buy differently from the Missouri side, and Scott Air Force Base shapes demand there. Campaigns aimed only at 'St. Louis' miss a lot of those buyers.
What usually moves first in St. Louis.
Based on what tends to be the binding constraint for companies in this market. Your audit may point somewhere else. We go where the numbers say.
Industry playbooks relevant in St. Louis
Specific playbooks for St. Louis businesses
- SEO for Healthcare & Medical
- Web Development for Healthcare & Medical
- Digital Marketing for Industrial & Manufacturing
- Web Development for Industrial & Manufacturing
- Paid Ads for Healthcare & Medical
- SEO for Industrial & Manufacturing
- SEO for Government Contractors (GovCon)
- Web Development for Government Contractors (GovCon)
- Digital Marketing for Healthcare & Medical
- Paid Ads for Industrial & Manufacturing
The part clients actually remember.
Not the reports. The uncomfortable conversation that changed the trajectory.
I spent the first two months defending our production values. Nobody was attacking them. They were pointing out that four assets a month is a math problem you cannot solve by making each one better. That distinction took me too long to hear.
We asked them to scope a portal with about forty features. They came back and said seventy percent of our call volume was three things, and we should build those and nothing else. I pushed back hard. They were right, and we shipped in ten weeks instead of a year.
The uncomfortable part was being told our content was inoffensive to the point of being pointless. They wanted us to say things competitors would disagree with. That felt risky for a consultancy and it turned out to be the only thing that worked.
St. Louis questions, answered straight.
Target your suburb and the region. A Clayton search and a 'St. Louis' search are different people at different moments, and the city and county are legally separate places. We cover the areas your customers are actually in, on your site and in Google Business Profile.
Let's look at your numbers.
A free 30-minute teardown of your funnel, ads, and site, run against what actually works in Greater St. Louis. You keep the findings either way.