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Case Study

Matching Motors Since 1944, Now Online to Match

How we replaced Commercial Electric Motor Service's aging template site with a fast, custom-coded build and local SEO foundation, so the family-owned St. Louis motor shop shows up online the way it delivers at the counter.

Client
Commercial Electric Motor Service
Industry
Electric Motors
Location
St. Louis, MO
Scope
New Website + Local SEO
The Build

A Site That Works Like the Counter

CEMSI's counter team can match a replacement motor from a phone photo, even a decades-old unit with no legible part number. We built the website to work the same way: send a photo, get a match, and lead with the promise that built the business, the Midwest's largest in-stock selection with same-day shipping nationwide.

Commercial Electric Motor Service website homepage with the headline The Motor You Need. In Stock. Shipped Today.
www.cemsi.net (Local Howl Build)
The Challenge

A 1944 Reputation on a Template Site

Commercial Electric Motor Service has been family-owned in St. Louis since 1944. Contractors and plant managers walk in with a dead motor or a phone photo and walk out with a working solution, and the 4.8-star Google rating shows it. The old website told none of that story: a generic builder template with stock imagery, placeholder text still sitting in live pages, review numbers in the markup that did not match the real Google rating, and a contact form whose captcha failed on every single submission, so web leads simply never arrived.

To compete for search across St. Louis and the Metro East, and to serve the buyers who order motors for same-day shipping nationwide, CEMSI needed a real digital counter: category pages built for how buyers actually search, verified data everywhere, and a lead pipeline that reliably delivers.

  • Generic builder template that did not rank or convert
  • Contact form failed captcha verification on every submission
  • Review markup did not match the real Google rating
  • Placeholder text and off-brand promos left in live pages
  • Stock imagery instead of real product photography
  • Deep motor inventory invisible to search
  • Metro East Illinois service area barely represented
  • No AI-search-ready structured data
The Solution

A Digital Counter Built to Rank and Convert

We rebuilt the site page by page, verified every claim against the real business, and wired it for local and AI search. Every page answers a real buyer question and points toward one action: get the right motor, today.

Ship-It-Today Messaging

The site leads with "The Motor You Need. In Stock. Shipped Today." and the Midwest's-largest-selection, same-day-nationwide-shipping promise, so the brand reads exactly the way CEMSI operates.

Photo-to-Match Motor Finder

A dedicated Find My Motor flow lets customers send a photo of any motor, even vintage units without a legible part number, and the counter team matches a replacement. The shop's signature skill, turned into a lead engine.

Full Catalog + Metro East Coverage

Dedicated pages for AC, furnace, pump, farm and agricultural, draft inducer, heating and cooling, and specialty motors, plus parts, repairs and modifications, six Metro East Illinois city pages, and an "Advice from the Counter" blog.

Verified Data, Working Lead Capture

The real 4.8-star Google rating wired into LocalBusiness schema across all 36 pages, real vendor product photography, and a reCAPTCHA-protected form pipeline that delivers every lead straight to the counter's inbox.

The Results

Built to Serve St. Louis and Ship Nationwide

36
Pages Launched
4.8
Star Google Rating
1944
Family-Owned Since
6
Metro East City Pages

A complete category-and-location architecture for a shop that serves the St. Louis Metro East in person and ships motors nationwide the same day.

What Changed

Before Local Howl vs. After

Before: Inherited Template

  • Builder template that did not rank or convert
  • Contact form failing captcha on every submission
  • Review numbers that did not match Google
  • Placeholder text and off-brand promos in live pages
  • Stock imagery, no real product photos
  • Eight decades of family history untold

After: CEMSI Online

  • Fast, custom-coded 36-page build on Vercel
  • "In Stock. Shipped Today." brand front and center
  • Verified 4.8-star rating in schema and on-page
  • Photo-to-match Find My Motor lead flow
  • Real vendor product photography
  • Working lead pipeline delivering to the counter
Built With

Engineered to Rank, Match, and Ship

An 82-year-old motor shop needs a site that earns its keep. Fast, structured, and built so every search engine and AI assistant can find and recommend it.

Local Howl WIABVercelCustom HTML/CSSSchema.orgLocalBusiness JSON-LDFAQPage SchemareCAPTCHA + ResendLocal SEOCore Web Vitals
"Great service and a go-to place for any of our motor needs. They get me what I need the first time! Definitely recommend this place to anyone in the business."
Mike F., Commercial Electric Motor Service customer

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