// Case study
Pine Knoll Construction
From a site that didn't sell the company to a full system that actually brings work in.
- Client
- Pine Knoll Construction
- Owner
- Jeff Jenkins
- Industry
- Construction
- Location
- Winchester, VA · Shenandoah Valley / tri-state
- Timeline
- About 3 months. Social from day one, website published at the end.
- Work
- Custom web and SEO, social, video, drone, design and photo
// The proof
Inquiries went from the odd tire-kicker to about three a week.
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Website inquiries | Occasional tire-kicker | About 3 a week, sometimes more |
| Facebook traffic | Neglected page | About 250,000 in 90 days |
| Facebook followers | About 200 | About 500, roughly double in 90 days |
| Search visibility | Average ranking roughly 90 or worse | Around 6 within about a week of launch |
| Site engagement | Old site baseline | About 3× in the first 72 hours, and it held |
| Analytics after launch | Flat and weak | A clear hockey-stick when the new site went live |
Pine Knoll stayed in the work with me. Results like this depend on the business, the market, and how hard everyone pushes. I show the numbers because they are real, not because every company moves on the same clock.
// About the company
Serious work, but almost nobody online could see it.
Pine Knoll Construction is a family-founded excavation and site work contractor based in Winchester, Virginia. Over 35 years under the same name. Commercial and residential. Excavation, grading, site work, roads, utilities, demolition, concrete, remodeling, new home construction, snow removal, private ponds, heavy hauling. Crews and equipment in-house. The service area stretches across the Shenandoah Valley and the tri-state (VA, WV, MD, and farther when the job calls for it).
They do serious work, are committed to giving back to their community work, and focus on projects people in the area actually care about. The problem when we started was simple: almost nobody online could see any of that.
// Before
The business had the goods. The internet did not.
Jeff Jenkins is the owner. Real company, roughly fifty people on the roster, multi-million revenue, small-town construction company at heart. Strong relationships offline. Offline was doing the heavy lifting. Online was not.
They had already been burned. The previous website was only about a year old. The old site had been hacked, so someone rebuilt it. That rebuild did not care about bringing customers in. Services sat as bullet points. Messaging was vague. Project work lived in a couple of thin galleries from older jobs. No real system for new work. No clear story about what Pine Knoll actually does day to day. For a company that can put in a Taco Bell site package, a fishing pier, apartment construction, or a full utility install, the site read like a placeholder.
Facebook had been started, then left alone. Someone on the outside had tried social help that did not stick. Internally, marketing kept falling through the cracks. Jeff told me straight later: somebody has to stay on top or this stuff slips.
There was a dry spell in the work. They knew website and social mattered. It still felt like a black box. Trying something serious stopped looking optional.
// What we did
Full system. About three months of overlapping work.
Social started on day one. The website finished at the end of that window. Life of the brand first, business of the brand ready to catch it.
Social and media
I got into the business. Jobsites. Crews. Which services make money. Which clients would sit for a real video testimonial. What should hit Facebook this week instead of dying in a camera roll. We built a steady stream of jobsite video, progress, project stories, and community work so locals could see Pine Knoll as the company they already trusted offline.
That included video production and editing, drone videography where it earned its keep, graphics, and photo work. The point was content that looked like the company, not a stock construction wallpaper.
Custom website and SEO
I rebuilt the site as a custom WordPress build (Etch and Automatic.css). Fast, clear, built to sell the work. What the new site does that the old one did not:
- Clear service architecture (excavation and grading, site work, demolition, roads and paving, utilities, ponds, hauling, snow, remodeling, new homes, concrete, and more), each with room to rank and explain
- A real projects system (The Lofts, Lake Holiday fishing pier, Taco Bell on RT 50 West, and ongoing featured work) so proof is always current
- High quality customer video testimonials on the site for prospective customers to view
- Community and local presence treated as part of the brand, not a footnote
- A request for quote path that is obvious, increasing user conversion and driving more revenue
- Service area and trust signals (35+ years, family-founded, own crews) up front
- Technical and content SEO baked into the build, not bolted on later
// After
The numbers showed up. Then the pipeline did.
Social, first 90 days of serious work
Facebook traffic around 250,000. Followers roughly doubled, about 200 to 500. Engagement and local recognition climbed enough that Pine Knoll stopped looking like a quiet company with a dusty page and started looking like the crew people see all over the Valley.
Website, launch and after
When the new site went live, Google Analytics showed a clear up-tick in user engagement. Engagement on the site jumped about 3× in the first 72 hours and held. Search visibility moved from average rankings in the 90s or worse to around 6 within about a week of the site work. Faster pages. Better accessibility. A journey that actually matches how a GC, a developer, or a homeowner decides who to call.
What matters to the business
Inquiries stopped being the rare tire-kicker. They settled in around three solid website inquiries a week, sometimes more. Jeff's words, not mine: they have so much work now they do not know what to do with it.
That is the whole point of the system. Social builds recognition and trust. The website turns that attention into quotes and jobs. Run only one side and you leave money on the table.
// For another owner
If the work is good and the site looks like an afterthought, this is the pattern.
You need life on social so people know who you are. You need a site that can take a stranger from "I saw your crew on Facebook" to "here's my project, call me." And you need someone who will stay in it when the office gets busy and marketing wants to slide.
Pine Knoll had the company. We built the system around it. The proof is in the pudding: traffic, rankings, engagement, and a full book of work.
// Next step
Want results you can point at?
If your company is solid and your online presence is not, we should talk. Discovery call. Scope-based pricing. No fake packages.