Case Study
From 9 to 30 first-page Google rankings in a year, and twice the phone calls
A Long Island flight school competing for student pilots in one of the busiest training markets in the United States. We rebuilt the site around the discovery flight, gave each certificate stage its own page, and did the local search work across Long Island and New York City. Over the year it went from the first page of Google for 9 of the 40 searches we track to 30, and calls from its Google listing more than doubled.
The challenge
What a Long Island flight school needed to solve
The school was competing for Part 61 and Part 141 student pilots against larger, better-funded Northeast academies serving the same Long Island and NYC metro catchment. The existing site was written for pilots who already knew the school, not for new student pilots researching discovery flights and instrument-rating upgrades. Booking a discovery flight meant using a general 'contact us' form, where training enquiries sat alongside admin requests.
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Get in touchOur approach
How the engagement was delivered
Discovery
Mapped how a Long Island or NYC student gets from a first Google search to a discovery flight and on to an instrument rating. The discovery flight booking came out as the most valuable action a visitor can take on the site.
Rebuild
Designed a dedicated discovery flight landing page with published pricing, aircraft detail, and a single booking step built for mobile. Built separate paths for Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, and Commercial upgrades so each student lands on a page written for the stage they are at.
Local search
Targeted 'discovery flight Long Island', 'flight school NYC' and suburb-level searches across the Nassau and Queens catchment. Added the business and course details Google reads (LocalBusiness and Course schema) tied to the home airport.
Regular publishing
Launched a set of articles for students covering medical certification, what the hours cost in practice, and the decisions around an instrument rating, each linked to the matching course page.
Timeline
Week 1–5: discovery and rebuild of the discovery flight booking path. Week 6–10: local search groundwork and business details marked up for Google. Month 3 onward: monthly articles written for students.
Results
What the work produced
Real engagement. The client's identity is withheld.
9 → 30
Searches on the first page of Google
Of the 40 searches we track for Long Island and New York student pilots, 9 reached the first page in November 2025 and 30 do now. Top-three positions went from 1 to 9, and the average position improved from 8 to 5.
68 → 143
Phone calls from the Google listing, per quarter
Calls placed straight from the school's Google Business Profile: 68 from January to March 2026, 143 from August to October. Requests for directions rose from 317 to 467 over the same quarters.
1,060
Visits from Google search in three months
US clicks from Google search to the site between August and October 2026.
Dedicated
Discovery flight booking page
A purpose-built discovery flight page, with prices and a single booking step built for phones, replaced the general contact form.
Your sector
Want results like these for your flight school?
See how we approach flight school marketing — positioning, SEO, website, and lead flow — on our dedicated sector page.
More proof
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