Case Study: SEO and Google Ads Audit for a Motorcycle Transport Company: Should You Start With SEO or Ads?

Who this case is for

If you run a transport, moving or other service business that customers find through Google, and you are weighing whether your first investment should go into SEO or Google Ads, this case is the answer we gave a real client, with the reasoning and numbers behind the decision.

At the end of the article there is a checklist you can use on your own website right away.

We do not name the business or the competitor websites, for privacy.

1. The owner asked us to check both the website and the ads

The client is a transport company in Bangkok. 90% of its work is sending motorcycles between provinces across the country. The other 10% is moving goods and house moves. The business is properly registered, has cargo insurance, wraps bikes against scratches for free, and accepts cash on delivery.

The client got work from Facebook, LINE and TikTok, and had run some Google ads before, but was not sure what the website could do and was unsure whether to invest in SEO or Google Ads first.

We checked 4 areas:

• The existing website: the real pages, the pages indexed by Google, and the settings behind the scenes.
• 7 competitors: both those selling the same service and content sites that reach searchers first.
• Keywords from Ahrefs, split into a motorcycle group and a moving group, in line with the real business share.
• Past ads, and what must be in place before launching a new campaign.

2. What we found

A 3-year-old website that Google could barely see

This chart is the heart of the “SEO or Ads” question. While ads were running, visitors rose to almost 200 a month. When the ads stopped, they dropped to single digits. And in 12 months, not one person arrived from search.

Meanwhile, the number 1 competitor in this market, whose domain strength is also close to zero, got about 1,500–2,500 visitors from search every month of the same year, whether it ran ads or not.

Problems found, in order of importance

1. The hosting bot-protection system blocked search bots and AI bots When the pages, robots.txt or sitemap were requested by a normal bot, the server returned a “One moment, please…” page that waits for the browser to run a script, instead of the real content. So the bots of ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini could not read the site at all, and some Google bots were at risk of being blocked from time to time.

The fix is to have the host whitelist these bots and allow robots.txt and the sitemap to be reached without passing the bot-check page, then re-check in Search Console.

2. Page titles did not contain the words customers search for The home page title began with the word “Home”, and no page anywhere used “ขนส่งมอเตอร์ไซค์” (motorcycle transport) or “ส่งรถมอเตอร์ไซค์” (send a motorcycle), even though this is 90% of the business. The SEO plugin was building titles automatically as “Page name - Site name”. Every page used the same meta description word for word, and when links were shared on Facebook or LINE, the preview card showed broken text.

3. Theme demo pages were still indexed by Google The site had only 7 real pages, but bots could see more than 30 URLs. The rest were a “Hello world!” post, demo pages for sea, air and rail freight services the business does not offer, and automatic post archive pages. This confused Google about what the business actually does. Some demo pages also had the same content at two addresses.

4. The website system had not been updated for 22 months The page builder was stuck on an old version from 2024, while several security holes had been fixed since then. The author archive page also exposed the admin username as “admin”. A hacked site is the most expensive kind of SEO damage to repair, so this group of tasks has to come before everything else.

5. The business’s strengths were locked in images Google cannot read The 6 customer reviews were screenshots, with no real text and no schema, and there was no Google Business Profile. Yet the business had all the trust signals: a company registration number, cargo insurance, real videos of the scratch-protection wrapping process, and real reviews.

Almost nobody is competing for the keywords in this market

The moving and house-moving group, which is 10% of the business, is much harder (KD 14–45). We set it as a secondary goal, to tackle after the motorcycle group starts ranking, except for easy terms such as “รถกระบะรับจ้าง” (pickup truck for hire, KD 5).

What the competitors taught us

• This market is not limited by domain strength. Every competitor has a DR close to zero, the same as the client. The difference is that they have pages that answer the search terms directly, and links from a few hundred Thai business directory domains. That work can be matched within 1–2 months.
• One good service page is enough to bring in thousands of visitors. The number 1 competitor’s motorcycle page alone ranks for 104 keywords. It has prices, the process and reviews.
• A site with no links at all can still reach the top 5 if its page titles and content directly answer what people are searching for.
• Comparison articles reach people before competitors do. Two content sites that do not sell this service directly get thousands of visitors a month from articles on “how to send a vehicle to another province” and “sending by post”, then direct them to their own services.
• A Facebook page whose name matches the search term ranks number 2. The client’s page name does not say what the business does, so it should add “ขนส่งมอเตอร์ไซค์” (motorcycle transport) at the end.

3. The answer to the big question: SEO or Google Ads first?

This is the part the client most wanted to know, and the part other business owners can use right away. The answer depends on market conditions and the business’s cash position. There is no single formula that works everywhere.

Why this market should choose SEO if it can only pick one

1. The window of opportunity is open. Every main keyword is KD 0, and a site with no links can still reach the top 5. That will change as soon as any competitor invests seriously, and catching up later will cost far more.
2. SEO builds up; ads are rented. The client’s own chart shows ad visitors disappearing with the ads, while the number 1 competitor gets search visitors every month from work done once.
3. The wait is shorter than you think. In a KD 0 market, fixing page titles, unblocking bots and improving the main service page can move rankings within 4–8 weeks, not the 6–12 months of a highly competitive market.
4. The business already has channels that keep it going. The client has repeat customers, a page, LINE and TikTok. It is not in a position where the business stalls without website clicks.
5. The first month of SEO work is work ads need anyway. A good landing page, call and LINE tracking, and a privacy policy page are all requirements before running ads.

What you need before running Google Ads

• Tracking before launching a campaign. Count call taps, LINE taps and form submissions through Google Tag Manager. Never run ads without tracking, because you will not be able to optimise anything.
• Use a service page as the landing page, not the home page, and fix the main buttons that do not link anywhere yet.
• Split campaigns by business share. The motorcycle campaign gets the largest share, split into general shipping, interprovincial shipping, and big bikes or electric motorcycles.
• Add a full list of negative keywords. The word “มอเตอร์ไซค์” (motorcycle) is very broad and full of people buying a bike, renewing registration or looking for parts. You need to exclude terms such as post office, train, second-hand, instalments, down payment, compulsory insurance, tax renewal, parts and jobs. Otherwise the budget runs out on clicks from people who are not customers.
• Collect data in the first month, then let the system optimise automatically once enough contacts have come in.

The 6-month SEO plan

Something we said no to

During our talks, the client asked to see results from another transport company we look after, to compare how many customers were contacting them. We politely declined, because that is another client’s data and we have no right to share it.

The client came back, agreed to start work, and said that refusal showed them our professionalism. Your business’s data will be protected the same way.

Expected results

This table shows the targets in the report. These are not results that have happened yet. At the time of writing, the client has only just started work and the website is still in its original state. We will come back and update this once there is Search Console data.

The most important metric for this business is the number of call and LINE taps from the website, which was not being tracked at all at the time of the audit. So the first task is to set up tracking properly.

Checklist for transport and moving businesses

Open your website and answer each point.

Technical

• Search Google for site:yourdomain and you do not find theme demo pages such as “Hello world!”
• The website system and plugins were updated within the last 3 months, and there are automatic backups
• Your host’s bot protection does not block Googlebot or AI bots
• When you share a link on LINE, the preview card shows the right title and image

Content

• Page titles start with the words customers search for, such as “ส่งรถมอเตอร์ไซค์” (send a motorcycle), not “Home”
• The main service page has prices for each region, the process, required documents and FAQs
• Reviews are text Google can read, not just screenshots
• You have a Google Business Profile, and your Facebook page name says what you do

Ads

• You can track calls and LINE before running ads
• You have a negative keyword list to filter out people searching about buying a bike or renewing registration
• You have a privacy policy page

If you cannot tick more than half, your website is probably still missing a fair number of customers.

Questions business owners often ask us

Should I start with SEO or Google Ads? If you need orders this month, start with ads. If you want the better long-term return and the market is not yet very competitive, start with SEO. If you can do both, make SEO the main effort and use ads to keep calls coming while you wait.

My website has been live for years. Why is it still not ranking? A website’s age does not make it rank by itself. In this case the site was 3 years old, but its page titles did not contain the words people search for, theme demo pages were left behind, and bot protection was blocking some bots. These have to be fixed first.

I ran ads and then stopped. Why did all my visitors disappear? Because visitors from ads come in line with what you pay. When you stop paying, they stop coming. Rankings from SEO stay with the website even when you are not paying daily.

Do I need to move my website or build a new one? Not always. If the main page structure still works, clearing demo pages, updating the system, fixing page titles and improving the main service page can start to show results, as long as the host agrees to unblock the bots.

We audit and plan for businesses like this

If you run a transport business or any service customers find through Google, and you want to know whether to put your money into SEO or ads first, start with a free website audit, or see our SEO service and Google Ads service.