We’ve helped dozens of businesses rank up, grow their teams, and take that big step back. We lead with top-notch SERVICE and deliver next-level RESULTS. Click below to see if we’re a fit.
When you work with an agency that’s laser-focused on results you can expect up-and-to-the-right results.
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You’re told to “trust the process,” but 12 months later, you’re still holding onto underwhelming results.
Your main contact has changed three times in a year, and each time you have to get them up to speed, losing months of progress.
Even a quick website tweak turns into a support ticket that disappears for weeks. Is your website even yours anymore?
From upselling overpriced ad campaigns to “niched-down” agencies pushing templated strategies, many agencies get you to spend more while they work less.
Ann Arbor isn’t a blank map dot. A few things actually shape how local search works here:
The University of Michigan changes the math. With tens of thousands of students, staff, and visitors moving through the city, searches in categories like healthcare, dining, and housing get pulled toward university-affiliated results. A smaller local business needs sharper signals to show up next to that, not just a page with “Ann Arbor” in the title.
“Ann Arbor” isn’t one place, SEO-wise. The city itself, Ann Arbor Township, Pittsfield Township, and Scio Township are all legally distinct, and Google’s map results shift depending on exactly where a search happens. A business serving the whole area needs a strategy built around that.
We never promise #1 rankings. We promise consistent effort. That effort has helped clients grow their teams, sign long-term leases, and stick with us well beyond month 12.
We pay livable wages to build careers, not revolving doors. With us, you’ll always get direct access to people who know your business.
Most requests get a response within hours and fixes within a day. We’ve invested heavily to create systems that prevent mistakes. But we’re humans, and If something slips, we own it, fix it, and learn.
We specialize in local SEO. Not ads. Not social media. That’s why we rank so high when you search “seo near me.” We won’t upsell you, we just provide SEO strategy and done-for-you local services that work.
Your competitors will keep showing up on Google whether do SEO or not. The difference is, with the right partner, you can start showing up above them and finally get the steady leads your business deserves.
We follow a systematic approach that’s delivered results for dozens of service businesses just like yours. We don’t do Guess-E-O.
The first month is where everything begins. Most agencies shoot from the hip… we don’t. Every decision we make is data-driven. We start by:
You’ll get a complete strategy document we will review together to make sure your SEO goals align perfectly with your business goals.
Once you approve the strategy, we put it into action. We’ll create or rework your website pages to reflect what your customers are searching for. These are your money pages because that’s what actually drives revenue from search.
Building a solid foundation at the beginning is the heavy lifting other agencies skip or only half-do. We get it right the first time and don’t get distracted by tactics that don’t work.
SEO isn’t “set it and forget it.” With your foundation established, we focus on building authority – the key to ranking higher over time. And as your business grows and AI search evolves, we keep looking for new ways to win… wherever your potential clients are searching.
Building a solid foundation at the beginning is the heavy lifting other agencies skip or only half-do. We get it right the first time and don’t get distracted by tactics that don’t work.
You don’t want to keep switching SEO agencies. Our goal is to stay in your corner long-term by helping you rank higher, generate more leads, and adapt to every new opportunity that comes your way.
SEO TLC Plan (96% of our clients choose this)
SEO TLC Plan
(96% of our clients choose this)
Response Time
Team Size
Personal Attention
SEO Methods
Cost
Strategy Development
Access to Team
Resources and Data Quality
Hours
One Person
Guess-E-O
One Perspective
Limited Tools
1 Business Day
6 People
Proven framework,
Custom to your biz
Collaborative Team Approach
Pro Tools
Sometimes Weeks
Dozens to Hundreds
Cookie Cutter
Changes as team
members turnover
Pro Tools
Codi W. | bend home connection
Andrea E. | Peoples Insurance
Derek W. | SEO Client
Thencan is a recognized web design and SEO company located in Bend, Oregon serving clients all over the US and Canada.
You probably started your business to have more freedom in your life. Me too. You care about your clients, do great work, and that’s exactly why you’ve been successful. But now you’re buried in the day-to-day, overworked, and hiring more help isn’t in the cards.
That’s why I started Thencan. I wanted to help contractors who do great work, to level up their businesses. Our clients have grown their teams, opened new locations, signed long-term leases, and, even taken real time off. I’m talking about vacations with family, camping off-grid, and doing so without everything falling apart in their absence.
We can’t build your internal systems for you, but we can help you bring in the business that gives you the breathing room to do it. Maybe you’ve tried SEO before and got burned… I hate that. But read our dozens of 5-star reviews or watch a few of our 100+ YouTube videos, and you’ll quickly see how much we care about this work.
I built a team that shares a passion for doing SEO well, and we’re here to help you rank higher, book more jobs, and take that big step back.
Sam Sarsten
Thencan Owner & Founder
“When it comes to SEO, Sam is THE Pro you want.”
I’m based right here in Ann Arbor, about 15 minutes from the Big House, and I help run the systems behind Thencan’s Local SEO work. Local search comes down to the same few things everywhere: Google needs to understand what you do, where you do it, and whether you’re worth recommending. I’ve seen that system work for established businesses in Oregon, and wanted to bring it home to the Mitten state.
I’m not your account manager (we’ve got another awesome woman for that), but if you’re curious whether this makes sense for your business, I’m an easy person to ask.
Eleanor Harper-Dutt
Operations | Ann Arbor, MI
Ann Arborite & Wolverine by Proxy
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Sick of working with digital marketing agencies that forget about you after you’ve signed a contract? We’re different. We’re a lean agency that’s laser-focused on getting you real results.
Our monthly SEO plans for service-based businesses in Ann Arbor require a 12-month commitment.
This helps deliver better results to our clients and evens out the set-up costs of our SEO services over time.
After the first 12 months, we’ll sit down and find the right ongoing “SEO Care Plan” for where your business is at.
You may not know this, but many agencies that have “monthly website plans” are actually only having you rent the site – we don’t like that!
Think about it like you are financing the site over the year. As long as you pay for the site in full, the site is 100% yours at the end of the year. We always try to make it easy for you to have administrative access and ensure you are the owner of the website.
We specialize in doing local SEO for small businesses that serve local customers. That includes building websites. Typically, these are “service-based businesses.”
When it comes to websites, we can almost guarantee that we can build a website for your business. Unless:
You sell products on your website (we make exceptions for a few products, but if it’s hundreds, or your inventory changes regularly, let us know, we have referral partners). That’s pretty much it 😉
We may not be the best fit for your business if:
Trust me, if we had a crystal ball that could guarantee results, we’d use that power for something wayyy cooler than SEO 😆
By the way, if you come across an SEO agency that does promise results, either:
At Thencan Designs, we echo what our founder told his very first SEO clients: “I can’t promise I’ll get you to rank #1, but I do promise I’ll work my ass off for your business.”
Our primary core value is service. We aim to provide the best service you’ll get from an SEO agency — and that includes delivering results. Trust us, if we’re not getting you results yet, we’re losing sleep over it. However, many of our clients have seen AMAZING results, and we hope that’s what happens for you, too.
Fill out our contact form and tell us a bit about what you’re looking for. We’ll get in touch and let you know how we can help.
While we specialize in WordPress websites because they offer the most flexibility and control for local SEO, we can make limited updates and SEO improvements on sites built with Wix or Squarespace.
For ongoing SEO work or more complex optimization, WordPress is typically the best fit, and we’ll recommend it when it will meaningfully improve results.
Yes! Check out how we helped George, a woodworker in Bend go from an empty shop to a full shop with two assistants.
We always follow Google’s “best practices” and never implement anything on a client’s site that goes against Google’s terms of service. Our TLC Method and is created to take into account the most important ranking factors for local SEO.
We won’t do anything spammy to your website. We don’t follow clickbait-y trends on YouTube. And we don’t change our tactics with every new SEO story that pops up on social media.
That said, SEO is a rapidly changing industry. We believe in SEO testing and are constantly iterating on our system. But the foundations of local SEO are simple and consistent — basically boiling down to 3 non-negotiables:
That’s it. We do these 3 things and we do them well. No spam needed.
If you serve local customers, clients, or patients, then you need to be thinking about local SEO.
However, if you don’t make an average of $500+ per customer (or about $1000 per year, per client), then it’s true that paying someone else to do your local SEO for your is probably not a viable option. (And once your company gets big enough, you will probably have someone internally doing your SEO.)
But if you’re in between those markers (more than $500 per client, but not enough clients to hire an SEO full-time), then we’re the perfect fit.
Still not sure if local SEO services are right for you? Get Your Free SEO Strategy Review, and we’ll let you know if you’re a good fit!
Short answer: Maybe.
Long answer: We don’t do the risky stuff, but we don’t know what the SEO agency did before us until we look.
The good news is that if you’ve never done SEO before and/or you’re not ranking well for your main keywords, then there is almost no risk. In these scenarios, we’ll see some fun results quickly (i.e., get you to begin “showing up” quickly but it always takes time to “rise up” in the search results).
If you’re already ranking well, there are certain considerations we have to make – especially if your site hasn’t been updated in a while. We’ve had clients’ sites that were so old neither we nor they could update them. In those cases, we perform an “SEO migration” aimed at retaining their rankings. This can involve some risk, but the long-term results are worth it. And sometimes we get lucky — with one SEO site migration we went from 2nd to 1st overnight — and can now update their site regularly. SEO migrations are one of our specialties.
There are also certain actions that can suspend Google Business Profiles (changing addresses, business names). We’ve helped several of our clients get unsuspended successfully, and as your SEO, we would be glad to reach out to Google on your behalf.
If you serve local customers, clients, or patients, then you need to be thinking about local SEO.
However, if you don’t make an average of $500+ per customer (or about $1000 per year, per client), then it’s true that paying someone else to do your local SEO for your is probably not a viable option. (And once your company gets big enough, you will probably have someone internally doing your SEO.)
But if you’re in between those markers (more than $500 per client, but not enough clients to hire an SEO full-time), then we’re the perfect fit!
If you’re just getting started out, check out our founder’s YouTube channel, where he gives away A TON of great SEO content.
Still not sure if local SEO services are right for you? Get Your Free SEO Strategy Review, and we’ll let you know if you’re a good fit!
Free AI Visibility Snapshot
See exactly how your business shows up when people ask ChatGPT and Gemini for a recommendation. Watch an example here!
Free local seo strategy video
Get a free video, personalized for your business, showing your next 3 moves to get found, and booked.
