Aetherhaus
Aetherhaus grew organic traffic by 686% in 3 months, ranking #1 for "cold plunge Vancouver" and #5 for "ice bath and sauna," driving steady new memberships.
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Introduction and Overview
*Ongoing collaboration
Aetherhaus is an ice bath and sauna company based in Vancouver’s West End, offering both guided and free-flow thermal sessions. From silent immersions to lively community gatherings, their Davie Street location provides a premium space for contrast therapy.
Before our engagement, however, Aetherhaus faced a major challenge: despite their strong in-person presence, their online visibility was weak. Competitors such as Kolm Kontrast and Tality consistently ranked much higher in search results, drawing in the digital audience that Aetherhaus was missing.
Our work set out to change that. By addressing technical barriers, building a foundation of high-intent content, strengthening brand mentions and backlinks, and ensuring consistency across local listings, we positioned Aetherhaus to compete directly with - and outperform - those established names.
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The Challenge
Aetherhaus had everything working in their favour offline - a prime West End location on Davie Street, a beautifully designed space, and growing word-of-mouth from early guests. But as a newer company, their search presence across Google and ChatGPT was almost non-existent.
Competitors like Kolm Kontrast and Tality were already well-established in search results, dominating the exact keywords Aetherhaus needed to capture, such as “cold plunge Vancouver” and “ice bath and sauna.” Despite being perfectly placed in the city, Aetherhaus was buried on page six for high-intent searches, leaving them invisible to the very people actively looking for their services.
The opportunity was clear: if Aetherhaus could translate their physical presence into digital visibility, they could compete head-to-head with the market leaders and quickly become a top choice for Vancouver residents seeking sauna and cold plunge sessions.
What We Did
Our Solution
To transform Aetherhaus from a hidden name into a discoverable leader, we built a comprehensive SEO program that touched every critical pillar: content, authority, reviews, and technical performance.
1. Content Strategy and On-Page Optimization
We began by conducting deep keyword research to uncover high-intent, low-competition opportunities specific to Vancouver’s cold plunge and sauna market. Terms like “cold plunge Vancouver” and “ice bath and sauna” were identified as essential battlegrounds.
We restructured metadata and on-page copy to naturally integrate these terms without sacrificing brand voice.
Created new content assets around benefits, usage, and recovery science to educate visitors while signaling topical authority to search engines.
Built a strong internal linking framework that guided both users and crawlers toward key conversion pages.
Encouraged Aetherhaus to amplify this content through their email newsletter, bringing existing community members back to the site and signaling engagement to Google.
2. Link Building and Local Authority
Visibility required authority. We:
Secured placements in niche publications and local directories relevant to health, fitness, and lifestyle.
Audited unlinked mentions of Aetherhaus across the web, converting them into backlinks that built domain strength.
Standardized NAP (Name, Address, Phone) across platforms like Apple Maps, TripAdvisor, and Yellow Pages, ensuring consistency and trust with local SEO algorithms.
Grew referring domains by over 50%, giving Aetherhaus the backlink profile to compete with established players like Kolm Kontrast and Tality.
3. Review and Reputation Management
During competitive analysis, we noticed that rivals had a strong advantage in reviews. To close the gap, we:
Created staff training workflows for requesting authentic, organic feedback without incentives.
Built in gentle prompts for guests at the right touchpoints of their visit.
In just six weeks, Aetherhaus gained over 50 new reviews averaging 4.5/5 stars, dramatically improving local pack visibility and credibility with searchers.
4. Technical Improvements
We conducted a full technical SEO audit to remove the barriers that were preventing the site from being properly indexed:
Improved site speed by compressing images, streamlining scripts, and optimizing hosting performance.
Fixed broken internal links and ensured mobile responsiveness across all devices.
Implemented structured data markup (schema) for services like “sauna” and “cold plunge” to strengthen contextual understanding.
Cleaned and resubmitted XML sitemaps while correcting indexing issues in Google Search Console to accelerate discovery of new pages.
Tightened internal navigation, ensuring a logical crawl path and smoother user journeys.
The Results
In three months, Aetherhaus transformed from digital obscurity to becoming one of Vancouver's most visible names for cold plunge and sauna experiences. The results were explosive, measurable, and sustained across traffic, engagement, and search performance.
1. Explosive Organic Traffic Growth
Monthly organic visitors surged from 467 to 3,673 — a 686% increase (nearly 8x growth).
Organic search quickly became their fastest-growing and highest-quality acquisition channel, surpassing paid and direct traffic.
2. Dominant Keyword Rankings
"Cold plunge Vancouver" reached #1 on Google.
"Ice bath and sauna" jumped from position 58 to #5.
Multiple location-specific terms, including "bathhouse Vancouver" and "sauna Vancouver," broke into the top 3.
In total, 15+ new keywords entered top-tier rankings, capturing high-intent searchers across the funnel.
3. Unmatched Engagement and Loyalty
Returning users skyrocketed from 107 to 1,051 — an 882% increase that signaled strong brand recognition and trust.
Organic visitors averaged 51 seconds per session — the highest engagement time across all marketing channels.
53.4% returning user rate — the best retention performance across every traffic source.
Over 70,000 event interactions — clicks, scrolls, and conversions that demonstrated genuine interest, not just passive browsing.
4. Authority and Reputation Gains
Referring domains increased by 50%, strengthening domain authority and competitive positioning.
Over 50 new customer reviews averaging 4.5/5 stars boosted local SEO signals and improved credibility in competitive map packs.
5. AI Search Visibility Achieved
Aetherhaus now ranks #2 in ChatGPT for "What are the best sauna studios in Vancouver?"
Appears in AI-driven search results through Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), expanding discoverability beyond traditional search engines.
6. Technical Foundations Secured
Site speed, mobile responsiveness, structured data, and clean indexing established a future-proof technical SEO foundation.
With crawlability and indexation barriers removed, new content now achieves faster visibility in search results.
7. Revenue Impact
50% increase in revenue within 2 weeks of implementing the SEO strategy, with sustained month-over-month growth.
Together, these results positioned Aetherhaus not only to compete with established players like Kolm Kontrast and Tality, but to outrank them in core searches and build long-term digital authority in Vancouver's sauna and cold plunge market.
