How a Design-Build Firm Went From Invisible Online to Recommended in AI Search

Blanco Design + Build now shows up where Miami’s luxury buyers look, with a strategy-led website, refreshed digital platforms and search content that put the firm ahead of most of its competitors in AI search within 90 days.

Lead Consultant: Katherine Cooper

CLIENT

Blanco Design + Build is a South Florida luxury residential builder that works as both a design-build firm and a general contractor. Founder and lead designer Sebastian Olarte, CEO Hank Bush and Director of Construction & Operations Esteban Navia lead a team that builds one-of-one homes from Coral Gables and Coconut Grove to Key Biscayne and Miami Beach. The firm has grown on referrals and a reputation for exceptional work.

CHALLENGE

Blanco’s reputation was strong in person but nearly invisible online. The website was dated, ranked for fewer than 10 search terms and drew fewer than 50 visitors a month, almost all of them people who already knew the name. The website did not capture what made Blanco’s work so special.

RESULTS

Over a 10-month fractional CMO engagement, Ascent Agency set Blanco’s marketing strategy and positioning, delivered a new website, two content pillars written from the owners’ own expertise and a refreshed digital presence. Website visits grew roughly tenfold in the first month after launch. Within 90 days Blanco was cited more often than most of its tracked competitors in AI search.

When the right client looks your company up online, what do they find?

The Ascent Difference

We gave a builder with a strong reputation a marketing strategy to match it, then built the website and content that made Blanco a name Miami buyers find.

A reputation the internet couldn't see

Blanco’s owners built a firm based on high-quality craftsmanship, carefully chosen materials and true partnership with their clients. What they didn’t have was a digital presence that reflected this. The old website opened on a slow landing page, featured a home outside of Miami and ranked for fewer than 10 search terms.

That gap mattered more than it looked. Ascent’s market research found real demand: thousands of luxury builder searches in South Florida a month, with most of them going to competitors. And even a referral checks a company’s digital presence. When a homeowner looks a builder up and finds a thin website, or nothing at all in an AI assistant’s answer, the referral loses weight before the first phone call.

Where Ascent Agency went to work

Ascent Agency stepped in as Blanco’s fractional CMO, and the work started with strategy rather than the website. In monthly working sessions with the owners, we defined how Blanco should be positioned, who it serves and how each service line gets sold. Everything that followed was built from that plan:

Marketing Strategy, Brand Voice and Value Propositions
Design-Build and General Contracting Positioning
Buyer Profiles and Target Neighborhood Strategy
General Contracting Growth Plan and Architect Outreach Research
PR Strategy and Agency Evaluation
Website Rebuild
Two Content Pillars for Google and AI Search, Built From Owner Workshops
Google Business Profile, Pinterest, Meta and LinkedIn Refresh

Final Deliverable: A Strategy-Led Marketing Program and the Website, Platforms and Content to Carry It

Our company was growing but not to its full potential. We had never concentrated on marketing. Having worked with Ascent on other projects, we knew exactly who we wanted to build an ongoing marketing program with. We engaged Katherine Cooper as our FCMO. Katherine and her team built a ground-up website along with an ongoing support system to optimize the website. We began to see positive results in the first month.

We will soon begin the next phase of marketing with Katherine managing a local Public Relations firm. Katherine and her team have significantly increased our digital footprint/presence and given us a clear direction for a marketing strategy that will certainly make us reach our full potential.

What the marketing strategy accomplished

Blanco now has one clear marketing direction. The website, the social and review profiles and the content all carry the same positioning: one-of-one homes, a concierge building experience and honest, all-in budgets from the first conversation. Design-build and general contracting each have their distinct service pages and their own path to a buyer, because clients find each service in different ways. The owners also have a plan for growth beyond the website, from industry relationships to press.

The new site launched in April 2026. In its first month, website visits grew roughly tenfold. Blanco went from ranking for fewer than 10 search terms to more than 60 and its pages appeared in search results more than 10,000 times. Within 90 days, Blanco was cited more often than most of their tracked competitors when AI assistants answered questions about Miami luxury home builders.

The real payoff is a marketing function that keeps building: Blanco signed on with Ascent Agency for another year to keep growing what the first engagement started.

Why visibility is now part of the referral

For luxury builders, referrals are usually a core part of the sales pipeline. However, a referred homeowner still checks the builder’s website, reviews and other online profiles, and increasingly asks an AI assistant what it knows about the firm. Contractors without a clear story online leave that answer to whatever the internet happens to hold, which is why owning your narrative in AI search matters.

A referral now gets checked online before the first call

When a prospect receives a referral, does your digital presence win you the job or quietly lose it? How would you know if this is the case? Ascent Agency’s fractional CMOs set the strategy first, then build the website, platforms, content, and KPI tracking that carry it.