Optimise Online and The Grout Guy are finalists in the Global Digital Excellence Awards 2026, in the Standout B2C Website of the Year category. The shortlisted website was built for one practical job: helping people across five Australian states find the right local service quickly.
The official 2026 shortlist places us in the category alongside AS Watson & The Perfume Shop, and Reffine & MG Motor Middle East. Winners are due to be announced on Thursday 22 October 2026 at 11am BST, which is 6pm in Perth. Until then, we are finalists. It is good company to be in.
The job the website had to do
The Grout Guy restores tiles and grout in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland. Someone with a failing shower in one suburb is asking a local question. One national message can only answer it in general terms.
So we built the website in layers. State, then city, then suburb. A separate services cluster sits beside those location pages, and the two are linked so a visitor can move between the service they need and the place they need it. Paid search followed suit. Each state has its own Google Ads account, which means WA, VIC, NSW, SA and QLD can be managed and measured as five separate markets.
The results behind it
The numbers are on the public record, in our Grout Guy case study. Cost per click fell from $9 to $1.10 in the first weeks after the paid search rebuild. Overall cost per lead, which Brad Young had reported at $140 or more, came down to below $70.
Across the five states, average Google Ads cost per lead moved from $44.54 to $29.03 over the first five months. Google Search Console impressions rose from 318,002 to 850,222 in six months, an increase of 167%. Paid search conversions grew from 9,422 to 15,094, measured when the new structure was only three weeks old.
These figures come from different parts of the work and different reporting periods. They show what happened for this client, in this market, with this starting point, and none of it is a forecast for anyone else.
Brad has praised the team’s ethics and the way it has delivered results with less spend. He has also said the new site is clearly converting better.
What the finalist place tells a prospective client
The award is for the website. We do not know how the judges weighed each part of the entry, so we will not claim the shortlist proves any one number. What it does give you is an outside check: an international awards programme looked at the website and put it on its shortlist.
The work itself is better evidence. If you run a local service business, look at whether a customer can find your service and their area without hunting for it. Then ask whether you can see which markets bring in enquiries. Good design should help with both.
Frequently asked questions
Which award is The Grout Guy website a finalist for?
Optimise Online and The Grout Guy are finalists for Standout B2C Website of the Year in the Global Digital Excellence Awards 2026. You can see the category on the official shortlist page linked above.
When are the winners announced?
The awards programme says winners will be announced on Thursday 22 October 2026 at 11am BST (6pm in Perth). This article announces the finalist place only. It does not report a win.
What did Optimise Online build for The Grout Guy?
We built a website with linked state, city and suburb pages, plus a separate services cluster. The wider engagement included organic search work and five separate state Google Ads accounts. The case study explains the decisions in more detail.
Can another business expect the same results?
No one should promise that. Results depend on the market, competition, budget, starting position and how the business handles enquiries. The case study shows what happened for The Grout Guy, and it is a useful reference rather than a guarantee.
See the work behind the shortlist
A finalist place is welcome. The work underneath it is what you can check. Read The Grout Guy case study to see the structure and results in full.
If your customers need to find you across several suburbs, cities or states, book a conversation with our team. How easy does your website make that local choice today?
