Big Marlin GroupBottom line
Renton has nearly as many homeowners as the Seattle territory (35,500 vs 40,300), so the market isn’t the problem. Google Maps is: in 20 searches like “blinds near me” across Renton, Budget Blinds of Renton never made Google’s top 3 map spots. Northwest Window Coverings was #1 in 17, with just 30 reviews.
Seattle is weaker still. Its Google listing is registered to an address in Kirkland, so it never reached the top 3 on the map inside Seattle.
1Who’s winning
Top 3 map spots out of 20 searches like “blinds near me,” from seven neighborhoods in each territory.
Show as tables, with locations
Renton
| Company | Google rating | Top 3 spots |
|---|---|---|
| Northwest Window Coverings (downtown Renton) | 5.0 (30 reviews) | 20 |
| Pugerudes (Kent) | 4.9 (181) | 8 |
| Stoneside Blinds & Shades (Bellevue) | 4.8 (30) | 7 |
| CUNAM Shades & Blinds (Tukwila) | 5.0 (8) | 6 |
| Newport Custom Shutters (Redmond) | 4.7 (23) | 5 |
| The Blind Store (Bellevue) | 4.8 (18) | 3 |
| Budget Blinds of Renton | 4.9 (20) | 0 |
Seattle
| Company | Google rating | Top 3 spots |
|---|---|---|
| Stoneside Blinds & Shades (downtown) | 4.9 (514) | 14 |
| Jet City Blinds (downtown) | 4.9 (1,243) | 14 |
| The Shade Store (Queen Anne) | 4.9 (134) | 14 |
| Newport Custom Shutters (Fremont) | 5.0 (4) | 6 |
| Seattle Custom Blinds (downtown) | 3.9 (22) | 5 |
| Wessco Blinds (Queen Anne) | 4.8 (198) | 2 |
| Lumen Blinds (Ballard) | 4.9 (37) | 2 |
| Budget Blinds of Seattle | 4.7 (81) | 0 |
2How Budget Blinds compares
| Renton | Seattle | |
|---|---|---|
| Top 3 map spots, searches like “blinds near me” | 0 of 20 | 0 of 20 |
| Top 3 map spots, searches that include the city (“blinds renton”) | 11 of 11 | 0 of 12 |
| Website in the top 2, searches like “blinds near me” | 9 of 14 | 0 of 14 |
The Renton website does well. The Renton map listing only appears when people type “Renton,” and only about 10 searches a month do that; about 440 don’t.
Competitors with their own websites also pull far more Google traffic than the Budget Blinds territory pages: about 1,000 visits a month for seattleblinds.com and about 570 each for Wessco and Pugerudes, vs about 80 for budgetblinds.com/seattle.
3Why Renton lags
Too few Renton reviews. The Renton listing got 6 reviews in the past year; the Seattle listing got 25.
The Renton web page points to the Seattle listing. The Renton listing links correctly to the Renton page, but the link doesn’t go both ways: the page’s Google icon and phone number both belong to the Seattle listing (Kirkland address, (206) 262-0387). The Renton listing uses (206) 876-8556. Google sees the Renton page tied to Seattle instead of Renton.
Budget Blinds of Kent competes for Renton. Kent is separately owned but is assigned downtown Renton (zip 98057, about 12,700 people) and lists Renton among its cities. Its blog posts use “Renton” in their titles (for example, blackout shades and sliding door blinds “in Renton”) and outranked the Renton pages on two of our checks. Searching “budget blinds” from central Renton shows Kent first and Budget Blinds of Renton 11th.
4Seattle
- The listing is in Kirkland (8802 122nd Ave NE), outside the territory, so it ranks only #6 to #17 on the map in Seattle neighborhoods.
- Other Budget Blinds franchises take the website spot. The West Seattle and Seattle NW pages rank on Seattle searches; the Seattle page rarely does.
5The two homepages
The Renton and Seattle pages are nearly identical copies of the corporate template with the city name swapped. Neither gives Google or a shopper much reason to pick them:
- Local content is one paragraph. Each page names its neighborhoods once. The “We’re Local and It Shows” section is generic text with nothing about Renton or Seattle.
- Renton has no reviews on the page. Seattle shows testimonials; Renton doesn’t, even though the Renton listing has 20 reviews at 4.9 stars.
- No page description for Google. Neither page has a meta description, so Google writes its own snippet.
- Nothing sets them apart. No local project photos, no FAQ, and nothing on what competitors lead with (Northwest Window Coverings sells itself as a Hunter Douglas dealer).
- The review bar is high. Jet City Blinds has 1,243 reviews and Stoneside 514, vs 81.
6What we recommend
- Send Renton customers the Renton review linkReviewsAbout 15 more reviews would pass Northwest Window Coverings’ 30. Who: the owners ask; BMG makes the link and QR code.
- Point the Renton web page at the Renton listingWebsiteFix the page’s Google link and phone number. Who: BMG, or HFC if corporate controls those fields.
- Strengthen the Renton listingGoogle MapsTest “Window treatment store” as the main category (most listings beating Renton use it), post Renton job photos weekly, and list the business on Yelp, Houzz and BBB. Who: BMG, with photos from the owners.
- Settle the Renton overlap with Budget Blinds of KentHFCAsk HFC to confirm the territory line (Kent has downtown Renton, 98057; Renton has 98055, 98056, 98058 and 98059) and agree how each franchise uses “Renton” in blog titles and listings, so the two aren’t competing for the same searches. Also agree on handing off leads that land in the wrong territory. Who: the owners, with HFC.
- Rewrite the local sections of both homepagesWebsiteGive each page its own intro built around its neighborhoods and homes (Renton’s single-family houses; Seattle’s condos and older homes in Capitol Hill, Queen Anne and Magnolia), add Renton reviews and local project photos, a short FAQ, and a meta description. Who: BMG drafts; the owners approve; HFC publishes anything BMG can’t edit.
How we checked: live Google searches on September 24, 2026 through DataForSEO (BMG’s SEO data tool, similar to SEMrush) from seven neighborhoods per territory; ratings from each Google listing; homeowner counts from the US Census; website traffic is a DataForSEO estimate.