This client is an ecommerce site in the home space and wanted to begin growing revenue via SEO (AIO and GEO now too because why not). The issue is they need to compete with the big brands like Home Depot, Walmart, and Lowes that have a larger product selection and can compete on price. The products and services they offer are something normally done with local shopping and this is an online small business, not a national brand with brick and mortar in all major cities.
It was a huge yes for us because the owners turned out to be awesome once I’d finished the initial SEO audit. While I love working on enterprise level accounts because the data is fun and gratification can be fast once implemented, small business SEO can be more rewarding as you get more control and you see the full impact across the entire company.
The difference between enterprise SEO and a small company is that enterprise SEO is 70% to 80% of the time explaining what and why things need done, then repeating yourself. Small business SEO is 70% to 80% of the time doing the work and 20% sharing what others can do to pitch in to save everyone time.
We’re hitting the one year mark soon and the results speak for themselves. Below you’ll see the success we’ve had with their SEO program and the steps we took to achieve the results.
The Results
Here’s two screenshots before we jump into the process and steps we took to get the results. The core update was when Google took note of our efforts over the year and began rewarding us with larger gains.
6 Months Progress Screenshot
3 Month YOY Screenshot
How We Did It
Magic! That’s it, end of the case study. You’re welcome.
To get the results above we stuck to SEO principles and content principles. Sometimes simple and basic is all that is needed. When everyone else is chasing silver bullets, you have the opportunity to win by focusing on fundamentals.
We analyzed what consumers want, where the big brands are failing consumers, and how we can meet the customer’s needs. Each item on the page from images to product copy and guides to complete a task are there to provide simple answers to consumer questions, or information that helps them make decisions.
The things we did not do are:
- Link building – links matter, but link building likely doesn’t in most cases now. A good site attracts them naturally, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work on doing actual PR.
- Keyword stuffing and topic clustering – we write for the users, not for the search engines. Look at the entity and become an authority.
- Worrying about word counts or competing pages. Word counts are fake metrics and competing pages can be fixed with tech SEO.
- Creating unique pages for each topic. This became a bad practice a long time ago.
- Worrying about total clicks, pageviews, etc… as this is an ecommerce site and not a publishing site.
Here’s what we did do.
Tech Fixes
The project started with an SEO audit like most of ours do. The site was in reasonably good shape so we did some clean up and enhancements.
- Turned on schema
- Built internal links
- Made sure headers were being used properly
- Removed excess images and files that didn’t matter
- Deleted excess products, code, etc…
- Set 301 redirects from pages that had traffic but were no longer needed to the next best experience, and deleted the ones that were not needed anymore
In the next iterations we’ll likely test more advanced schema libraries.
Deleted Excess Pages
The site had content written without a goal (but was important to the company so it does matter) or chose branding over function, so we replaced it with more actionable information. We also found examples where products were reuploaded when product pages already existed, and in some cases had duplicate category/collection pages (depending on if you’re from shopify or a different platform).
We took groupings of pages that all solved for the same consumer need and deleted ones that didn’t matter, kept ones that did, and in a few specific cases, redirected a couple to the main page.
Some of the pages seemed like excess ones at first, but when we read through them they served two different needs. For these ones we reworked the copy, imagery, and user experience to meet the consumer where they are in their shopping process. This way the consumers trust the site and know we’re here to provide information, guide to finding the right tool, service, or system, and we also sell the products or offer the service when they’re ready to shop.
Added Content to Needed Spaces
Some pages provided solutions, but no way for users to know if they were the right ones. For these I talked to customer support (who is also the copywriter because again, small business) and we figured out which pages needed what answered. Live chat and support databases are amazing for this.
Now we added the content into the product and category pages, we changed up internal links, created printables and guides, fixed blog posts to better answer questions, and in some cases where people would buy the wrong size or product, we added in which they should go with and why. The goal here is a better UX and less returns.
Replaced and Deleted Thin Content
Every site has thin content including new and old. Something I write today I may see in one year and think “what was I thinking” and refresh it. If the content is there just to be there and nobody has emotional attachment to it, delete it. If the content does serve a purpose and helps the user (even if it isn’t for SEO), keep it. It can be refreshed, noindexed, etc… The main thing is to make sure the majority of pages on the website serves a purpose and helps the person.
The result is the client gaining visibility in AIO, GEO, and traffic in SEO for conversion oriented queries. It could be someone doing research, or someone ready to purchase. We built a user experience that meets them at each step, and helped search engines and LLMs know which page should show up for a user based on their current step in the shopping process. This way the customer does not have to click around and keep searching.
