In August 2018, my client’s eCommerce website faced a severe blow from the Google Core Update, which caused a significant drop in rankings. The site, which was founded in 2014 and had become a leader in its niche, relied heavily on organic traffic. Additionally, the site had previously suffered a Google penalty that required a domain change for recovery. This double-hit made the recovery process even more challenging, especially for a site that housed over 650 products from 20+ brands and 80+ product categories.
Through trial, error, and strategic thinking, I managed to turn things around, achieving remarkable results that also led to the client offering me additional projects.
Initial Success: The First Blog Post
One of the first major successes came with a blog post I published, which quickly soared to the top 3 positions on Google, and it was a BIG keyword that I targeted. This small victory helped build trust with the client and laid the groundwork for more extensive SEO strategies.
Comprehensive Keyword Research and Silo Structure
I started with in-depth keyword research using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to find high-volume, low-competition keywords. This formed the foundation for organizing the website content into a silo structure, grouping related topics together to create a clear, logical site architecture.
I created new sub-collection pages targeting specific keywords for each main product category. These pages were enriched with detailed content, images, and user-generated reviews to enhance relevance and user experience. Inter-linking these sub-collection pages further boosted SEO and improved site navigation.
Optimizing Brand Pages
Each brand page was optimized for its primary and secondary keywords. I added rich, engaging content, including product descriptions, brand history, and customer testimonials. High-quality images and videos were also included to make the brand pages more appealing and informative.
Building High-Quality Backlinks
A targeted Digital PR campaign was launched, securing 14 high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites like DailyMail, NY Breaking, and Secret NYC. Most of these were do-follow links, adding substantial SEO value. Ongoing link building efforts included guest posts, collaborations, and industry directories to maintain a steady flow of link equity.
Fixing Technical SEO Issues
A comprehensive site audit identified and fixed technical SEO issues such as broken links, site speed optimization, and ensuring mobile-friendliness. Schema markup was implemented to enhance search engine understanding of the website content, improving SERP visibility with rich snippets. Proper use of canonical tags prevented duplicate content issues and consolidated link equity, and many, many more technical issues fixed.
Creating Topical Maps for Collection Pages
Detailed topical maps were created for each collection page, outlining related subtopics and content clusters. This established topical authority and improved content comprehensiveness. High-quality, in-depth content was developed based on these topical maps, ensuring each page covered its subject matter thoroughly and provided value to users. A strategic internal linking strategy was implemented within the topical maps to guide users through related content and enhance SEO.
Homepage Link Optimization Experiment
To reduce link bloat, the number of links on the homepage was reduced from 600 to around 100-200, focusing link equity on the most important pages. The impact of this change was monitored over a month. Although there was no significant immediate impact, it was part of a broader strategy to manage link equity effectively.
Results
- Organic Traffic Growth: Increased from approximately 3,000 to 25,000 according to Ahrefs.
- Keyword Rankings:
- Total ranking keywords rose from 9,446 to 17,139.
- Keywords ranking on the first page of Google grew from 868 to 2,590.
Conclusion
This case study highlights the importance of a multi-faceted SEO approach, especially when dealing with penalized and heavily affected websites. The strategic combination of technical SEO, content optimization, and effective backlink acquisition can lead to significant recovery and growth, even in competitive niches.
By leveraging these tactics, I was able to restore the client’s website to its former glory, achieving sustained high rankings and traffic growth. This success not only reinforced my SEO skills but also opened doors for future projects with the client.
If you’re struggling with similar SEO challenges or need help improving your website’s performance, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s discuss how we can achieve similar success for your business.