In the highly competitive world of direct-to-consumer (DTC) supplements, businesses often face the challenge of relying too heavily on paid advertising. A DTC supplements business approached us with a clear goal: to diversify their revenue streams by boosting organic traffic and increasing sales from organic sources. This case study outlines our journey, strategies, and the remarkable results achieved over a six-month campaign.
Initial Challenges
The client was heavily dependent on paid ads, which posed a significant risk to their long-term sustainability. They sought to reduce this dependency by improving their organic search performance. However, their budget constraints and a lack of internal resources to support SEO efforts were major hurdles. Despite these challenges, our mission was clear: to help them rank higher for key money keywords and increase their organic traffic and revenue.
Strategy and Implementation
Technical SEO Audit
Our campaign began with a thorough technical SEO audit to identify and fix issues that could hinder search engine performance. Key areas of focus included:
- Internal 301 redirects
- Canonicalized URLs
- Broken internal links
- Broken backlinks
- Website performance
- etc.
This comprehensive audit ensured that the website was technically sound, providing a strong foundation for our SEO efforts.
Keyword Research and Optimization
Next, we conducted extensive keyword research, prioritizing keywords that aligned with the client’s goals and had high conversion potential. Our criteria for selecting keywords included:
- Low competition with high traffic potential
- High CPC (Cost Per Click), indicating high conversion potential
- Relevant user intent
This strategic keyword selection laid the groundwork for the entire campaign, ensuring that our efforts targeted the most valuable opportunities.
Blog Analysis and Optimization
The client’s website had a significant number of blogs (200) with no clear direction. We performed a detailed analysis and categorized the blogs as follows:
- Poor traffic and no backlinks: Delete and remove internal links.
- Poor traffic and some backlinks: Delete and redirect to a relevant page.
- Good traffic: Keep if published within six months; update if older than six months.
This optimization ensured that the blog content contributed positively to the site’s overall SEO health.
Topical Map and Silo Structure
To build topical authority, we created a detailed topical map for the target collection page. This involved:
- Silo structure: Organizing content into parent topics and sub-topics, interlinking them strategically.
- Funnel system: Guiding users through the sales funnel from informational content to purchase decisions.
This approach helped establish the client as an authority in their niche, boosting their search engine rankings.
Execution
Content Creation and Optimization
We created and optimized new collection pages and existing pages, ensuring they were fully optimized for their target keywords. This included:
- On-page SEO: Title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and keyword optimization.
- Internal linking: Using natural anchor text variations to signal the importance of the collection pages to search engines.
Backlink Building
Given budget constraints, we focused on building high-quality backlinks from relevant websites within the client’s niche. Over 40 backlinks were acquired, primarily to the target collection page, but also to supporting blogs and the homepage. This diversified link profile enhanced the overall authority of the website.
Results
The results of our six-month campaign were impressive:
- Ranked #1 for the main target money keyword: Successfully outranking Amazon.
- Increased organic traffic: From nearly zero to 1,600 daily organic visitors on the target page alone.
- Boosted organic revenue: Significant increase in sales from organic traffic.
- Expanded keyword rankings: The collection page ranked for 387 money keywords, demonstrating the compound effect of our SEO efforts.
Conclusion
Our strategic approach and relentless execution delivered outstanding results for the DTC supplements business. By addressing technical SEO issues, optimizing content, building a robust topical map, and acquiring high-quality backlinks, we were able to transform their organic search performance.
Although the client had to discontinue the campaign due to financial constraints, the foundation we built has set them up for continued success. The increased site authority and improved keyword rankings will benefit their organic search performance in the long term.
Final Thoughts
SEO is a long-term investment that requires consistent effort and strategic planning. The success of this campaign underscores the importance of selecting the right keywords, optimizing content, and building a strong backlink profile. Despite the client’s initial reliance on ads and budget limitations, our SEO strategies proved to be highly effective, delivering impressive results in a relatively short period.
SEO’s true magic lies in its ability to not only achieve targeted keyword rankings but also to capture a wide array of related keywords, driving substantial organic traffic and revenue growth. This case study demonstrates the significant ROI that a well-executed SEO campaign can deliver, even within a constrained budget.
By understanding and addressing the unique challenges of the DTC supplements business, we were able to create a customized SEO strategy that delivered remarkable results, proving that with the right approach, SEO can indeed be a powerful tool for driving business growth and diversifying revenue streams.