The client is a Los Angeles area wholesale supplier & manufacturer in the eye-wear industry.
The Problem
Not ranking on first page for competitive target keywords. The main keywords are responsible for over 90% of sales from organic traffic through Google.
The Goal
Increase keyword rankings in order to increase organic traffic and sales from the website.
The Results
I was able to get them to rank consistently in the top 5 positions for their competitive primary keyword which has about 8,100 searches per month.
Several less competitive secondary keywords moved to top positions in the search engine results page.
By the Numbers
From April 1, 2019 to Feb 29, 2020
Increased e-commerce revenue by 321.97% from $6,643.40 to $28,032.93
Increased new users to the site by 166.62% from 7,816 to 20,839 new users.
The Process
Step 1: Set up tracking
Tracking is one of the most important things you need to have. Otherwise you won't be able to measure your progress.
I started off by making sure Google Analytics was setup properly and added goals to track newsletter signups and customer inquiries for custom products, and for the contact us form.
I also installed Google Tag Manager with custom events such as outbound link tracking and page scroll depth.
Step 2: Research & Analysis
Competitor Research
I looked at competitors to see their:
- Keyword rankings
- Content
- Backlink profile
Keyword Research
I researched potential article topics as well as product based keywords using Ahrefs (a comprehensive SEO tool).
Market Research
I analyzed the sites on page 1 of our targeted keywords. I also reviewed similar sites that sold directly to consumers in order to see their approaches and to get a better overall picture of the eye-wear market.
Review current data
Next, I went through their Google Analytics data to determine the first pages to focus on first.
I also looked at Google Search Console to see what their top keywords were.
Step 3: Audit & On-page Optimization
I conduced an audit to determine if there were any issues that needed to be fixed.
These are the most important factors for each page:
- H1 tag
- Title
- URL
- Subheadings
- Content
I also went through and updated the title and meta descriptions with keywords and using copy-writing techniques in order to increase the click through rate.
Next, I looked for pages with broken links and fixed those.
I also reviewed internal anchor text ratios and adjusted them for targeted pages and keywords.
After these changes are done, I usually circle bank on them to see if they had positive or negative effects.
Step 5: Content
Editorial Calendar
Here is what I did to plan out articles based on my research:
- Outline and prepare briefs for writers
- Edit content using best practices
- Keyword density, synonyms, natural language processing
- Add images as necessary
- Add content upgrade to get emails on long form posts
Step 6: Off-site Promotion & Optimization
In order to rank in Google, your site needs links. These days, it's more about quality rather than quantity.
I analyzed keyword anchor texts and compare them to what's ranking on the first page. This is to make sure you don't over-optimize and to see what is working.
Then, I reached out to different sites for guest posts, resource pages, industry directories.
That's it!
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.