SEO is a process whose success depends on various factors – the quality of the website, the link base, the quantity and formatting of text, the size and strength of the competition, and many others. Therefore, independent SEO efforts rarely work. Online store owners cannot afford to spend time delving into the ins and outs of SEO and making necessary adjustments. On the other hand, they are often uncertain whether outsourcing their website to an external agency is the right solution, especially if they need to describe specialized products, which those outside the industry have little understanding of. However, these are completely unnecessary concerns. Websites on any topic can be effectively positioned. Let's use the example of our client selling electrical equipment.
Results before positioning
The client in question runs an online store selling sockets, switches, cables, wires, extension cords, junction boxes, insulating tapes, and other products used in electrical work. They signed an SEO contract with us in June 2019, agreeing on a monthly budget of PLN 1400 net. When we began SEO, the client's website appeared for 18 phrases in the top 3 and 145 phrases in the top 10, with fewer than 1000 phrases in the top 50. So, it's not like we were starting from scratch – the website was visible in search engines and also had organic traffic. However, the audit showed us that the website had the potential to generate even more search engine traffic and achieve better rankings for industry-specific keywords.
The first year of cooperation
During the audit , we noticed that the client's website was accessible from two addresses, which would have been a significant challenge during SEO, due in part to duplicate content. Therefore, at the beginning of our collaboration, we implemented permanent redirects to one of the addresses, which quickly resolved the issue and paved the way for new initiatives.
In the next step, we focused on the most pressing issue: optimizing the pages for the most important product categories by adding comprehensive descriptions. We selected the most relevant keywords for each category and incorporated them into the text to increase the likelihood of the page ranking high in search results for those terms. We also established optimal H1 headings and meta titles, and ensured the appropriate text length for each subpage. This resulted in the first signs of increased visibility, demonstrating that the chosen SEO strategy was working. The page appeared for 38 phrases in the top 3, 387 phrases in the top 10, and 1795 phrases in the top 50.
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Second year of cooperation
After a year of collaboration, the client decided to extend the SEO contract and further increase the budget to PLN 1800 net per month. Since the most urgent changes had already been implemented, we focused on increasing website traffic through blog articles. We focused on rich, valuable content containing phrases loosely related to the client's business, which we couldn't implement in category descriptions. This resulted in a significant increase in the number of phrases in top positions, thus increasing the client's website's visibility, which translated into greater brand recognition. The client also agreed to expand the website with specific categories optimized for long-tail keywords. This allowed us to compete with the competition on even more keywords relevant to the industry.
A strategy based on enriching websites with high-quality content yielded particularly noticeable results in May of this year, when Google's algorithm was updated. Our observations indicate that, as a result, sites with a large amount of unique content saw ranking increases, while sites with little text or duplicate content (e.g., product descriptions taken from manufacturer websites) saw their rankings decline. This change confirmed our predictions about the future of SEO, and while it didn't have a widespread impact on the industry, it had a significant impact on a large number of websites, especially online stores. This is demonstrated by the results achieved by our client:
- TOP3 – 218 phrases
- TOP10 – 1099 phrases
- TOP50 – 4656 phrases
So, what's the conclusion? SEO requires not only knowledge and experience, but also tracking trends so that algorithm updates, instead of undermining the results of your work, help you climb to ever higher positions.
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- the initial situation of the electrical shop before starting positioning,
- the scope of activities implemented in the first year of SEO cooperation and their impact on improving the website's position,
- SEO strategy in the second year of cooperation with the client.
