SEO case: from 4 to 26k organic traffic — promotion of an online hookah store

Internet-shop of hookahs and accessories. At the time of the beginning of our work with the project – the site is in poor technical condition in terms of SEO, as well as user metrics. Links work was not carried out, the semantic core is missing, there are remarks on the structure. The writing of texts was carried out.

We conducted a competitor analysis to determine their organic search strategy (directory, filtering system, content marketing, link profile, etc.) and a technical audit of the project. As a result, formed the initial strategy for the project, which was based on:

• Updating the CMS;
• Elimination of technical errors on the site;
• Preparation of a broad semantic core;
• Expansion of the reference profile.

Technical errors

At the start of the site there were a lot of software errors:

1. Duplicate pages (sections and products);

Category duplicates generated by CMS that got into the search index created query cannibalization. Conducted a technical audit, identified all the duplicates, generated a task for the programmer to eliminate duplicates through deletion. Some system pages could not be removed, so they were closed through meta robots noindex tag.

2. Low loading speed;

There were quite a few other bugs on the site, which, were a priority at the start, after the introduction of major changes the developer managed to speed up the site.

3. Incorrect content.

Duplicate texts in the sections, the description of categories did not correspond to the products. After compiling a semantic core we prepared the TOR and completely rewrote the texts, thus reducing inconsistencies and overspam.

Primary objectives of the project, which were implemented in the first 3 months:

• Elimination of basic technical errors.
• Placement of meta tags.
• Elaboration of the structure, adding the necessary categories.
• Preparation of the semantic core.
• Writing and placing of texts on priority groups of requests.
• Preparation of link strategy.

First stage. Technical and SEO audit of the site

As a result of the audit of the site identified problem areas of the site.

What we worked through in the first place:

— Creating a unified URL structure, setting redirects;

— Optimization of breadcrumbs;

— Preparation and placement of correct meta-tag templates;

— Placement of correct canonical tags;

— Eliminating server errors (were soft 404 errors (blank pages);

— Adjusting the structure of the site (transferring sections, creating new ones);

— Implementation of sorting and simplification of the catalog.

The second phase. Semantic core and content preparation

The assortment of the store is quite wide, therefore we divided preparation into stages.

— Step 1. Structure of the site in a separate document (we used GD tables).

— Step 2. Together with the client we prioritized the categories (importance of the categories in terms of sales)

— Step 3. 6 iterations of preparation of the semantic core, query grouping and preparation of TOR for text optimization.

Thus we managed to avoid time loss at the stage of semantics preparation (while we were preparing the second iteration, we already prepared TOR for the first one)

The third stage. Strengthening the link profile and expanding the structure

1. Linking strategy

The first thing we started with – we formed a competitor sample. We already had data on competitors in organic, so we did this quickly.

The final sample of sites for analysis, we gathered data on:

— link growth dynamics;

— type of links (articles, crowdsourced links, etc.);

— the volume of links;

— the quality of links;

— etc.

As a result, we prepared a strategy for the link profile of the site for the first 3-6 months and began implementing the strategy.

2. Expanding the structure for promotion and content marketing

After working through the basic semantic core, we began to work on 2 areas:

— Content marketing, informative articles from which we can convert traffic into leads;

— Creation of new filter pages and categories to expand landing pages.

We still have work to do on the project, now we have new tasks and new plans.

What can be noted: if the project was developed without the support of SEO-specialist – getting difficulties is guaranteed. Yes, it can be noted that the CMS today, are much more adapted for the promotion than, for example, 5 years ago. But, however, there are other issues that need to be implemented along with SEO – text optimization, structure, microdata and other.