Challenge
Organic search traffic from Google was down on the year before and falling. Buy Metal Online were keen to reverse the trend and generate growth in the competitive sheet metal market.
Buy Metal Online had also raised concerns about the speed of the website and low-quality backlinks generated by a previous provider.
Services Provided
Actions and Solutions
The strategy was to focus on getting the core messaging around products and promotions right. Larger, well-established competitors, were engaging in creative PR which was likely to be too high risk for a small business currently generating minimal revenue from organic search.
The following tactics were key drivers of SEO growth for Buy Metal Online:
Search Market Analysis and Keyword Research: Following extensive analysis of the search market, it became clear Buy Metal Online listings were not enticing searchers to click-through to the website. This meant prioritising meta content (title tags and meta descriptions) to better match searcher intent. The addition of relevant keywords, key selling points and a clear call-to-action (CTA) made for a much more persuasive search result listing.
Low-quality Backlinks: A disavow file, which effectively excludes backlinks from being counted, had been implemented by a previous provider. On review of the disavow file, it was clear the previous incumbent had been too aggressive with a number of well-known and authoritative domains being disavowed. Improper use of the disavow tool can seriously impact the performance of a website within organic search when high-quality backlinks are inadvertently discounted. A number of high-quality domains were removed from the disavow file, which provided an instant boost in domain authority once the links had been recrawled.
Website Restructure and Migration: Halfway through the first year working together Buy Metal Online was keen to launch a new website to refresh the design and allow for easier product and content editing. Having already reversed the downward trend, it was key to plan a smooth migration from the old CS-Cart website to the new WordPress website running WooCommerce. It also represented a prime opportunity to implement a new site structure to facilitate the creation of additional product category pages based around popular search queries. Working closely with the Buy Metal Online development team, Tilious achieved a smooth transition to the new platform with no traffic loss.
Results
In our first 12 months working with Buy Metal Online Google organic search traffic increased significantly by +133%. This year over year improvement meant 19,270 visitors from the previous 12 months grew to 44,926 visitors - an additional +25,656 visitors.
An increase in relevant organic search visitors also resulted in revenue increasing - an impressive +120% over the same time period. Crucially, these results put the Buy Metal Online e-commerce website on a clear upward trajectory and set a path for further traffic and revenue growth.
