Note: We started working with Sunstore Solar following a botched website migration that saw organic search traffic plummet by more than -70%. The initial focus was to rescue revenue, based on our revenue-first approach, and we've since gone on to regain much of the lost traffic but with a much better ROI.
Challenge
Sunstore Solar launched a new website as they entered a typically quiet period in the year. However, four months later when traffic and revenue remained substantially down it became apparent action had to be taken, which is when Tilious became involved.
The goal was to rebuild traffic to the Sunstore Solar website with a focus on the highest margin and most popular product ranges.
Services Provided
Actions and Solutions
An initial review confirmed the launch of the new website had resulted in a year on year decline in organic search traffic of more than -70%. There was an immediate need to address issues resulting from the new website but also to build a long-term strategy based on extensive research of a complex market.
The following tactics were key drivers of SEO and PPC growth for Sunstore Solar:
SEO Migration: When launching a new website it's paramount an SEO migration is undertaken to map URLs from the old to new website with the aim of maintaining organic search visibility. When this doesn't happen, as was the case here, traffic will quickly drop as search engines see the old pages disappear. Tilious undertook a retrospective migration by reviewing backups of the old website and historic analytics data. In total, more than 600 redirects were implemented resulting in an immediate uplift in visibility.
Shopping Ads: Google Ads offers a number of ad formats of which shopping ads were not currently in use for the Sunstore Solar website. In order to gain maximum exposure and drive additional revenue, Tilious introduced a product feed to allow shopping ads to be created. This allowed a greater volume of searchers to be reached for some of the company's most popular product ranges.
Content Strategy: Solar panels are used in a wide range of applications from homes to motorhomes and even shepherds huts. A comprehensive review of the organic search landscape identified a large number of product categories that could be introduced to capture a wider volume of relevant searches. Notably, these new product categories allowed existing products to be repositioned for currently untargeted use cases without the need for new products to be added to the website.
Results
In the first 12 months working with Sunstore Solar, Tilious were able to set the website back on an upward trajectory despite the dramatic decline that had occurred before we came on board. The strategy was primarily about targeting the right type of traffic, as seen in the following revenue graph.
The focus on bringing traffic to the website, via organic search and Google Ads, with a high degree of commercial intent allowed Sunstore Solar to recover revenue at a much faster rate. Despite the year on year decline in search traffic, revenue rose +27% in the first 12 months.
