Case studies

FarettiShoes.co.uk

Case study - FarettiShoes.co.uk

Faretti is a Polish manufacturer of elevator shoes for men. It’s a well-recognised brand in Poland, ranking for many keyword phrases in the Top3. When looking for new sales markets, the Client turned to us to work together on optimising a brand new website with a .co.uk domain.

As a result, the case study involved a lot of challenges in terms of technical SEO. See how we built traffic in 6 months to attract 700 visits a month on a British market.

Industry

Footwear

Domain

CO.UK

British

Monthly organic traffic

700

Sessions after 6 months (from zero)

Analysis

Faretti store is managed with a PrestaShop CMS, which is very well-known to us. We started the cooperation in June 2019, with very low visibility in Google.co.uk and basically non-existing traffic.

A few facts for starters:

  • PrestaShop CMS
  • New website
  • All of the keyword phrases important for the client were out of the index
  • A lack of analytical tools

At the same time, we are also running SEO process for the site with .de domain for the German market.

On-site process

We started the cooperation with SEO audit and keyword analysis. Since there were no analytical tools working for the farettishoes.co.uk website (and even if there was one – the site wasn’t generating any traffic, so data sample wouldn’t have been big enough), we performed the keyword analysis with external tools and search results. We chose prospective phrases, while the detailed audit we performed showed us important technical aspects that we had to focus on. And there were many of those.

Problem no. 1. Lack of analytics tools

The lack of analytical tools we already mentioned was the main problem we tackled first. The issue was not only the lack of their implementation, though. The English version of the site had the tracking code from the Polish Google Analytics account. We changed it into the right code. Apart from that, Faretti had multiple shops managed from one admin panel (multistore) – which is why we had to divide the accounts in Google Analytics and Google Search Console, creating separate ones for every country.

Problem no. 2. Keyword analysis

Another challenge was to find relevant keywords. We used external tools and examined the competitors, and the most important conclusion we had was finding 2 keyword phrases on the basis of which we developed the long-tail ones.

2 “basic” phrases and their search volume:

Keywords Faretti

Long-tail phrases:

Faretti long tail

It’s clear to see the effects our of work judging by results – all these phrases made it to Top 3, even though we were starting from scratch (and them being “outside of the index”).

Problem no. 3. Improper setup of the multistore

Multistore gives the ability to manage multiple shops from a single panel. It definitely makes it easier if you run stores in different languages. Nonetheless, it’s important not to copy-paste all the elements from one shop to another, and pay attention to the proper setup of each version. The issue we encountered on the Faretti’s website was definitely the URLs – on the English version of the store, all URLs were in Polish. We changed them manually.

The examples of Polish URLs on the English website:

Faretti wrong URL

Problem no. 4. Wrong product names

The product names revolved only around their actual names, without any keywords. It was definitely one of the major issues since the product names were actually treated as H1, and included in the page title. This created even more problems:

  1. Wrong page titles
  2. Wrong H1 headings

We changed the names of the most important products to more complex ones, including related keywords.

The change was definitely reflected in the results (screen from Search Console):

Product pages traffic Faretti

Another issue that stemmed from this were improper alt tags for the product photos, which were automatically generated based on the product names. After the name change, we altered them as well – which had an impact on the increased visibility of product photos in Google Images:

Google Images search

Problem no. 5. Wrong measurement units

Every pair of shoes had in its description (and often product name as well) the information on the elevation it provides. At the very beginning, this detail was specified in centimetres. However, since the metric system is not used in Great Britain, we suggested changing it into inches.

It affected the visibility of phrases with the measurement unit in them:

Faretti inches

Problem no. 6. Improper redirections

Every alternative version of the website (with www, without it, or with https protocol and without it as well) should be redirecting to one, main version of the site with a constant 301 redirection. Faretti’s website was using 302 – meaning a temporary one, which didn’t “transfer” the whole strength of the site.

That’s precisely why we set up proper 301 redirections.

Redirections faretti

Problem no. 7. Wrong title and meta descriptions of the main page

The title of the main page was basically just the name of the company. Since the page title is one of the most important elements on the website that affects SEO, it should definitely include keywords and indicate what can be found on the website. Meta description might not have the direct influence on SEO, but when optimised properly – it can definitely impact CTRs in a positive manner.

Before:

Meta data before optimization

After:

meta data after optimization

Problem no. 8. Wrong category names

Category names didn’t include any keyword, just the “height” of the elevation. Because of that, similarly to the product pages, a few issues emerged:

  1. Wrong H1 heading
  2. Wrong site title
  3. Wrong URL address

That’s how category names looked before the change:

Category names before optimization

And after:

Category names after optimization

While URL addresses looked as follows:

  • https://farettishoes.co.uk/18-7-cm
  • https://farettishoes.co.uk/23-6-cm

Which is why they were changed into:

  • https://farettishoes.co.uk/18-height-increasing-shoes-276-inches
  • https://farettishoes.co.uk/23-height-increasing-shoes-2-inches

We also set up the redirections from old addresses to the new ones.

Problem no. 9. A lack of sitemap

The site had no sitemap. We generated it and implemented in the Search Console.

Problem no. 10. A not very recognisable brand

Brand recognition was not the most significant factor for us. We focused on long-tail product phrases but also monitored how the branded keyword was performing. Interestingly enough, faretti is a popular Italian word that means “headlamps” and thus, is quite competitive and popular judging by the high search volume.

Nonetheless, our efforts contributed to a substantial increase in the branded keyword phrase rank. It’s currently on the 24th place in the search results, even though it was initially outside of the index.

brand keyword

Off-site process

From the very beginning, we were strengthening the domain by building links referring to the site. Unique backlinks (with unique text) were placed in catalogues, Q&A sites, blogs, and industry-related websites.

Link profile at the beginning of the cooperation:

Ahrefs results before cooperation Linking profile

Link profile after 6 months of the cooperation:

Ahrefs state

Ahrefs - faretti links

Results

  • Steady growth in site’s visibility – starting basically from scratch
    Impressions growth
  • Steady increase in organic traffic – in January, the traffic amounted to almost 700 visits

Organic traffic - faretti shoes

The specialist’s comment

Working on the optimisation of Faretti’s website was an interesting challenge. It required not only standard SEO activities, content creation, but also the ability to research and understand customer needs. It was up to our team to figure out how search engine users might look for elevator shoes in the given country and come up with relevant long-tail phrases which then helped us build their ranks and organic traffic in the process. I like managing the projects for clients who want to conquer new markets in particular – it’s always an interesting challenge, especially when a niche industry like height increasing shoes come into play :slightly_smiling_face:

Milena Fietko Delante
Milena Fietko
Senior SEO Specialist

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We specialize in long tail SEO, which works best in e-commerce industry, but also in manufacturing, export or services (and many others). Learn about the stories of our Clients and how we helped them meet their goals.

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