LubieButy.pl

Long tail SEO approach

We decided to take a broad-based approach to site SEO in order to increase the visibility of the e-store in the search engines. Focusing on longer and less popular, yet more specific and converting phrases brought about a fast increase in site visibility and thus, traffic and sales.

This decision was also justified by the fact that the competition within the industry was really high and SEO for broad, less descriptive phrases would have been lengthy and costly in the long run.

The beginning of the cooperation: SEO audit, keyword analysis

Right at the start of the cooperation, we carefully analysed the website and researched relevant keywords for its SEO. We checked what phrases generated website traffic and what were the potential keywords that could influence its increase. While choosing such keywords, we used proper tools – such as Google Analytics, Search Console, and Keyword Planner, as well as Semstorm, Ahrefs, Majestic, or Senuto.

In the meantime, we were also working on an exhaustive website audit, which helped us identify the areas for improvement, along with possible solutions on how to make them better. Some of the changes were already implemented during the audit.

The website audit also included backlink analysis, which allowed us to come up with a link building strategy and start building quality links to the website right after.

Issue no 1. Lack of content on the main page

The website had a lot of subpages, but the problem lied in the lack of content – both within the home page, as well as category pages. Product descriptions were simply too short, and the lack of relevant content was actually diminishing the visibility of the website in Google, affecting the domain’s SPAM Score at the same time.

We began with creating more content for the home page. When writing, we took into account chosen keywords, then optimised and formatted the content, and finally sent it to the website admin for deployment. At the beginning, the text was added to the footer and was automatically duplicated to other subpages. After improving the way it was displayed, however, we indexed the website once again and noticed the results of the optimisation almost immediately.

The result:

Phrase ”buty online” (meaning literally ”shoes online”), which was chosen for the home page, ranked 65th in the search engine at the very beginning. After adding the description and indexing the website properly, it quickly jumped to 10th place and continued getting higher, up to 2nd place.

 Issue no 2. No content on category pages

Afterwards, we started adding content on category pages – beginning with those who had the most views coming from organic traffic, which quickly influenced the increase in the number of visits. We added more or less 20 descriptions of the categories, with 250-300 words each.

Initially, however, the design of the website didn’t include the category descriptions. When trying to add the description through the CMS admin panel, somehow it wasn’t visible on the website. We discussed the issue with the site administrator, which resulted in creating 2 additional text fields – one at the top of the website with a short introduction of each category, and one at the bottom, with an exhaustive description of it. Such a solution was implemented due to the client’s preferences, who didn’t want to lower the list of products by adding a large block of text at the top of the page.

The result:

Phrase „botki na słupku” (“block-heel boots”), which ranked 68th in the search engine when we started the cooperation, can serve as a good example. After the first optimisation efforts, the phrase ranked 42th – then, after adding content on category pages, it went up to 12th.

Further optimisation and link building affected the ranking even more, and the phrase eventually ranked 2nd in Google at the beginning of 2018.

Another phrase, „espadryle tanie” (“cheap espadrilles”), is also a good example. After adding the category description, it quickly stood out in the Search Engine Results Page and continued ranking even higher.

Issue no 3. Lack of headers within the main page, as well as category pages

When we started the cooperation, there was no headers on the home page or category pages. In fact, headers are essential for site SEO, because they structure the pages for Googlebot and indicate the most important content within the website.

We formatted the content properly, taking care of the headers and their structure. Within the category pages, after a proper setup by the admin, the H1 headers were being added automatically to match the category name. They were displayed above the intro at the top of the page. The H2 (and other) headers had to be filled in manually, though.

The result:

There was a proper H1 header on each category page:

Additionally, the category description at the bottom also included the changed header structure:

After setting up H1 headers that matched the category names by default (at the beginning of November 2017), there was a visible increase in the rankings of keyword phrases that matched the category names (i.e. “modne botki”, meaning “fashionable boots”).

Issue no 4. Lack of titles and meta descriptions.

To all page titles, there was the title of the home page added automatically. Because of that, most subpages had really long “names”, which were often duplicated.

Meta descriptions were also being created automatically, depending on the content of the subpage. Since there was no text on the category pages, the descriptions were often taken from the footer and thus, were also duplicated.

When optimising the subpages, we inserted the titles and meta descriptions manually.

The result:

Before:

After:

Together with adding the texts and headers, inserting the titles and meta descriptions increased the rankings of key phrases.

From the very beginning, we supported the site optimisation with building quality links. The number of backlinks increased substantially, which influenced the rankings of specific phrases. In the meantime, however, the assessment method of link quality in Ahrefs (Domain Rating and URL Rating, to be exact) changed, which resulted in seemingly lower ratings.

Before:

The number of backlinks was at the following level:

After:

A visible peak in the number of linking sites:

• Increase in organic traffic by 617% within 9 months
  
• Increase in the number of views in the search engine by 950% within 9 months
  
• Increase in the number of clicks by 756% within 9 months
  
• Considerably higher search engine visibility

Traffic:

Visibility:

SEO Specialist’s Comment

The clothing and footwear industry is highly competitive. You need to carefully think through what is your target group, what makes the products stand out, and express it correctly. In the case of LubieButy.pl store, the greatest challenge for us was the lack of content on site. It’s the high-quality content created focusing on particular keywords became the main tool to get our share of the market.

Klaudia Feliksik

SEO Specialist