Is Your Business Relying Too Much on Paid Advertising? If so, you might be standing on unstable ground.
Paid advertising is becoming increasingly volatile. Rising CPMs are cutting into profit margins, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to diversify your revenue streams to avoid relying too heavily on ads.
One of the most effective ways to do this is through SEO—an organic strategy that drives consistent traffic and sales from search engines like Google.
The beauty of SEO? Once you rank for a keyword, you’re generating free, ongoing traffic and revenue. Plus, visitors from search engines are actively searching for what you offer, meaning they’re more likely to convert.
That’s exactly what one of our clients realized, and they decided to take action.
Their business depended almost entirely on Google Ads, but they saw the risk. A recent Google Algorithm update had severely impacted their organic traffic, and revenue was on a sharp decline.
So, they came to us to fix it.
1. Client Background
Here’s a quick overview of the client, without giving away their identity:
- They sell a single product designed to alleviate the negative effects of alcohol consumption.
- Their content strategy had failed to gain significant organic traction.
- Organic traffic and revenue had been declining for a year after a Google Algorithm update.
- Their primary revenue driver was Google Ads.
- We began working with them in November 2020.
Before we started, here’s how their organic traffic looked in October 2020:
While their traffic wasn’t terrible, it was clear from competitor analysis that there was huge room for growth. A year prior, they were generating nearly $10,000/month in organic revenue. Our objective was clear: restore and exceed those revenue numbers.
2. Website Audit
When dealing with a site affected by an algorithm update, a thorough audit is essential. We focused on four key areas:
- Technical SEO: Are there broken links, slow load speeds, or unnecessary pages bloating the search results?
- Keyword Targeting: Are they targeting appropriate, non-competitive keywords that match user intent?
- Content: Is there thin, duplicate, or non-ranking content?
- Backlinks: Are they acquiring quality backlinks, or do they have spammy, harmful links?
Our audit revealed major issues across all areas:
- Hundreds of tag and category pages were cluttering search results.
- Internal linking was poorly implemented.
- Their product page wasn’t optimized for the best keyword.
- A third of the content was thin or duplicated.
- There were hundreds of spammy links, likely from a negative SEO attack.
We had our work cut out for us.
3. Our E-Commerce SEO Process
Our process is broken into four phases:
- Technical SEO
- Keyword Research
- Content Creation
- Link Building
Let’s dive into each.
A. Technical SEO
Technical SEO ensures that Google can easily crawl, index, and rank your pages. Without this, no SEO strategy can succeed. Fortunately, the client’s site had a strong foundation:
- Fast loading times
- No broken links
- Proper meta titles, descriptions, and headings
However, hundreds of tag and category pages were bloated in search results. We noindexed those pages, improving overall performance.
We also revamped internal linking, ensuring authority flowed from blog posts to the product page.
B. Keyword Research
We shifted the focus from an informational keyword (“symptom + cure”) to a transactional keyword (“symptom + pill”) that better matched user intent. This ensured that the product page could rank for relevant searches.
We also found keyword opportunities for blog content using competitor analysis and tools like Ahrefs.
C. Content Creation
Before creating new content, we cleaned up existing content. We merged thin or duplicate content, better optimized existing posts, and added custom graphics and CTAs.
After the cleanup, we began publishing weekly blog posts targeting the newly identified keywords, linking them to relevant product pages.
D. Link Building
We audited the site’s backlink profile and disavowed hundreds of spammy links. Once cleaned, we focused on building high-quality links from relevant, authoritative sites to strengthen the site’s authority.
4. Results Achieved
After implementing these strategies, the client’s organic traffic and revenue skyrocketed:
- 138.9% increase in organic traffic
- 211.4% increase in organic revenue, surpassing pre-algorithm update levels
Their blog posts alone generated nearly $4,000 in revenue from purely informational content, and overall, the site now makes close to $20,000 per month without any ad spend.
The best part? Their SEO strategy continues to build their customer base over time, providing them with a safety net even if paid advertising falters.