Increased Revenue by 360% For an Online Store of Automotive Films Share: ADINDEX Score Awaiting client review n/a Date Published 3 May 2022 Reading Time 16-Minute Read The task was a promotion the website of the automotive film store at the TOP of search results, increasing the volume of organic search traffic. Case author: Ekaterina Kiyasova, leading SEO specialist of the agency. Customer: Seller of automobile films. Task: Promotion of the website of the automotive film store at the TOP of search results, increasing the volume of organic search traffic. What was done: Elimination of critical (and not so) technical errors on the site. Website usability improvement. Implementation of moving the site to HTTPS. Updating metadata on all pages of the site. Improve site loading speed. Expansion and optimization of the site structure. Updating content on all important pages of the site (the most visited). Launching an article promotion through a blog. Writing and posting PR articles on external sources. Purchasing links. Result: The site is the leader of the niche in the search. Growth of search traffic by 923% (10 times). 360% revenue growth. About the business Vissbon has been operating on the Ukrainian market for more than 10 years. It was them who first brought vinyl films from Southeast Asia (Korea, Taiwan, China) to our country and began to sell them through her own online store. At that time, films by European and American manufacturers were already on sale on the market. However, they were presented only in two colors – gray and black, while Vissbon brought as many as 15 variants of different colors to the country. The task that was set before the business was to bring to the Ukrainian market auto films that are in no way inferior to well-known European and American brands in terms of price and quality. It was important to demonstrate to the consumer a worthy alternative to Western manufacturers. Accordingly, the challenge for the ADINDEX team was to help the business do just that. Niche specifics The niche of automotive films is directly related to the automotive market of Ukraine. After the crisis in the period 2014-2015. The new car sales market has shrunk, and the profitability of the business has decreased accordingly. But since 2017, with the massive import of cars from the EU countries, positive changes have begun in the car film market. A search niche is characterized by an average level of competition. Leaders in the search are regional sites, and chain stores. The level of organization of the main competitive projects is above average. About the project The state of the site at the start of the promotion. Low level of technical organization of the project. Critical technical errors were found on the site, which was a deterrent to the promotion of the company on the Internet. The strengths of the project at the start of promotion are the transparent and logical structure of the site, as well as the willingness of the client to implement all the tasks and improvements to improve the quality of the project based on the recommendations of an SEO specialist. Unfortunately, based on our experience, on average, about 50% of all technical tasks are implemented on projects (and, as a rule, with significant delays). The reasons for this are difficulties on the programming side or misunderstanding, and the unwillingness of the client to contribute to the implementation of SEO tasks. And the further effectiveness of the project, expressed in the growth of traffic and increased sales, depends on this. External links. The link profile is not competitive in terms of quantitative and qualitative indicators. The reverse link mass “in the eyes” of search robots looked unnatural due to the predominance of referring domains from the “*.ru” zone. Search traffic. Lack of growth in the Organic Search channel, continuous drop in search traffic: A small spoiler: during the 2.5 years of cooperation between Vissbon and the ADINDEX team, traffic has grown significantly. The active phase of growth began a year after the start of work. But the overall dynamics were also affected by seasonal changes and changes within the market. Strategy In SEO, there are two main tools with which you can influence the position of the site in the SERP. The first is optimization, and the second is link promotion, which involves link building. Why do we need a strategy then? Each project at ADINDEX begins with the following questions: What is the customer’s Internet business? USP, target audience, the essence of the business, the internal structure of the site, where the site is in search engines and how search engines perceive it, how people find the site, and many other factors. What’s going on in a niche business in search? What opportunities does this give the client’s business? Who are the main competitors? What do they do wrong, and in what way are they stronger than us? The answers to these questions give an understanding of what results a business can expect from SEO promotion and what is the shortest, most effective way to choose to solve problems. That is what a strategy is for. The ADINDEX SEO promotion strategy includes three main points: Simple and clear, answering the question “Why do I need to do SEO?”. Clear and specific, answering the question “What needs to be done to achieve the goal?”. In clear, measurable numbers, answering the question “What will SEO give and when?”. If you have been sent a business promotion strategy that does not include at least one of the above points, then this is not a strategy. Remember: for competent promotion, which will give a result, it is important to describe all the points in as much detail as possible. There is one more important, fourth point – the concept of strategy. This is the very “highlight” that distinguishes a business from the rest. Its task is to get results in a shorter time and at lower costs, using, among other things, the weaknesses of competitors. Usually, we update the strategy every 6-12 months depending on the project and agreements with the customer. Now about our strategy, which was developed directly for Vissbon. Based on the results of the site audit, analysis of the niche and competitors, the following SEO promotion strategy for the first six months was formed: Target ✓ Growth of search traffic by 40% relative to its value at the start of the promotion. ✓ Obtaining positions in the TOP-20 results for search queries of promoted destinations. By the way, at the start of the promotion, the position of the site in the Google search results was further than the sixth page of the issue. Strategy concept. In order to get the fastest effect from building up the link mass, it was decided to select up to three areas for a promotion that are a priority on the part of the business and have growth potential in the search. Promotion of the selected destinations in the TOP-10 of the issuance in a relatively short time will ensure an increase in traffic. And, as key areas grow, the visibility of nested subcategories will gradually improve. Tasks ✓ Improving the technical organization of the site to a level not lower than competitors. ✓ Elimination of all the above critical errors that are an obstacle to the effective development of the project. ✓ Creation of a high-quality competitive link profile. For all the time of work on this project, the strategy was updated three times (!), and the goals and direction of promotion were adjusted. Next, we will tell you what tasks we solved, how we improved and promoted the site, in chronological order by period: Stage 1. December 2016 – May 2017 – the start of SEO work, Stage 2. June 2017 – November 2017 – improvement of the quality level of the project, Stage 3. December 2017 – May 2018 – adjustment of the strategy and strengthening of external promotion. December 2016 — May 2017 In the first stage, basic work was carried out on the internal technical optimization of the site: elimination of critical technical errors, updating metadata on all pages of the site, updating text content on the most important pages of the site, moving the site to HTTPS. In parallel, the process of placing PR articles on external sources and purchasing links was launched. Technical and internal optimization of the site brought the first positive results. When comparing the positions of the site at the start and completion of optimization work, we observe a two-fold increase. In addition, work was carried out to expand and optimize the structure of the site. During the development of the semantic core for the site, a significant cluster of search queries not covered by the site structure was identified. A deep analysis of the organization and structure of the sites of the main competitors was also carried out. The conclusion was the following: given the poorly developed structure of competitors’ websites, expanding the structure of our client’s website will allow us to gain a competitive advantage, namely, to attract targeted search traffic for a pool of queries that are very weakly or not at all “worked out” by competitors. This is how the following landing pages were created: “Films with effects”, “Films for optics”, “Vinyl films” and “Tint films”. Work on expanding the structure of the site is a long process, stretched over time due to the detailed study of each category separately. Worked out: metadata, text content, the logic of changing the main menu of the site. Accordingly, the result was also received not immediately. Currently, two pages – “Vinyl Films” and “Tinted Films” monthly generate approximately 20-25% of the total search traffic. Result of the first promotion period Growth of search traffic by 5 times or increase in sessions by 67% compared to the previous period. June 2017 — November 2017 In the second period, the promotion strategy remained the same. Due to the fact that most of this period fell on a seasonal decline in activity in the niche, the growth of the project within the market was planned. To achieve this goal, the following activities were planned and carried out: elimination of ALL technical errors on the site (including non-critical ones), improving site loading speed, launch of a new article section “Articles”, updating content on some pages of the site, website usability improvement. We wanted to be the best in search compared to our competitors. According to our forecasts, this is what should have given growth to the project within the niche. In the first stage, due to the insufficient reliability of the project, the actions were aimed at ensuring that the site generates search traffic where there is the least competition. Then, when the site “gained strength” and took a strong position in the search, it became necessary to compete with the leaders in the niche. What was done? Technical optimization. As a result of a re-audit of the technical condition of the site, all pages that were unnecessary from the point of view of promotion were closed from indexing, and correct redirects were set up. Site loading speed. Work was carried out to optimize the speed. Article section. Why would a business specializing in the sale of auto films have an article section? The fact is that when faced with the desire to tune a car or the need to apply a tint, athermal film on a car, people ask a lot of questions in the search engine: how to choose a film, what kind it is, where you can and where you can’t glue it, how to apply it correctly, etc. The article section of the online store makes it possible to provide users with the most complete, detailed information on a topic of interest. Thus, the blog performs two tasks at the same time: attracting additional traffic for informational search queries of users, formation of the role of an expert/niche leader. Works that were done in the article section: Improved the technical side of the article section, The sections have been divided into subsections. The main menu of the site has been improved so that users can go to the article subsection of interest to them from any page and find the information they need The semantic core of information queries has been worked out, on the basis of which the content plan of articles for the corresponding section has been formed. The process of copywriting and systematic filling of the article section with content has been launched. Blog development is a very long, painstaking, and time-consuming process. Over 1.5 years, more than 50 articles were written and posted. The article section only works in the long run. Therefore, new content brought a noticeable increase in traffic only in the second year of work. At the moment, the blog generates up to 15% of the total organic traffic and has already begun to bring the first sales (film orders). Content. We analyzed the quality of the text content on the promoted pages, and the semantics of the keywords, compared it with the content of competitors, and realized what needs to be improved. Over time, search engines have increased requirements for the quality of content, so the process of improving the texts on the site must be continuous and regular. In total, during the period of site promotion, the content was updated three times. Lost semantics were also identified and implemented, and the value and benefits of content for users were expanded. Usability. For this type of work, we were faced with the task of correcting everything that could be inconvenient for the user. The following has been done: On all pages of the site, a thorough map with marked partners’ addresses was removed for two reasons: lack of information, and a negative impact on page loading speed. Previously, the texts on all pages of product categories and subcategories were partially hidden by default. The full text was revealed only by clicking on the “Read in full” button. To save users from unnecessary clicks, as well as to demonstrate the value of the content to the search engine, the javascript that hides the full text has been removed. A partial redesign of the article section was carried out: Results of the second promotion period Conclusion of the site in the TOP-10 search results in the promoted areas. But the traffic growth rate is not so significant anymore – the growth of sessions through the Organic Search channel is 11% higher compared to the previous period. December 2017 — May 2018 In the third stage, the search promotion strategy was adjusted and all priorities were revised. Now the key task was to promote the direction “Tinting films” in the TOP-3 of the search results (at that time we had the 16th average position in the search), but at the same time to gain a foothold in the TOP-3 and support the other promoted directions. Here we will dwell on external SEO promotion in more detail because now it is not limited to the banal purchase of links. It will be about placing PR articles on external sites. Everyone knows that articles on external sources are posted by SEO specialists in order to get backlinks to the site, as well as to get clicks to the site. How does it work? If the article that the user reads on some news or thematic resource seems interesting and useful to him, then, having become interested, he will go to our website by the link and spend some time there. Ideally, they will even perform a targeted action (order a service or product). All this is analyzed by search engines and affects the ranking of the site in search results. Accordingly, in order for the posted content to generate new users to the site, it is critically important to fulfilling one requirement – the content must be of high quality in terms of its value to the audience. A short algorithm of actions to create high-quality, effective content: Work out the user intent (user intentions): find and define the questions, pains of your target audience, what information they need and what they might be interested in. Develop a content plan for external PR articles. It should contain topics for future articles, a schedule for publishing materials, sites for placement, and formats (promo, reviews, tips, etc.). Find a competent copywriter (if there is none already). Keep in mind the requirements on the SEO side. Meticulously proofread and edit the material received from the copywriter – it must be of high quality. Relentlessly maintain and update the content plan. Experiment with different content formats. Analyze the effectiveness of the external content strategy, and based on this, make adjustments to the content plan. What was done? Content improvement (by rewriting articles), Updating metadata on pages of promoted destinations, Launching the process of promoting the article section in order to enter the TOP-3 for the most traffic-generating informational search queries of users. Results of the third promotion period Growth from 50th to 18th average position in Google. Search traffic grew by 58% compared to the previous period. It was more difficult than we expected to advance the “Tinting Films” category to the TOP-3 because of the competition. But this is a question of the near future, we are gradually approaching this goal. What happened next? Unfortunately, the technical component of the site did not allow us to implement some strategic tasks, such as the global expansion of the site structure, optimization for mobile devices, etc. That is, in the current situation, the site has reached its limit and in order to ensure further growth, it is necessary to scale. Therefore, it was decided to create a new site. SEO specialists are also involved in this process since it is more reasonable and cheaper to foresee all the important points from search engine optimization at the site development stage. In addition, we continue to work on the growth of the site in the Organic Search channel and implement tasks to improve the quality of the project on the current site that do not require the intervention of programmers. Conclusions The readiness and ability to quickly implement the tasks proposed by SEO specialists is perhaps one of the key factors for the growth of a site in search. At the same time, it is the efficiency and speed of reaction that are important, because the slower the tasks are implemented and the changes are implemented, the less effective the presence of the site in the search. While you are just thinking about the adaptability of your site for mobile devices (50% of the audience access the site from mobile devices), your competitors are already implementing, generating, and converting mobile traffic into sales right now. Working on improving the project is a continuous process consisting of generating ideas, testing hypotheses, finding optimal solutions, implementing, and adjustments. Yes, it’s hard and yes, SEO does not bring quick results. But in the future, it is this channel that is able to bring maximum profit to the business.