Technical and On-Page SEO Updates Revive An Aging Website

It had been years since our client had touched the design of their e-commerce website and their visibility in Google’s search results was suffering because of it. It was starting to look and operate like an old website, and it was even less friendly on mobile. Local electricians that need mobile access to information and a purchase point are among the primary users of the website, they know the client’s products exist, and they want to find it near them from a trusted source that has a strong local presence. Our client knew they needed their products to be more accessible on a website that was easier to find and easier to navigate.

The complex navigation menus were confusing to DIY homeowners looking for solutions to their problems and for search engines that needed to discover all the products on the site. The product pages that included the information this audience needed to understand and purchase the client’s products were difficult to find through the navigation and lacked the needed content to show up in search results.

The client’s marketing team had several goals in mind:

• Improve the User Experience (UX) to improve content engagement

• Establish a blog on the website to demonstrate their expertise and share helpful content

• Streamline the user journey to help customers find what they need, faster

In 2022, when reviewing all users (all sources/mediums), mobile traffic comprised 56% of sessions while organic mobile traffic comprised 44%, most likely because the product pages weren’t as robust or easy to find.

The client was very interested in improving UX and establishing a blog for two main purposes:

1. Start generating content that could establish their company as a thought leader and gain visibility for non-branded queries

2. Appeal to more DIY homeowners that need help deciding which products are right for them

After talking about making updates for years, the client was ready to see better returns from their website, and to make their website a more accurate reflection of their company’s expertise.

We started the website redesign with a Technical SEO Site Audit, where we reviewed nearly 200 items to identify the site’s purpose, outline main SEO guidelines, and provide a project plan to prioritize site fixes.

Audit areas included:

• Analytics

• Crawl

• Structure

• Speed

• Content

• Titles/descriptions

• Structured data

• Backlinks

• Images

• Mobile

• Local

• International

To keep all team members and client contacts updated on progress, we presented findings in an easy-to-understand format with implementation steps to resolve issues, a list of priority action items, and audit data files.

While we collected the data we needed, the client chose a website design and development agency to both build their new website and provide ongoing maintenance. Once this new group was onboard, we partnered with them and collaborated on weekly meetings to review all the items in the work queue, answer any UX or content questions, and keep everyone informed on any new findings as we continued extensive benchmarking.

The comprehensive prep work, combined with the clear communication across the client and all other partner agencies, made the actual redesign and website launch a smooth process. The new website was launched, and the aesthetic and performance upgrades had an immediate impact on user engagement, conversions, and visibility in Google’s search results.

Traffic from all sources:

• 26% increase Month-over-Month in users

• 22% increase MoM in sessions

• 10% increase MoM in goal conversion rate

• 34% increase MoM in goal completions.

Organic traffic:

• 37% increase MoM in users

• 28% increase MoM in sessions

• 23% increase MoM in goal conversion rate

• 57% increase MoM in goal completions

The client also saw large jumps in both clicks and impressions for non-branded queries. All top 14 non-branded queries recorded positive growth MoM in both clicks and impressions, with some growing as much as 169%.

One thing that was particularly impactful was the addition of helpful content on individual product pages. Now, the client has the information people are searching for, even the catalog number that users commonly search when trying to find a specific product.

Ultimately, we credit having more on-page content and technical health checks across the site constantly before, during, and after to really strengthen visibility for these non-branded terms, directing more traffic to the site.