[SEO Case Study] 3X More Traffic and 6X More Leads

One of the things I hear from business owners is that they feel like SEO won’t help them because their rankings are too low or their website has been around for too long. Today’s article is a case study about how we used SEO to generate three times more traffic and six times more leads, proving that it’s never too late to get started.

Do you think it's too late to start working on search engine optimization (SEO)? Do you think you're rankings are just so bad that it's not even worth trying at this point? If you just nodded your head yes, then you need to read this case study because it's never too late!

The Challenge Our client is a leading manufacturer and distributor of a natural resources product. When this client came to us for help, their website was not optimized for search engines so their website was not appearing at the top of Google for relevant search terms. In fact, when we began our work, the client had zero first-page Google rankings for any of their priority keywords. For their #1 top-priority keyword, our client was ranking 63 in Google (that's page 7). In other words, they were nowhere to be found in Google! If this sounds familiar, then you may be feeling overwhelmed or even helpless by how far you have to climb to get to the first page of Google. It's at times like this when it's important to remember the famous Chinese proverb, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I guarantee if you do nothing, then you'll never reach the coveted first page of Google. But if you take action, even the smallest action, then you'll start to pick up the necessary momentum to propel you forward. Let's take a look at some of the small steps we took with our client that got them moving in the right direction... The 5 Small Steps We Took The first small step was a website audit. We audited the website to identify all of the specific issues that were preventing the website from ranking high in the search engines. Based on that audit, we created a custom search engine optimization plan... The second step was keyword research. We conducted research to identify the specific terms that prospective customers would use to find our client’s products when searching in Google. The third step was to edit the website based on our keyword research. For example, we documented edits to the page Titles, Headers, Meta Descriptions, and some of the page copy to make it more relevant to the target keywords. Then, since our client had its own web development team, our client’s web developers implemented the website edits that we had documented. The fourth step was to get some inbound links (links from other website pointing to your website). Inbound links are a major factor in search engine rankings so we dedicated a lot of resources towards building new links to the website. We submitted the client to relevant business directories, and we conducted research and outreach to request links from relevant websites. As a result, the client attracted new links to their website, and this helped improve rankings. Finally, the fifth step was to create more pages on the website to increase the chances that our client would rank for relevant keywords. We researched topics for informational articles that would form a “Knowledge Center” on the client’s website. We then drafted the articles for the client’s approval, and the client’s web developers added the articles to the client’s website. As you can see, this was fairly straight forward and none of the steps are too daunting. Now for the best part... Let's look at the results... The Results As I mentioned above, when we began our work, the client had zero first-page Google Rankings for any of the priority keywords that we were tracking. For the top-priority keyword, the client’s ranking was #63 in Google. Today, the client has 10 first-page Google Rankings for priority keywords. For their top-priority keyword, the client’s website currently ranks #2 in Google! Below is a graph of our client's Organic Search Traffic (SEO Traffic) and conversions from July 2015 to March 2017. As you can see, they had 231 visits from search engines in July 2015. Then in March 2017, they had 843, which is an increase of 265%! Conversions (visitors contacting our client about their products) increased as well from only about 3-4 per month to now 10-18 per month.

Now let's compare a longer time period to really highlight the improvement here... Below is a table that compares the periods from July 2015 through January 2016 versus July 2016 through January 2017.

How would your business change if you had a 3x increase in traffic and a 6x increase in sales leads? Remember, it all starts with a small step!